New duolingo interface. What does Duolingo teach you? Repetition is the mother of learning

This is the most creative and fun language learning app. For recent years this game has captured millions of users around the world.

Laziness, lack of time and motivation are no longer an obstacle to improving your linguistic skills. In a playful way, you can improve your English level or start learning one of the other foreign languages ​​from scratch. All that remains is to download Duolingo to your computer and English, German, French and Spanish spaces will open up before the player.

At the very beginning of classes, the user takes a short test that determines your level. Later he passes interactive lessons, designed to suit his level of knowledge, performing increasingly complex tasks and remembering new words and rules.

A complete course of learning English consists of lessons, each of which is divided into many different lessons and tasks, which will help you comprehensively learn educational material. Each of these exercises can be completed separately and takes an average of 5-7 minutes, so even the busiest can increase their progress daily.

Functional

One of the largest linguistic gaming platforms. Offers individual program training based on your personal data. In Duolingo in Russian for computer, you can chat with other users from different countries.

The level reached by the user is displayed next to his nickname and is visible to other interlocutors. This is another unique motivator for working on yourself, because competing with friends in the race for achievements and awards is very exciting.

Challenges await players different types- listening, speaking, translating words and whole sentences. The peculiarity of the game is that players help each other translate documents offered by Duolingo. Repeated repetition promotes automatic memorization of new words and grammatical structures. Completed topics are marked in gold; those that require data pinning are visible with colored icons.

The smart owl, which accompanies you throughout the learning process, calculates how much time you spend working on tests every day and shows your progress. First you determine the names of things in photographs, and then translate simple texts. If you have not learned any of the lessons and completed them with errors, the service will return you to repeat this topic and point out your weak points.

Advantages

• The classes are completely free, which is good news. The service makes money from transfers that are made during the educational process.
• Does not contain advertising.
• A fun way to present material: by earning points for completing tasks, you make Owl happy!
• Consistent and systematic passage of the material: until you close all the points of the topic, the next level simply will not open.
• You can set an individual pace of learning, depending on the availability of time and opportunity. When the class time comes, the program will send you a reminder by email.
• You can actually learn to speak a foreign language! Many missions ask you to say a word or phrase out loud. The owl evaluates your pronunciation and helps you improve it.

Cons of the application

• the nuances of pronunciation of new words are not explained;
• Suitable only for beginners; if you know a foreign language well, playing Duolingo for Windows may get boring over time;
• The virtual internal money received can hardly be spent anywhere, except perhaps on passing a language test and obtaining an electronic certificate.

How to Run Duolingo on PC

• The first thing you need to do is install . It will help you use programs designed for smartphones and tablets on a desktop PC.
• Next, you need to download the Duolingo program on your PC, to do this, click on the download button on the description page. Installation file will be placed in the system “Downloads” folder.
  In the BlueStacs menu, you need to select the “apk installation” option and find the pre-downloaded game file in the system window, stored in the “Downloads” folder.
• Once the installation is complete, restart your PC and log into BlueStacs.
• In the program search field, enter the name of the application if you have problems switching the language to virtual keyboard– turn off the keyboard by clicking on its image at the top of the screen.
• Double-clicking the icon icon will launch Duolingo in Russian for desktop.

• LinguaLeo - a system with game mechanics of the service will allow children to quickly and unobtrusively learn English. As additional materials For study, the developers offer a wide range of additional materials - cartoons, fairy tales, music in English. The LinguaLeo dictionary is also available offline; you can add your own words and comments to the translation.
• Memrise, unlike other programs, is completely devoid of an entertainment component. Need to remember individual words and whole phrases proposed at each level and take tests. When choosing an answer option, you can choose from those suggested or type the correct answer on the keyboard: the electronic assistant will check the correctness itself. The advantage is a large selection of languages, synchronization of smartphone and computer, ease of creating visual associations to words from Google Images.
• Busuu is a unique language server where your homework can be checked by a representative of the country you are studying. Basic courses developed by European experts for English, German, French, Spanish, Italian and some others. The application focuses on live communication users, which makes Busuu a community that unites everyone who wants to learn a foreign language.

System Requirements

Installation of this software platform on a personal computer is available to almost any user, because system requirements required for its correct operation are minimal:

• Windows operating system,
• Windows version not lower than 7 (as well as 8.1 and 10),
• 2 or more GB of RAM,
• current video card driver.

Video review

Results and comments

Download Duolingo to your computer and get a chance to learn one of your favorite languages ​​from scratch. Absolutely free language service, which is constantly developing and improving. Many users consider Duolingo the best educational interactive application for learning foreign languages.

The official Android application designed for learning foreign languages ​​for free. The application will allow you to as soon as possible master English, German, French and many other languages, just download Duolingo and install it on your phone or tablet.

Duolingo screenshots →

Languages ​​are learned in an easy playful way, which significantly increases the assimilation of the material, and the course itself is structured in such a way that both absolute beginners and those users who already have certain knowledge can start learning. Downloading the Duolingo app for Android is very simple, the direct link is available on this page.

The Duolingo app offers:

• Teaching foreign languages ​​in a playful way.
• Acquiring speaking skills.
• Several training levels, from the simplest to the more complex.
• Availability of built-in tests that allow you to determine the level of knowledge and language skills of the user.
• Different types of exercises: translation, choosing the correct translation, working out correct pronunciation, definition grammatical form, composing words, sentences, etc.
• Random rotation of questions to prevent cramming.
• Conducting lessons on a specific topic.
• Maintaining a history of achievements.
• Easy switching between languages.
• The ability to compete with other Duolingo users.

