Knowledge of at least one foreign language has long been desirable. A specialist who speaks one or more languages is always given preference when applying for a job, not to mention the fact that such people easily and confidently feel abroad, can read books in the original language ... The list goes on and on. Progress does not stand still, and textbooks can replace an excellent application called Duolingo. User reviews are unambiguous - this is one of the best educational applications.
What is Duolingo?
Learn languages for free! You need to install the program on the computer from the official site, and you can start the classes. Scientists have long found out that a person perceives information very well if it is submitted in a free game form - it seems that this has remained with us since childhood. And if there is an alternative to simply memorizing or hiring a teacher, then why not take advantage of this? In addition, no material investments will be required.
Duolingo app is suitable even for those who are completely unfamiliar with English. By the way, besides him there are also courses in German, Spanish and French.
How is the training
Simplicity combined with powerful functionality is what the user gets with Duolingo. Registration takes just a few minutes. After confirming the e-mail, the virtual student gets access to tasks that can be performed both on the site and in the application installed on the computer.
The complexity of tasks increases as a person develops his skills. Each large topic is divided into many small tasks, so a person does not need to absorb tons of information, he can choose what to learn today. Each topic ends with a special mini-lesson to consolidate knowledge.
Motivation
Someone will say that it’s not necessary to go to such tricks, because you can learn English from a textbook. However, most people learn the language not because they need to, but because they should, therefore there isn’t enough will and perseverance: getting bored with the book quickly gets boring. Duolingo, on the other hand, works as a teacher, giving assignments in batches and evaluating them.
When working with a foreign language, vocabulary is also of great importance. Even if a person knows the rules perfectly, he will not be able to build a sentence if he does not know any necessary words. Yes, you can often use synonyms, but, you see, it’s quite difficult to use them for a word such as, for example, a fork. It is much easier to use sets of words, which allows Duolingo.
The levels already passed by the user are not put off to the far corner - this is also a huge plus. Periodically, the program suggests repeating the material covered. So, by repeated repetition, a large number of words are easily remembered, which, in turn, are used in other tasks (for example, when you need to compose a phrase).
Practice and practice again
A "daily low" is what else helps users in Duolingo. Reviews of the project often contain references to how hard it is to force yourself to open a textbook after a hard day's work. The application offers a small number of tasks every day, and the volume can be increased or decreased depending on one’s own employment, and besides, they can be completed one at a time during the day when there are several free minutes, or on the way to work.
Practice shows that daily lessons of 20-30 minutes are more effective than one many-hour lecture once a week. This rule should be followed in Duolingo: perform several tasks daily.
In the application, you can set the so-called “goal” - this is the minimum of tasks that must be completed during the day in Duolingo. The levels are: easy, medium, serious and crazy. It takes only a few minutes a day to complete the “easy target” tasks, but if you have time, you can work overtime. The system automatically calculates how many days in a row you worked, and it is important not to miss days here. This is a great motivation.
Interesting assignments
In addition to studying words and rules, the application has tasks for constructing phrases. Here, the developers tried their best: in addition to simple conversational sentences, there are sometimes quotes from books, idioms, aphorisms and just funny speech turns. This diversifies the learning process.
The site has technical support, the specialists of which are ready to help the user in case of difficulties, they can be informed about bugs. An important part is the forum where you can communicate with colleagues, look for interlocutors and even arrange competitions.
Duolingo can easily supplant such time eaters as social networks and surfing the Internet from a person’s life . Learning is easy and interesting, it does not tire, but it allows you to distract or relieve your head after intense mental work. All this is supported by positive emotions from the fact that time does not go to waste, something useful is being done.
By level
If the user is no longer new to the language, the system will quickly determine its level, and you will not have to monotonously perform many too simple tasks. If, for example, a person reads and writes well, but is not good enough at listening, then this problem is also easily solved. Lessons that the user already knows can be delivered ahead of schedule.
The main thing in learning a language is to learn to speak it as quickly as possible, to overcome the "audio barrier". To do this, the application functionality has listening tasks, however, to make training as saturated as possible, you can use voice input. Thus, if the answer to the question needs to be written (printed), the user simply pronounces it. The system may not recognize the words correctly, but it will be an incentive to train pronunciation.
Polyglot
To fundamentally learn the language base, use two courses, for example Russian-English and English-Russian at the same time. The peculiarity lies in the fact that there are more materials for English speakers at times, and, choosing the reverse course, the user gets access to them.
For Russian-speaking users, only four languages are available for study, but for the English-speaking audience, the list is much larger. Therefore, as soon as English is brought to an intermediate level, you can take, for example, the English-Spanish course, and improve two languages at the same time. In addition, this will open access to new interesting materials.
For children
An indispensable tool in teaching children a foreign language is Duolingo. German, French or English - it doesn’t matter, because not only an adult, but also a child will be interested in learning and monitoring their “leveling” in their profile, receive bonuses-lingots, which are the so-called game currency, and buy various functional additions for them , for example, the ability to complete a task on time.
However, do not forget that this is an educational game, and the child should unobtrusively remind about it.
Minuses
Despite the many positive qualities, Duolingo also has disadvantages. User reviews allow you to compile some statistics: the application does not cause any complaints only among beginners. For those who are fluent in the language and, for example, want to deepen their knowledge or prepare for any exam (IELTS, TOEFL), the application will help a little. However, here we can mention a wonderful alternative - the LinguaLeo project. Its significant drawback is its narrow specialization: exclusively English, but there are significantly more materials than Duolingo.
English using this service can also be learned from scratch. True, some functions will be available only when buying a premium, but you can easily do without it, knowing a little tricks. For example, using a mobile application along with the functionality of the site itself will expand the number of available workouts (for some reason, there is a significant difference in tasks on these platforms). In addition, without any premium, many interesting and motivating videos with English subtitles are available. For beginners, such materials may seem complicated, but videos that are more advanced in the language will be very useful.
Tasks where you need to say the answer can be a real problem if the Internet connection is unstable or it is not at all. The same goes for listening.
There is another small minus in Duolingo. Reviews about the program are periodically updated with messages about bugs in some courses, however they are not critical and are quickly eliminated by the programmers of the site.
Instead of a conclusion
No, Duolingo is not a program that installs a foreign language into the human "operating system." Without effort, there will be no effect. But for those who really want to learn the language, this application will really help. Nevertheless, you need to learn in a comprehensive, insufficient Duolingo alone. "Learn languages for free" is a slogan of many conversation clubs.
Some of them are really free, and some do not take money only from those who already have a good command of the language. In any case, this will be not only a great addition to the main tasks, but also an opportunity to make interesting acquaintances. Often, native speakers come to the evenings of conversation clubs, and this is also an opportunity to get acquainted with the culture of another country.
Without leaving your home, you can use various chat services where people from all over the world are looking for interlocutors for conversations in the language they learn. There are many tools for self-training, and, most importantly, many of them are free (or almost free), you only need to be able to use them correctly.