Duolingo is one of the most popular language learning apps, offering a portable language tutor that accompanies you wherever you go. You can learn at your own level, pace, and convenience, all without the need for traditional classes and associated costs. It motivates learners through enjoyable learning activities that allows them to practice reading, writing, listening, and speaking.
PROS
- Notifications: The app sends out helpful reminders to continue with the learning activities on the app.
- Motivation: The app motivates learners to go through various game-based learning activities and encourages them to be committed to accomplishing the learning goals they set. There are daily quests and rewards to further boost motivation.
- Guidebook: Learners can review grammar rules and key vocabulary from each unit by accessing a guidebook before or after completing the game-like learning activities.
CONS
- Limited Free Version: Free features are somewhat restricted. For the app to be ad-free, allow more than five mistakes, have offline lessons, and track learning progress, users have to pay $6.99 USD per month.
- Targeted at Beginners: The app is mainly geared towards beginners and may not offer as much for advanced learners seeking more complex language skills.
This is a topic of great interest for me, since I am a second-language teacher (Early French Immersion), and have used Duolingo widely in my teaching over the past few years. There are several things I really like about Duolingo, both as a pedagogical approach to language acquisition and as a way of building community and engagement in my learners.
I started using it myself about 5 years ago and began to use it in my classroom in 2020 while we were learning online. Since I couldn’t engage with students in person in French, this provided a way for them to read, write, speak and hear authentic French. I had previously mentioned it as an option to parents who were looking to enrich their child’s language learning at home, but had never really considered it as a legitimate teaching tool. At that time, the platform was a bit more “stripped down”. It didn’t have extra features like podcasts, stories, and minigames. It was a bit glitchy sometimes, and never quite felt like the promise of “smart, responsive language learning” was being fulfilled. However, several affordances emerged for me in the next couple of years as I experimented with it as a classroom tool, that convinced me of its value.
1. Excellent “School” mode: Duolingo built an excellent Teacher dashboard. I can establish classes, set challenges, and see individual student achievements and levels of engagement. This allows me to see what exactly students are choosing to do, and use this data to help shape my in-class lessons. Given the choice to gain XP by whatever means necessary, some flocked to listening activities, others to mini-games, others to repetition of well-known words. This was all very helpful for me as a teacher, and allowed me to show them what I was learning about them, and challenge them to do specific amounts, types, and frequencies of pratice.
2. Competition: Students can see week-by-week and even day-by-day progress. How many XP did they get this week, compared to last? What would be a reasonable goal? How many days can they keep a streak going for? Some choose to compete with classmates, and an especially tempting challenge was to “Beat the Teacher” over a given time period. Duolingo monitors and enables all of these things, and more. I can keep an eye on leaderboards, pair up with struggling learners to help them meet goals, etc.
3. Socializing Language Learning: A common problem in language learning is a lack of ways for students to view language learning as “real”. Duolingo takes it outside of the classroom, into a digital space that can be anywhere, any time. Some students have a particular place or time they like to practice; this could be during their sister’s hockey practice, on the school bus, or with a loved one who is also learning a language. DuoLingo is “real”. It shows how you have progressed, takes “real time”, and allows you to set and modify meaningful goals.
4. Cross-Platform use: Duolingo works seamlessly across platforms. They can work on it at school, then switch to a phone, then a home iPad. Students have even learned ways to game the system, since the App Store version makes it easier to collect some tokens, which can be redeemed at an inflated value on their Chromebook.
5. Social Media Savvy: Duolingo’s online presence is irreverent, bordering on bizarre. Its characters are unique and often hilarious, it engages with language and situations that are current and meaningful, and students want to engage with it. This is not a common thing for digital educational tools.
I started using Duolingo only this year when I started learning French. Although it has been very helpful in my journey as I used it to supplement my practice outside of my formal classes, it is sometimes frustrating as I find the lessons on Duolingo very repetitive. As mentioned in another comment, the language skills taught are geared towards travellers and that also doesn’t align with my journey, as I want to learn it more for work purposes.
But it is definitely an app that has made language learning so easy and accessible, literally at the tip of our fingers!
I have also definitely used Duolingo and proudly was one of the beta testers when it first released. I thought it was such a revolutionary app that gamified language learning, and continues to do so today.
What I did struggle with the app was the limitations and biases that existed in how it structured the lessons. The Chinese learning on Duolingo is geared to world traveling, often focused on helping speakers say statements like ‘I have lost my passport, do you know where the consulate is?’ or other biases that deter from authentic language learning.
I do want to note that their movement towards AI chatbots seem quite interesting and makes the learning much more interactive and responsive, almost personalizing the learning in a way that would help oneself build language authentically with technology. That being said, this technology does both scare me and excite me at the same time.
I’ve used Duolingo on and off for a few years. While I’m obviously something of a fan, it has it’s pros and cons.
Compared to independent studying from a book or other text, Duolingo has a predefined progression, and breaks that up into quite manageable chunks of units, lessons, and activities. It’s easy enough to fit into small moments – I can run through a lesson or two waiting for my morning coffee to brew, for example. And if someone isn’t really in a focused mood for learning, the self-guided progress is great – all you need to do is show up and let the app choose the next step.
However, at some point that benefit also becomes a limitation. It’s hard to direct learning based on interest or need. The reference resources also seem a bit hit and miss, and can vary depending upon target language.
The language I’ve been most serious about learning has been Mandarin, and I’ve used Duolingo as part of that progress. I have a few apps that are helpful for specific areas:
1. Duolingo – Practicing sentence structure, listening.
2. Skritter – In depth practice of characters, with better control over pacing and review on this aspect
3. Pleco – Detailed dictionary for getting more nuanced understandings of words, visual translation for real world signs, menus, etc.
4. Google translate – To double check my attempts at creating sentences or aiding in real conversations
That’s my system at the moment. I think this is an approach that can happen perhaps more with mobile apps than conventional software: Apps can be more specialized and smaller, and users create a mosaic of apps to help with whatever task they want.
Hi Amy,
I personally enjoy using Duolingo. One thing I like the most about this app is that it does not limit the user in age but is easily approachable for any learners. I often talk about the use with my students and also let them know that I am still learning. They find it quite amusing and it also gives opportunities for them to teach something to an adult, like me!
Hi Michelle,
I just started using it to learn French and I think I am addicted to it! I share my learning data with my family members and we celebrate each others learning through the app. I also use it with my students and I know they enjoy learning using this app.