Duolingo is an incredibly popular language-learning app amongst people of all ages. The green owl mascot is well known and has even made its way into some memes with its insistent nature. While Duolingo is easily the most used language-learning app in the world, you will not find it on my phone. It used to be there, and I used to regularly use it, keeping my streak active and racking up the badges. It was a fun way to study Italian, and the app made it seem like I was making quite a lot of progress in my language-learning journey. Good times were had. Though, it was not until I began to read about language learning and acquisition that I realized that Duolingo was actually very ineffective and a terrible way to learn a language. I would like to preface the rest of the article by saying that I think Duolingo is fine as a supplement to one’s language studies, but it should definitely not be the foundation of one’s studies.
Duolingo is a gamified translation app. It is great for rote memorization of strange sentences that you would never actually say (or encounter) in a natural conversation. Duolingo excels at this. Though it is important to realize that translating and effectively using a language are two different things. When using a language at fluent levels, speakers are not translating to communicate. This would be far too difficult, tiring, and tedious to do, let alone too slow. Word meanings are derived from encountering and being exposed to words in real contexts and experiencing them, establishing connections and meanings in the brain through first-hand experience with a language. It may seem strange to read “experience a word” but this is ultimately how language works and is acquired. Reading and translating “the cat is on the table” repeatedly is not going to help you learn what “cat” means, nor the use of the verb “to be.” It is also probably not something that you would say or hear often in real life.
Using basic grammar books and watching Peppa Pig in your target language will prepare and teach you much more than straight translation exercises will do. You can learn the verb “to be” in the grammar book, as well as its various conjugations, in addition to prepositions. You can see and create a visual association with both “cat” and “table” from Peppa Pig, as well as countless other nouns. From this, you can recall these words, forms, and meanings and form your own sentences. You are no longer confined to “the cat is on the table” as you now know other verb tenses and nouns and can create your own sentences. Duolingo will take much longer to get you to this point, as it is keeping you occupied translating the same fixed sentences countless times. There is minimal room for growth, and minimal room to learn.
Another flaw is that Duolingo does not actually enable you to use a language. There is no speaking, writing, listening, or reading involved in active forms. Repeating back sentences to your phone is not reading nor speaking productively. Listening to small tidbits of recorded audio is not active listening. Translating sentences is not writing. Duolingo does not effectively train any of the four language abilities of Reading, Writing, Speaking, and Listening, and does not prepare nor allow you to use a language naturally and in a real way.
In the most basic form, to use a language actively and effectively, you need to be able to recognize and recall the meanings of sounds or letters (words). This can be achieved through speaking with another person, watching a TV show, reading a book, or writing in a diary, to name a few ways. These are real, everyday uses of language, that Duolingo does not do, nor prepare you for. The four language abilities can not be effectively trained through translation and rote memorization. You need to use a language to learn it and reach fluency.
Languages should not be learned in a vacuum. By its nature, language is a tool to communicate with others. So why would you want to learn in a vacuum? Duolingo drilling the same sentences repeatedly into your brain may be useful when you are in a foreign country and need to ask for directions to the bathroom. This is where translating “Where is the bathroom?” seven thousand times would be useful. Though as soon as someone responds to you with something other than the two or three responses Duolingo seared into your brain, you will not understand and not know how to respond, because Duolingo did not prepare you for this situation. Duolingo could be useful for preparing for standardized tests, where you know what to expect. But when it comes to interacting with others and using language in a real environment, there is nothing to be expected, and always several ways to say one thing or another. Learning a language in a vacuum would be great only if you were to be using it in a vacuum, though that will never be the case.
I will stop myself here as I feel I have only begun to get started on discussing numerous topics I would like to dive into in other articles. Duolingo is fine to supplement your language studies. It can be fun and something to do while on the subway or waiting in the doctor’s office. Though by its nature as a gamified translation app, it is heavily flawed and ineffective for effective language learning.
