Courtney Lunn

I decided to review the online tool, Duolingo. The first thing I noticed on this website,

was the wide range of language options they had. They had 35 online language programs for

free. You can also see how many other users are actively learning each language through their

website.

I attempted to learn three different languages using Duolingo. In high school I took

Spanish and Latin, so for this project I chose Spanish, Latin, and Russian. For all languages if

you feel like you are more advanced in a language you can take the placement exam. I decided to

start from scratch.

You are shown a digital flashcard with a word, in the language you have chosen, and then

a picture of what that word means. Then when you try to guess the meaning of the word, they

read it out loud for you. I really appreciate them incorporating visual and auditory aspects for

different learners. That’s a great way to connect and engage their audience. If they are able to

cater to everyone’s needs.

Duolingo is also set up like an online game. You earn lingots and rewards that you can

redeem for things. For example, you can purchase a timed practice, which basically will assess

how well you perform in a timed setting. Duolingo will also keep track of your previous timed

trials and see if you are improving. You can also earn lingots by visiting Duolingo at least once a

day for several days. This feature will encourage children to want to use this website more often.

In their mind it is a fun game and they just want to level up. You can interact with other users as

well. You can follow your friends and track their process, which creates more competition.

I will admit Duolingo does not leave a lot of room for creativity. This is an area I would

like to see improvements on. Besides changing the profile picture, there is not very many other
things the user can control. It is lacking ways for the children to take ownership over their profile

and progress. They could add a section where the students create a digital book in the language

they are learning. Anything the child would be proud of showing off to classmates.

When you are going through your daily lesson there is a section where you have to

translate a sentence, in another language, to English. This involves quite a bit of critical thinking,

but this is the only critical thinking I have encountered. You have to keep in mind that the

student is just learning the language and may not have the tools they need to successful answer

questions involving more critical thinking.

I wish Duolingo offered more fun and interesting ways for the children to get involved.

All of the lessons include the same three activities. Which will be fun at first for the children, but

after a while they will be anxious to look for something else to do. The lessons are supposed to

be done daily but if the child wants to continue, they can. This means that the adult in control of

screen time is able to decide how many lessons the child can complete. And each lesson takes

about 10 to 15 minutes depending on the student. Duolingo can be as time consuming as you

would like it to be.

When I start my teaching career, I would like to be an ESOL teacher and work closely

with ELLs. That being said, I would use this website with my ELLs.
https://www.duolingo.com/learn