The Art of Flashcard Making

Flashcards are one of the most important tools that an EFL teacher can use when teaching English. They are not only a tangible object that help students to better understand the words that you are teaching them, but they are also an incredibly useful prop that can be used to make the class more fun with various games and activities. 

The Process of Making EFL Flashcards

Just as important as the flashcard itself is the process of making it. In my school, a vast majority of flashcards come in A4 size. These are great for teaching vocabulary and some simple what's missing? games, among other things. This is the type of flashcard that most teachers use, and I think they are more than adequate for the job. With that in mind, however, I wanted to teach you how you can customize your flashcard making to give you more variety in your classroom. 

Making your own flashcards: choosing the size

The first important question to ask yourself is "what size flashcard do I need?" Are you a teacher who is teaching an entire room full of students (with students at the back quite far way), or do you have a smaller class size with fewer students? Keeping this in mind, I have listed some of the benefits of each style of flashcard that I have personally made as a teacher:

Using A4 flashcards

A4 is the standard size of flashcard for teaching English. It is useful for teaching vocabulary and can be used for some games (what's missing?, which one is…? Among other games). Excellent for very young learners as the larger size makes them easier to see and find.

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Using A6 flashcards

A6 flashcards are the usual next size down. Like A4, they are useful for teaching vocabulary and playing games with, but their compact size makes them much more challenging to find when playing various "Hide the flashcard" games. Also, because you can print two onto one piece of A4, you can print two copies of the same flashcard, making them useful for matching games. You can print roughly two A6 sized flashcards onto one piece of A4 (with borders), making them more efficient than A4.

Using mini-flashcards

Business card-sized flashcards are the last type of flashcard. They are about 1/8th the size of an A4 flashcard. Their small size not only makes them perfect for hiding, but you can also use them for a variety of card games too (Go Fish, Snap!, Pairs, and so on). You can get about 8 of these onto a standard A4 sheet of paper, making them very efficient. 

Consider how you want to use your flashcards

When picking your flashcard size, think about how you want to use them in your class. Do you want a large flashcard that's great for teaching vocabulary? Choose A4. 

Do you want a flashcard that is compact and can be used for a variety of card games? Choose mini-flashcards. Want something in between? Choose A6. 

I personally use the mini-flashcards the most, as I feel they are the most efficient use of resources and still work well for teaching vocabulary in a small classroom, but teachers with larger classes should probably consider one of the larger sizes. 

Either way, once you have picked your flashcard sizes, we will be going onto the next part which is...

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Designing and printing out your flashcards

This next step is relatively straightforward if your desired flashcard size is A4: just find the image, hit print, and you are done. If you picked either A6 or business-card sized, however, there is a bit more preparation work involved:

• Open Microsoft Word. (If you do not have Microsoft Word some of these instructions may differ)

• Insert a table into your word document. You want 1x2 for A6 and 2x4 for business.

• Right click on your table and select Table Properties

• Under Table, click Options and unclick Automatically resize to fit contents. This will ensure that any image you place into the table will not alter the table’s size.

• Optional: still under Table, pick Borders and Shading and pick a border for your flashcards. This is purely optional but I find having a thick border makes cutting them out much easier.

• Under Row, specify a height (A6 = 10cm, Business = 6cm). Set the Row Height drop down box to Exactly. Again, this will ensure the table will not be altered by any images we place.

• Under Column, specify the width (A6 = 15cm, Business = 8cm). Make sure to change the Measure In: drop-down box to Centimetres if it is not already. 

• Click Ok at the bottom and your table should automatically re-size itself. 

Once you have finished preparing the table, it is as simple as choosing between 2-8 images that you need for flashcards, placing them into your table and hitting print. 

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Choosing the correct laminating film

Next up is the laminating film (you can buy this on Taobao). For our needs we just care about the laminating film for the moment. There are a variety of sizes on offer, but we only really care about 3 in particular:

• A4 – A4

• 6寸 – A6

• 3寸 – Business-card size

Each packet comes with 50 sheets of laminating film and varies in price and thicknesses, but for our needs we want the ones marked 10C/100MIC. These make relatively strong flashcards that do not bend easily. 

Making an airtight fit

Now, you may be wondering why the sizes are 10-15cm more than the ones I gave you in Part 2. This is so that there is a gap between the paper and the edge of the laminating film. When laminated, this produces and more airtight fit that makes the flashcards harder to pick apart. 

And that’s pretty much it! Thank you for reading and I really hope this has been helpful in improving your flashcard making.

By Connor Ferguson

Connor is an English teacher originally from England. He has been teaching in China since 2015, working in both a university as well as a training centre. Prior to China he also worked in a museum, where he taught history to children and adults alike. 

Above all else, Connor enjoys coming up with new and innovative ways to teach English. He enjoys making flashcards and has made well over 1000 this year alone. 

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