"Duolingo" in English learning and teaching

Hey! Welcome to my blog!

Last week we learned to use different APPs to learn Language. Honestly, the reason why I chose "Duolingo" is not because I am interested in it, but because I'm familiar with it. I used to use "Duolingo" to learn Spanish for three month and the way of learning Spanish is similar to the way of learning English.

Pros and Cons

As a language learning website, I think "Duolingo" has several designs that are worth mentioning. First of all, it covers a wide range of languages. Not only can we learn those prestigious languages, but we can also learn some minor languages (By the way, I'm so surprised that "Duolinguo" can teach Latin). 

Here is a screenshot about those prestigious languages that we can learn. 

Here is a screenshot about those minor languages that we can learn.

Letting users test their language level is another advantage that may help learners to find which level they should start learning. Therefore, instead of starting from scratch, learners can choose a suitable course for their studies. Finally, I believe the design of course is like a game. There are several toll gates, once you finish one station, you can move on to the next station, which can inspire learners a sense of interest and challenge.

However, the process of learning a second language should cover the skills of reading, learning, writing as well as speaking. "Duolingo" is not very good at these aspects, for example, there will be a few individual example sentences in the learning process, and "Duolingo" lacks a learning background based on dialogue or story, which makes it difficult for learners to have contextual communication experience.

Here is a screenshot of the ranking of the precess of learning that learners can check others' achievement.

Using "Duolinguo" in teaching

I think "Duolingo" is suitable for the practice process because it can add more interactive activities in class. For me, personally, I may divide my students into some groups and let each group compete with each other. "Duolingo" can provide me with well-designed games and tests that "push" students to memorize what they have learned in class.

That's the ideas I got.

Thanks for browsing!

Those screenshots are from: https://www.duolingo.com/leaderboard