I recently encountered the mobile app and computer based program Duolingo via a CNET article on best Android language apps. I thought it was all very interesting but the blurb was incredibly brief and I have an iphone rather than Android phone. However this program was brought to my attention again another day. I work part time at a bookstore and was assisting a woman who was looking for Spanish workbooks to try and retrieve her previously fluent Spanish skills. She was perhaps around 50 years of age, well spoken and certainly did not seem to be even considering registering for college courses. I mentioned to her I had read about Duolingo, but that I found it under an article for Android. She then laughed and pulled out her iphone, on which she had the app. Thus, I discovered it is also available for Apple platforms and that this somewhat elderly woman actually ventured to use the program. She continued to explain she uses it on her computer as well and very much enjoyed the program.
After this encounter I decided to look a little more seriously at this app. It seems hard to believe that a little time clicking through a game would improve Spanish skills to any serious degree, and particularly I was curious about how it could help someone who used to be fluent.
According to the study conducted in 2012, testing a sample of exactly half men and women and whose average age was 34.9 years, such a program does indeed exist. Not only did a great majority of the subjects report favorable interest in the program during their use, but there were significant gains in Spanish knowledge. Their progress was tested by looking at pre- and post-test scores on WebCAPE (Web Based Computer Adaptive Placement Exam). This is the same sort of test used to place students into the appropriate level of language course at the university level.
Over a period of eight weeks using this program, students showed an average of 8.1 pt improvement per one hour of study on Duolingo. The conclusion was that through 26-49 hours of study, one could theoretically progress to a level equivalent to that of one semester of college language coursework. Considering that 55.3% of the participants were full-time employees, this alternative is a great relief as compared to an in-person course, which often requires students to meet four days a week for at least an hour. Adding in the driving and parking time for these classes, costs of gas, supplies, textbooks etc. the mobile app alternative would be much welcomed. Another interesting factor that significantly affected the results was the reason for studying. Although the majority were using the app for personal interest, it was instead those who studied for travel that showed the highest improvement.
I suppose here my only questions would be how this translates into speaking ability as the tests did not include an assessment of spoken proficiency, and any in-person classwork would provide and enhance that aspect. I also wonder why such a large gap (26-49 hours) to cite an "average" time needed to equate to one semester class. Over a testing period of only 8 weeks, it seems a large range to conclude with. Finally, although not necessarily a question, I agree with the research conclusion that recommends Duolingo include a clock to record hours spent in a week/month/etc. of time studying. A user may not realize that any hiatus taken due to busy schedules may be as long as it has, and any language teacher would agree that below a certain time (in the case of this study, 2 hours a week) the study would not help improve skills in any way.
Overall, I would say between this study, CNET reviews, and the nice woman at the bookstore, we can conclude that there is an option for self study that amounts to actual language improvement and one of this options would include Duolingo.
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