Couple of weeks ago, I get to know about the language
learning app Duolingo. Duolingo is the world’s largest online language learning
platform. It is a multilingual website where learners can learn Russian, Dutch,
German, Irish, French, Greek and many other foreign languages. I have used
Duolingo to learn French. French is pretty easy to learn using Duolingo. Now
let’s have a look how the app works and support the learners to learn a
language.
The learning objective of this software is to provide
free lesson and effective learning to acquire learner’s target language.
Learners can easily use this app by set up a profile, select target language
and set their goals. Duolingo is designed by different modules such as basic,
phrases, food, animals, weather, and color and so on. Learners can’t access the
new module without completing the previous one.
Duolingo is a user friendly website. We can use it in
our computer and also in our mobile devices. It is not necessary to creating an
account for using this app. Duolingo has taken English language as a translator
for learning the target language. In the begging it doesn’t focus on grammar,
only focus on vocabulary which help the learners to learn and remember those
easily. Another important thing is audio pronunciation and it helps the
learners to learn accent of French language as well. Each lesson in Duolingo is
made up of a range of activities such as translation, pair works, sentence
making, correct the sentence etc. vocabulary is taught though images, so it
helps the learners easily remember those vocabulary. The instruction is very
simple that’s why new learners can easily understand. Duolingo also gives you
the option to redo all your lessons, even if you got everything right first time
around.
Duolingo has different methods which can easily hook
the learner’s attention to this app. It has goal setting tool. The goal you can
choose vary from ‘casual’ to ‘insane’, depending on how serious you are about
learning and how quickly you want to progress. I have picked ‘regular’ goal and
it reminds me everyday whether or not I am on track to reach my goal. At the
first lesson learners start learning with some vocabulary such as boy, girl,
apple, woman etc. So learners can easily done this and feel good and motivate
to move the next lesson. Another thing for motivate the learners is its slow
pronunciation button of any word or phrase. This slow voice is a very useful
feature to exercise the words perfectly. The process of visual learning is also
seek learner’s attention to use it regularly. They play it like a game and keep
learning everyday.
After learning the target language from this website
learners may able to speak, write and identify the language easily. They learn
a lot of vocabulary and able to make sentence by those vocabulary. Although
Duolingo is a loveable website, but it has also some limitations. It is very
essential to interact with the person when learning a language. But Duolingo
has lack of interaction. Here learners learn the language only by clicking the
task. It doesn’t teach learners interactive communicative skills to communicate
in a real context. It is very natural that learners make mistake. In Duolingo
there is no option to back the previous question when learners click any wrong
answer. A few selected words are provide here and learners need to practice
only those words. It has limited vocabulary store that’s why learners can’t
learn another vocabulary whatever they want. A few French words are similar to
the English words which may confuse the learners such as rich, orange, calm
etc. Sometimes the instruction create puzzle among the learners to understand
the lesson clearly. Although Duolingo is a toy effect software, but its effect
doesn’t work last longer.
The developer should focus on learners need and make a
lit bit change to this website. The developer should works on the interaction part
as well as the instruction. It can’t be used offline, needs net connection.
Sometimes we are in trouble due to data connection and we need to wait for the
correct answer and for the next question. So it’s make the learners too much
bother. If it is an offline mode, it will be easier for the learners to
practice. Apart from some limitations, Duolingo is a great website for those
who wants to learn foreign languages easily without any cost. Before knowing
about this app, French is an unknown language for me. Now it is easier for me
than the previous days to listen, write even speak the French language. I want
to conclude by saying one important thing that, we should practice lots of
times and do it often otherwise we might forget some French.
