Duolingo is a great website for language learners of every level and offers a multitude of languages such as Spanish, Italian, German, Danish, Swedish, Portuguese, etc. Duolingo is a free app and website available to all students and the general population. When you first go on the site or app you choose the language of desired proficiency and start at the basic level. Unfortunately, you must start at the beginning level learning the basics before you can progress to the more advanced levels.
I find Duolingo very helpful because it teaches the user all aspects of the language: writing, reading, speaking, and listening. I would propose pairs in class to use this app together and see how they do progressing through the different levels of language learning. Working in pairs would make the duolingo app even more fun as students challenge themselves to work together and get further than other students, and get more correct answers. The pairs throughout the class could compete to see who got further with the least mistakes. Duolingo is not only fun but actually really does help with learning language! I used Duolingo to pick up a little portuguese and feel that I am really learning it in an effective and fun way.
One potential problem when working with duolingo in class could be that all pairs working on the same program could lead to a very loud classroom, in which students find it hard to filter out the noise. This loud environment would make it difficult to hear the app for the listening sections and speak into it for the speaking parts.
This app is wonderful! I have actually used it myself but never thought about taking it and using it in a classroom setting! It is a very easy and fun way to learn a new language. All students love a change of pace and in a language class I think this bring just that to the table!
ReplyDeleteI love Duolingo! It's been the most successful way of trying to teach myself German to date, though I'm still not very good..
ReplyDeleteI completely agree! I've used this app to reinforce the Spanish I've learned over the years and it's great and easy to use!
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