diff --git a/flair/trainers/language_model_trainer.py b/flair/trainers/language_model_trainer.py
index 1b9f82a6e..8840d7683 100644
--- a/flair/trainers/language_model_trainer.py
+++ b/flair/trainers/language_model_trainer.py
@@ -66,58 +66,25 @@ def __getitem__(self, index=0) -> torch.tensor:
             lines = (doc + self.document_delimiter for doc in fin.read().split(self.document_delimiter) if doc)
             if self.random_case_flip:
                 lines = map(self.random_casechange, lines)
-            lines = list(lines)
+            lines = list(map(list if self.split_on_char else str.split, lines))
 
         log.info(f"read text file with {len(lines)} lines")
+
         if self.shuffle:
             random.shuffle(lines)
             log.info(f"shuffled")
 
-        tokens = 0
-        for line in lines:
-
-            if self.split_on_char:
-                chars = list(line)
-            else:
-                chars = line.split()
-
-            tokens += len(chars)
-
-            # Add chars to the dictionary
-            if self.expand_vocab:
+        if self.expand_vocab:
+            for chars in lines:
                 for char in chars:
                     self.dictionary.add_item(char)
 
-        ids = torch.zeros(tokens, dtype=torch.long)
-        if self.forward:
-            # charsplit file content
-            token = 0
-            for line in lines:
-                if self.split_on_char:
-                    chars = list(line)
-                else:
-                    chars = line.split()
-
-                for char in chars:
-                    if token >= tokens:
-                        break
-                    ids[token] = self.dictionary.get_idx_for_item(char)
-                    token += 1
-        else:
-            # charsplit file content
-            token = tokens - 1
-            for line in lines:
-                if self.split_on_char:
-                    chars = list(line)
-                else:
-                    chars = line.split()
-
-                for char in chars:
-                    if token >= tokens:
-                        break
-                    ids[token] = self.dictionary.get_idx_for_item(char)
-                    token -= 1
-
+        ids = torch.tensor(
+            [self.dictionary.get_idx_for_item(char) for chars in lines for char in chars], 
+            dtype=torch.long
+        )
+        if not self.forward:
+            ids = ids.flip(0)
         return ids
 
     @staticmethod