Duolingo is one of the language learning apps that can help you make language learning more effective. There are however some pros and cons of Duolingo, particularly as it is what is known as gamified learning. This article will discuss how good Duolingo is for learning a language, to help you decide if this is one of the language learning apps you want to add to your toolbox.

Although it is a great starting point for learning a new language. If you were to learn the language only using Duolingo, you would not become fluent, however, it does set the building blocks to get you into the language.

There are some things that Duolingo does very well, particularly for those who enjoy a gamified learning experience and streak system, making you want to come back for more. There are short, easy-to-manage bite-size learning segments, so it is easy to take a few minutes at a time to learn.

You should most definitely give Duolingo a shot to see if it works for your learning style. Even if it doesn’t, it is a great free resource that will give you a step up in some early vocabulary before you branch out and go to a resource of your choice.

What Are Some Positives Of Duolingo?

Easy Accessibility For New Language Learners

Duolingo is by far one of the most accessible, free language learning resources for beginner language learners. This makes it a great first place for language learners to start from. Even if you do not use it for long, it will help you find your learning style, while at the same time, you start learning a language.

This means that anybody who wants to start a new language but does not know where to go, can start here and be confident that they will have a good learning experience. Duolingo will expose you to common words the words that you are learning will be relevant for day-to-day life.

Easy To Use Gamified Learning

If you’re not sure what gamified learning is, it is exactly what it sounds like; apps that look like games but that are educational. I really enjoy this part about Duolingo, because it makes it easier for me to open the app and do a little bit each day, or when I find myself with a spare 5, 10minutes to do something.

Although the look and feel of the app don’t in itself improve my learning, it does help me enjoy the app and stay on it longer. This pairs well with the streak system that Duolingo has, which gives you a great positive boost when you see the number of consecutive days you are using the app.

Duolingo has a ‘talent tree’ in which you start with easy, simple parts of the language before progressing into harder areas. You gain points for the lessons that you do and you are ranked against friends, as well as in a more global ranking system.

These are great aspects of a language learning app, especially when you are just starting off and may need to find the motivation to push through. It may not be needed for all apps but for a beginner language learning app, this is a definite positive.

Learning Langugages From Different Countries

One of the benefits of Duolingo is that you can tell it what your ‘base’ language, the language you can already speak, is. What this means is, you could also start learning a language, for example, Spanish, but from a German ‘base’ language. This would mean that if you already knew German and were starting to learn Spanish, you could continue with your German practice at the same time as you learned Spanish.

What Are Some Negatives Of Duolingo?

The Streak System

If you become a long-time user of Duolingo, you may start to find that the streak system starts to feel less like an achievement, and more like an obligation. My personal longest streak on Duolingo was 365 days, although there were some earlier streaks into the low hundreds before missing a day.

Don’t get me wrong the streak system is definitely one of the positives of Duolingo as I’ve already mentioned, however, it is easy to lose sight of what we’re trying to do by focusing on the streak number. Keep this in mind as you use it.

Teaching Grammar

One of the hardest parts of learning a new language is learning the grammar at the same time. Part of Duolingo’s methodology in this is to give you a large number of sentences today you all naturally start to pick up the grammar. This can make it a bumpy start, especially when creating sentences like “I like milk”, “the mother likes milk”, or “the monkey drinks milk”.

Duolingo does give some information about grammar, which may be more accessible on the website rather than the app.

I have also mentioned some of the funnier sentences in the positives of using Duolingo. One of the downsides to these funny sentences is that practising a new language, particularly in the early stages, may mean you get the sentences wrong simply because they aren’t natural.

Duolingo Will Not Make You Fluent

It is important to remember that Duolingo alone will not make you fluent. This should not be the intention of using it either, as it is more designed to give you a snapshot of what the language is like.

Duolingo is incredibly useful for opening the door for you so that you can begin your language learning journey.

At the end of the day, Duolingo, like all other language learning tools, will only get you so far individually. Duolingo is the musician equivalent of hiring a musical instrument for lessons before you decide if you want to commit further and buy your own instrument. You are dipping your toe in to see if you want to commit more time and energy to this particular thing. Duolingo is wonderful for this and gives you a boost for starting your learning.

However, if you use Duolingo with the expectation that once you finish the language course you will be a fluent speaker, able to live independently in another country, speaking only this new language, you will likely be disappointed.

What Language Learning Apps Should I Use?

The language learning apps that you use will come down to a matter of choice and personal preference.

At the moment I am personally using Anki for practising flashcards that I am creating, as well as Clozemaster which supplements this by giving me words I don’t always know and placing them in sentences so I know the context to use them. I do still start a new language with Duolingo while my vocabulary lists are being created to use in Anki.

I also use an app called LyricsTraining, however, this is more for personal enjoyment, and to get a feel of music created by native speakers. I don’t feel that this is pivotal to language learning, but it is a bit of fun and another way that I can try and immerse myself in the language I am learning.

I would also recommend finding a good dictionary app so that you are able to quickly and easily look up words that you do not know while you are on the go.

These are not the only language apps I have used or tried, so being flexible with the apps and keeping up to date with newer ones that may be coming out isn’t a bad idea either.