Duolingo: Can You Really Learn A New Language From An App?

This summer I downloaded Duolingo, an app that is supposed to help you learn a new language. I didn’t have too high of hopes for my own improvement with the app, as I wasn’t planning to be that dedicated to it. But I did go into the whole thing with the naïve belief that someone could possibly perfect a second language using the app. After using Duolingo, I no longer think it is possible to sufficiently learn another language with only an app.

I downloaded Duolingo because I thought it would be a fun way to improve my Spanish. I had taken Spanish in middle school and high school, but stopped taking courses in it in college. I felt like I already knew a large amount of Spanish words and phrases, but I was nowhere near feeling like I was able to “speak Spanish.” I was hoping engaging with Spanish through the app on a regular basis would lead to me being able to speak and think more easily in the language. The app boasted that it had both typing and talking sections, and this seemed promising for improving writing as well as speaking.

In the beginning the app was really fun, and helpful. It started with a test to gauge my current Spanish level. It was fun recollecting old things I had learned and I was able to test out of many sections. When I finished all of the introductory testing, I finally got to see how Duolingo teaches new material.

I was presented with a menu that gave me a few options of what I wanted to start learning. Most of the options were just topics for vocabulary like “travel” or “sports”. The other options were grammar-related things like “the past-participle”.  I completed a few of the vocabulary sections first. These had me doing things like translating simple phrases like “basketball team” to and from Spanish, matching words to their translations, and speaking the correct pronunciation of a Spanish word. The other grammar sections were structured slightly differently. Rather than focusing on introducing new vocabulary, the exercises revolved around understanding the correct syntax of sentences. There were questions about conjugating verbs correctly, and translating simple sentences between both languages.

Some of these exercises were very fun to do. If you get a few questions wrong in a section, you have to do the section again. It was a fun challenge trying to avoid repeating the section. Also, at the end of each section, I could definitely say I learned several vocab words, or different conjugations of verbs.

Yeah, it was fun, and I learned a bit. However, I think Duolingo was missing the big picture of learning a new language.

In order to make Duolingo fun and game-like, they broke teaching a language into these cute little sections. I don’t think that this is realistic, because when you actually speak a language, you don’t think about it in sections. In reality, the different areas of the language meld together and the language is propelled by ideas. I think that to learn sufficiently learn a language, it’s impossible to learn from an app. The app has no way to prompt you for actual ideas. I think learning a language requires speaking with another person. Only through trying to communicate and connect with others, can we really learn a new language.