Duolingo

What is the tool? 

I decided to try out Duolingo for this course because I am headed to France this summer and would like to try to speak the language while I am there.  Duolingo is a free language learning app that features short lessons, progress tracking, and personalized learning paths. Points, badges, and rewards are utilized to make learning fun, engaging, encourage consistent learning practice, and maintain motivation. Lessons are short 5-20 minutes per day, making it easy to incorporate into a busy day. The app is adaptive and tailors lessons and exercises based on learning style and progress. You can connect with friends on the app, share progress, participate in challenges; they attempt to foster a sense of community with this platform. 

What can it do for us?

Duolingo uses teaching methods that are research-backed to benefit language retention. There are 43 languages available to learn. There is also a teaching mode that can be utilized with this app where you can create an online classroom for students to participate in lessons and learning activities.

I wanted to embed something interactive, but you must have an account to access any of the lessons. I encourage you to click the link to the site at the top of this page to get a feel for the program-it is fun and addictive. I embedded a video recording below of myself doing a very basic French lesson. 

-Kelsey H.