DuoLingo

DuoLingo is an app that helps you learn a language.

The app present you a variety of exercises in translation between English and another language, and grow your skill by steadily increasing the vocabulary used.

When is DuoLingo the right choice?
DuoLingo works outside of the classroom, and allow the student to practice their vocabulary and skill independently of the rest of the class.

What are the strengths of it?
Every student have their own vocabulary in the app that accurately matches what the student has actually trained and understood. Therefore DuoLingo meet individual students with challenges fitting for their skill level.

What are the weaknesses?
Duolingo don't focus very much on formal language, like the rules for past and present tense. Grammar is not actually stressed. Their focus is on useful phrases and common vocabulary. Thus, grammar learning is not complete as it is learned in fragments. Thus the constructing of a new sentence is difficult as the rules are not fully understood.

You also have to deal with the fact that students learn at different speeds, so there will be a difference in the vocabulary they have been exposed to.

What is the target age?
The app focus on learning to write in a foreign language, so students must be confident in reading and writing in their own language to use it. For this reason the target age is from around 9 years to adult.