Located in: Opinions
Posted on: March 2nd, 2014 No Comments

Duolingo gets stuck on the first level


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Aside from “Dora the Explorer” and two years in the public education system singing Enrique Iglesias songs, I have little experience with Spanish. I’d considered enrolling in courses on campus or buying a program, but then a friend introduced me to Duolingo.

Duolingo is an award winning application for both iPhones and Androids that attempts to teach users Spanish, French, German, Italian, and Portugese. Users may tackle any number of languages at once as the application monitors and documents progress on a daily basis. Beginning with the basics, users are guided through a series of lessons that require a particular score to advance further into the language construct.

Far from propelling language learning into a quick and efficient program, Duolingo only excels in providing a rewards based game on a slick interface. While eye catching and intuitively designed, the application is very much the tricycle of language learning software, failing to effectively explain grammar and placing far too much emphasis on sentence repetition.

Granted, repetitions within the lessons make learning vocabulary significantly easier, but completed material is hardly ever reviewed throughout the program. Instead, Duolingo encourages users to review a lesson once the program recognizes a particular time lapse and the content never blends to generate a more comprehensive understanding of the language.

Duolingo could significantly improve by diversifying the kind of activities users undertake in mastering the language. Often it seems that activities are completely random, sometimes resulting in the same type of activity for over half the lesson. While reading the language out loud is certainly a significant part of speaking fluently, it does little good if the speaker has no idea what he or she is saying.

More so than anything else, Duolingo should be classified as a game rather than a language learning software. The simple lessons that generate points to unlock higher levels may make the application addictive, but it also encourages users to bypass serious application of the content being learned.

In short, if you want to master a second language, you’re better off taking classroom options seriously, investing in a larger program, or just watching Dora the Explorer.

★½

cferganc@mavs.coloradomesa.edu

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