Interested in pursuing a new language to study but not sure where to start? Meet Duolingo, a popular interactive language education software for users of any level – beginner, intermediate and advanced. Duolingo is an international community of active language learners who participate in establishing a basic cognitive and linguistic foundation while acquiring and developing new skills through lessons in their chosen language. Duolingo has helped users reach personalized goals by way of engagement with self-exploration, competition and independent practice. Here are just some of the key features that Duolingo offers, which stand out in the app’s effort of guiding their language learners toward a comfortable and rewarding experience:
- An Unlimited Exploration of Languages
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As a newly registered user and language learner of the Duolingo app, your account introduces and offers a wide array of languages to select and learn from. The language courses are constantly expanding with additional lessons and activities through occasional app updates, and new courses are continually being developed as well. Duolingo’s language courses include popular languages with the highest number of native speakers, the most and least taught foreign languages, along with unique languages that are rising in numbers, whether that be through interest or popular demand. Whatever your goals may be, there are languages for everyone out there. You have the endless decision of learning more than one at the same time and switching between each. There’s also the convenient option of removing language courses if you feel necessary. Here are the currently available language courses that Duolingo presents for English speakers:
-Arabic
-Chinese
-Czech
-Danish
-Dutch
-Esperanto
-Finnish
-French
-German
-Greek
-Hawaiian
-Hebrew
-High Valyrian
-Hindi
-Hungarian
-Indonesian
-Irish
-Italian
-Japanese
-Klingon
-Korean
-Latin
-Navajo
-Norwegian (Bokmal)
-Polish
-Portuguese
-Romanian
-Russian
-Scottish Gaelic
-Spanish
-Swahili
-Swedish
-Turkish
-Ukrainian
-Vietnamese
-Welsh
-Yiddish
- Motivation and Competition
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Along with the challenges of learning a language on your own, Duolingo has incorporated a competitive feel for its users where one has the opportunity to rack up more skills and points known as Experience Points (XP). These XP’s allow users to compete in multiple different leagues that rank users from the lowest to the highest amount earned. There is an allotted time frame set to earn a certain number of XP points through the progression in their language courses by successfully passing and understanding them. Usually, the top 10 of each league advance into the next, and it keeps on going. This aspect of the competition is experienced frequently because there are many users who are active and able to follow and view your score stats, including recognizing your achievements by congratulating you for your work.
- Consistent Practice and Gained Knowledge
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Duolingo’s course structure is designed specifically to tailor your personal goals as a user with an interest in pursuing and achieving certain levels of fluency. Although the app itself cannot make you perfectly fluent, the material is enough to lay a foundation and build upon it, step by step, little by little. As a result, Duolingo often does a good job in maintaining consistency with practicing lessons by sending daily reminders and helping users remain engaged in course topics. The specific topics of lessons are varied and demonstrate relevance toward real-world scenarios. Topics cover basic phrases, animals, food, school/education, occupations, passions/interests, everyday life activities and tasks. Most of what can be mastered in a lesson can be practiced in a casual or formal conversation. Furthermore, Duolingo ensures strong motivation continues in a user’s language learning progress, because if a user has been inactive for some time, their progress will decrease and need to be retested on certain topics. On the other hand, those with familiarized knowledge are given the opportunity to advance ahead by testing out topics and lessons.
Overall, Duolingo has proven to be an increasingly resourceful, educational and recreational app for language learners of all ages and educational levels. It’s never too late to consider learning a new language from scratch or continuing right where you left off. Even with worldwide events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and its effects on distanced learning, Duolingo has become both a much more recognized and significant way for people to learn a language. Its technological convenience and flexibility in adapting to its user’s educational needs and goals make it extremely popular. Duolingo is available for free on iOS, Android and Windows platforms, as well as online through the Duolingo.com website.