Duolingo: reviews. The most popular application of Duolingo for learning foreign languages

Knowledge of at least one foreign language has long been desirable. A specialist with additional one or several languages is always given preference in hiring, not to mention that such people easily and confidently feel themselves abroad, can read books in the original language ... The list can be continued indefinitely. Progress does not stand still, and textbooks can replace a great application called Duolingo. User reviews are unambiguous - this is one of the best training applications.

What is Duolingo?

Learn languages for free! On the computer you need to install the program from the official site, and you can start classes. Scientists have long found out that a person very well perceives information, if it is served in free game form - it seems that it remains with us since childhood. And if there is an alternative to mere learning or hiring a teacher, then why not take advantage of this? In addition, no material investment is required.

The 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 conducted

Simplicity combined with powerful functionality - that's what the user gets in Duolingo. Registration takes just a few minutes. After the e-mail is confirmed, the virtual learner gets access to tasks that can be performed both on the site and in the application that is installed on the computer.

The complexity of tasks increases as a person develops his skills. Each big topic is divided into many small tasks, so a person does not need to learn tons of information, he can choose what to learn today. Each topic ends with a special mini-lesson for securing knowledge.

Motivation

Someone will say that it is not necessary to go to such tricks, because you can learn English according to the textbook. However, most people learn the language not because it is "necessary", but because "it should be", so there is not enough will and perseverance: it's quickly boring to pile over the book. Duolingo also works as a teacher, submitting tasks and assessing them.

Serious value when working with a foreign language has a vocabulary. Even if a person knows the rules perfectly, he can not build a sentence if he does not know any necessary words. Yes, you can often use synonyms, but you will agree, it is rather difficult to use them for a word such as, for example, a plug. It is much easier to use sets of words, which allows you to make Duolingo.

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 that has been passed. Thus, by repeated repetition, a large number of words are easily memorized, which in turn are used in other tasks (for example, when it is necessary to write a phrase).

Practice and practice again

"Daily minimum" - that's what helps users in Duolingo. Feedback on the project often mentions how hard it is to force yourself to open a textbook after a hard day's work. The application every day offers a small number of tasks, and the volume can be increased or decreased depending on their own employment, besides, they can be performed one at a time during the day, when several free minutes appear, or on the way to work.

Practice shows that daily lessons of 20-30 minutes are more effective than a one-hour lecture once a week. This rule should also be followed in Duolingo: perform several tasks daily.

In the application, you can set a so-called "goal" - this is the minimum of tasks that must be performed during the day in Duolingo. The levels are as follows: easy, medium, serious and insane. It takes only a few minutes a day to complete the tasks of the "easy goal", but if there is time, you can work and overtime. The system automatically calculates how many consecutive days you have been engaged, and it is important not to miss the days. This is an excellent motivation.

Interesting tasks

In addition to learning words and rules, the application has tasks for constructing phrases. Here, the developers have tried to glory: in addition to simple colloquial suggestions, there are sometimes quotes from books, idioms, aphorisms and just funny speech turns. This will diversify the learning process.

The site has technical support, whose specialists are ready to help the user with difficulties, they can report bugs. An important part is the forum where you can communicate with colleagues, look for interlocutors and even arrange competitions.

Duolingo can easily supersede people from the life of such time eaters as social networks and surfing the Internet. Training is easy and interesting, it does not tire, but it allows you to distract or unload 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 a beginner in the language, the system will quickly determine its level, and do not have to monotonously perform a lot of too simple tasks. If, for example, a person reads well and writes, but is not good at listening, then such a problem is also easily solved. Lessons that the user already knows can be passed ahead of time.

The main thing in learning a language is to learn how to explain it as quickly as possible, to overcome the "audiobar". For this purpose, there are tasks in the application's functionality for listening, but you can use voice input to make the exercises as full as possible. Thus, if the answer to the question is to write (print), the user simply pronounces it. The system can recognize words incorrectly, but it will be an incentive to train pronunciation.

Polyglots

To fundamentally study the language base, use two courses, for example Russian-English and English-Russian at the same time. The peculiarity is that the materials for English-speaking people are more numerous, 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 average level, one can take, for example, the Anglo-Spanish course, and improve two languages at a time. In addition, access to new interesting materials will be opened in this way.

For children

An indispensable tool in teaching children a foreign language is Duolingo. German, French or English is not important, because not only the adult, but also the child will be interested in learning and watching their "pumping" in the profile, get bonuses, lingotes, which are the so-called game currency, and buy for them various additions to the functional , For example, the ability to perform a task for a while.

However, do not forget that this is an educational game, and the child should be gently reminded of it.

Minuses

In spite of a lot of positive qualities, Duolingo also has disadvantages. User reviews allow you to make some statistics: no complaints the application does not cause only beginners. Those who speak the language freely and, for example, want to improve 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 essential disadvantage is a narrow specialization: exclusively English, but materials are much larger than in Duolingo.

English language can also be learned from scratch with the help of this service. True, some functions will be available only when buying a premium, but without it you can easily manage, knowing small tricks. For example, the use of a mobile application along with the functionality of the site itself will allow to expand the number of available exercises (for some reason, these platforms have a significant difference in tasks). In addition, without any premium, there are many interesting and motivating videos with English subtitles. Beginners of such materials may seem complicated, but more advanced language video will be very useful.

Assignments where you want to speak the answer can be a real problem if the connection to the Internet is unstable or not at all. The same goes for listening.

There is another small disadvantage 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 site programmers.

Instead of concluding

No, Duolingo is not a program that will install 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 app will really help. Nevertheless, it is necessary to train in a complex, insufficient only Duolingo. "Learning Languages for Free" is a slogan and many colloquial clubs.

Some of them are really free, and some money is not taken only from those who already know the language well. In any case, this will not only be an excellent addition to the main tasks, but also an opportunity to make interesting acquaintances. Often in the evenings of spoken clubs come and native speakers, and this is also an opportunity to get to know more closely 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 are learning. There are many tools for self-education, and, most importantly, many of them are free (or almost free), you just need to be able to use them correctly.