I agree with the basic point of the post, but: Duolingo? Really? That's your example? I'm something of a language nerd myself, you see. (I speak four languages that are non-native to me at C1 level or better. Yes, I have the certificates, i.e. it's not just self-evaluation). I've come to see Duolingo as a marker of a person who'll never learn his/her target language. Why? Because I've seen the users. Those who "tried to learn" whatever language they were learning. Some of them were at it for years. Some of them are at it still. I would ask them how exactly they were going about their language learning, and the one thing that kept coming up was Duolingo. Successful learners never mention it. Whether it's because they've literally never used it, or because they only used it briefly to get their feet wet before moving on to more serious materials - I do not know. But either way, you are NOT going to learn a language from Duolingo. It's a bad example.
I mean, there ARE apps that serious language users use. Anki comes to mind. I've only used it minimally, but I am beside the point! (We are all entitled to personal preferences.) There definitely are serious and successful language learners who heavily rely on Anki. Of course, Anki is a tool among tools, and it certainly won't get you to fluency by itself, either.
Thank you for putting in words an issue that we see everyday in classrooms, not only in senior levels, but in junior levels too. Often we, teachers, are competing for student’s attention and trying to engage them in learning.
Very thought provoking as always. But I think the analogy is a bit different. Classrooms absolutely can be like Duolingo. The engagement in Duolingo is not that it is entertaining (I am one of the daily users who hates it). The engagement is that you are constantly successful because of the way information is chunked and practice is organised and sequenced. Lessons can absolutely be organised this way.
Likewise the incentives of points gained, league tables and slightly annoying celebrations of streaks within lessons and across days and weeks creates proof of success and progress, which motivates despite the lack of 'fun'.
I'll go a step further - students would learn languages in school much better if 50% of lesson time was devoted to Duolingo. 25 hours took me to grade 5 on a reading paper, which is the equivalent of January in a year 7 curriculum.
I agree with the basic point of the post, but: Duolingo? Really? That's your example? I'm something of a language nerd myself, you see. (I speak four languages that are non-native to me at C1 level or better. Yes, I have the certificates, i.e. it's not just self-evaluation). I've come to see Duolingo as a marker of a person who'll never learn his/her target language. Why? Because I've seen the users. Those who "tried to learn" whatever language they were learning. Some of them were at it for years. Some of them are at it still. I would ask them how exactly they were going about their language learning, and the one thing that kept coming up was Duolingo. Successful learners never mention it. Whether it's because they've literally never used it, or because they only used it briefly to get their feet wet before moving on to more serious materials - I do not know. But either way, you are NOT going to learn a language from Duolingo. It's a bad example.
I mean, there ARE apps that serious language users use. Anki comes to mind. I've only used it minimally, but I am beside the point! (We are all entitled to personal preferences.) There definitely are serious and successful language learners who heavily rely on Anki. Of course, Anki is a tool among tools, and it certainly won't get you to fluency by itself, either.
Thank you for putting in words an issue that we see everyday in classrooms, not only in senior levels, but in junior levels too. Often we, teachers, are competing for student’s attention and trying to engage them in learning.
Very thought provoking as always. But I think the analogy is a bit different. Classrooms absolutely can be like Duolingo. The engagement in Duolingo is not that it is entertaining (I am one of the daily users who hates it). The engagement is that you are constantly successful because of the way information is chunked and practice is organised and sequenced. Lessons can absolutely be organised this way.
Likewise the incentives of points gained, league tables and slightly annoying celebrations of streaks within lessons and across days and weeks creates proof of success and progress, which motivates despite the lack of 'fun'.
I'll go a step further - students would learn languages in school much better if 50% of lesson time was devoted to Duolingo. 25 hours took me to grade 5 on a reading paper, which is the equivalent of January in a year 7 curriculum.