September’s Duocon 2020 announced big changes to the world’s largest online language learning platform: Duolingo. These changes were both in visual representations and content, aimed to those wanting to learn languages in their own time, for either personal reasons or self-interest, however, it has come into the light that out of the 300 million plus active global users resorting to Duolingo’s tools, many students from secondary schools across London, enjoy and utilise this platform for their own progress within school; in both MFL (Modern Foreign Language studies) and classical studies.
Learning languages at school can be tedious, abstruse or even toilsome for some; all the various tenses, grammar, irregulars, vocabulary - the list drags on. However with over 260,000 entries in England every year, in French, German and Spanish alone, students opt to study and succeed nevertheless, unfortunately some choose to do so apathetically. Language students generally learn the requirements for GCSE or A-levels via the assistance of teachers, but with the young generation being raised, surrounded by technological tools and devices like Duolingo, they can excel faster, more efficiently, and exchange the struggle for satisfaction.
GCSE student Ben Luca Atassi Quinton from Tiffin Grammar School in Kingston affirms:
“It helps in both my MFL and classics. It is less intensive than in class and is more relaxed [...] especially in speaking and listening. For example in classics we learn to appreciate the texts and literature, whereas Duolingo treats Latin as a modern language [...] These are both good, but Duolingo allows an insight to the spoken language/culture itself opposed to solely comprehending the prose and literature - I found it very useful!”.
Another GCSE student from Tiffin Boys School, Sayanen Sawmynaden, claims he finds Duolingo extremely effective as it helps him consolidate what he has learnt in school. He passionately elaborates:
“I believe the inclusion of the ability to add/invite friends boosts its efficacy [...] It teaches a range of vocabulary as well as a few useful tricks when speaking/writing which I can use at school, provides relevant information like examples in real life situations, in a systematic approach as well as a format similar to that of a game, which engages the user!”.
Duolingo’s virtual Duocon of 2020, introduced further developments to the successful app, including the improvement of existing courses, addition of affable characters and the incorporation of new learning formats such as conversations and stories. These new features now provide more motivation, amusement and facility to Duolingo’s student users. The addition of characters within the exercises themselves, was to create a more friendly atmosphere, and as Greg Hartman, Head of Art at Duolingo remarks “by dropping an audience into a world they enjoy spending time in,” envisioned in Duolingo’s ‘Project World’. Considering the current users’ feedback of the app, these new modifications will certainly elucidate an appreciation and the consolidation of information learnt in schools.
Statistics show over 100,000 school teachers implement Duolingo in their foreign language classes worldwide (Business of Apps, 2020), and this may increase as the platform’s popularity rises. With 34 hours of Duolingo equalling one term of university with the addition of previously mentioned characteristics, language students now have an opportune moment to seize, in order to ameliorate skills and proficiency in their subjects and achieve their pinnacle grades - After all, 'Practice Makes Perfect!'