For each successfully completed lesson, the student is awarded lives and bonuses, and when the latter reaches a certain number, a transition to more is carried out. difficult level. At the same time, from time to time Duolingo program suggests repeating previously learned material, for which he uses color markers. The program also has a built-in store with its own game currency - “Lingots”, with which you can buy extra life. You can download Duolingo for free for Android from our website. The application is equipped with a pleasant and user-friendly interface, Russian language is supported.

Click “Home” to get to your skill tree. In the skill tree you will perform most of your learning. It is divided into separate units, and each unit contains several lessons. The more you progress in learning the language, the more units will be available to you.

Take what you already know ahead of schedule (optional). If you already have the basic knowledge, you can complete part of the skill tree early. Click on the gold one keyhole at the end of each section to take the test. You will have three attempts.

Click on the first skill block. It will probably be called "Basics 1"

Knowledge of at least one foreign language has long been desirable. A specialist who additionally speaks one or more languages ​​is always given preference when hiring, not to mention the fact that such people feel comfortable and confident abroad, can read books in the original language... The list goes on and on. Progress does not stand still, and textbooks can be replaced by an excellent application called Duolingo. User reviews are clear - this is one of the best educational applications.

What is Duolingo?

Learn languages ​​for free! You need to install the program on your computer from the official website, and you can start studying. Scientists have long found out that a person perceives information very well if it is presented in a free playful form - it seems that this has remained with us since childhood. And if there is an alternative simple memorization or hiring a teacher, then why not take advantage of this? In addition, no material investments are required.

The Duolingo app is suitable even for those who are completely unfamiliar with English. By the way, in addition to it, there are also courses in German, Spanish and French.

How the training works

Simplicity combined with powerful functionality is what the user gets with Duolingo. Registration takes just a few minutes. After confirmation email the virtual student gets access to tasks that can be completed both on the website and in an application installed on the computer.

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

Motivation

Someone will say that it is not necessary to go through such tricks, because you can learn English from a textbook. However, most people learn a language not because they “have to,” but because they “should,” so they lack will and perseverance: poring over a book quickly gets boring. Duolingo works like a teacher, issuing assignments in portions and grading them.

Serious importance when working with foreign language has and vocabulary. Even if a person knows the rules perfectly, he will not be able to construct a sentence if he does not know some the right words. Yes, you can often use synonyms, but, you see, it can be quite difficult to use them for a word such as, for example, fork. It's much easier to use word sets, which is what Duolingo allows you to do.

Levels already completed by the user are not postponed far corner- this is also a huge plus. Periodically, the program offers to repeat the material covered. So, through repeated repetition, it is easy to remember large number words, which, in turn, are used in other tasks (for example, when it is necessary to compose a phrase).

Practice and more practice

"Daily Minimum" is another thing that helps users on Duolingo. Reviews about the project often contain references to how difficult it can be to force yourself to open a textbook after a difficult working day. The application offers every day small quantity tasks, and the volume can be increased or decreased depending on how busy you are; moreover, they can be completed one at a time during the day, when you have a few free minutes, or on the way to work.

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

In the application, you can set a so-called “goal” - this is the minimum task that must be completed during the day in Duolingo. The levels are: easy, medium, severe and crazy. It only takes a few minutes a day to complete the "easy goal" tasks, but if you have time, you can work overtime. The system automatically calculates how many days in a row you have been studying, and here it is important not to skip days. This is great motivation.

In addition to learning words and rules, the application includes tasks for constructing phrases. Here the developers did their best: in addition to simple conversational sentences Sometimes there are quotes from books, idioms, aphorisms and just funny turns of phrase. This diversifies the learning process.

The site has technical support, whose specialists are ready to help the user in case of difficulties; they can be reported about bugs. An important part is the forum, where you can communicate with colleagues, look for interlocutors and even organize competitions.

Duolingo can easily displace such time-wasters as social networks from a person’s life. Learning is easy and interesting, it does not tire you, but it allows you to be distracted or relieve your head after intense mental work. All this is reinforced positive emotions the fact that time is not wasted, something useful is done.

By level

If the user is no longer new to the language, the system will quickly determine his level, and he will not have to monotonously perform a lot of simple tasks. If, for example, a person reads and writes well, but is not good enough in listening, then this problem is also easily solved. Lessons that the user already knows can be taken early.

The main thing in learning a language is to learn to communicate in it as quickly as possible, to overcome the “audio barrier”. To do this, the application functionality includes listening tasks, but to make the training as intense as possible, you can use voice input. Thus, if the answer to a question needs to be written (typed), the user simply speaks it out. The system may recognize words incorrectly, but this will be an incentive to practice pronunciation.

Polyglots

To fundamentally study the basics of the language, use two courses, for example, Russian-English and English-Russian at the same time. The peculiarity is that there are many times more materials for English speakers, and by choosing the reverse course, the user gains 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 intermediate level, you can take, for example, an English-Spanish course and improve two languages ​​at the same time. In addition, this will open access to new interesting materials.

For children

An indispensable tool in teaching children a foreign language is Duolingo. German, French or English - it doesn’t matter, because not only adults, but also children will be interested in learning and monitoring their “leveling up” in their profile, receiving lingot bonuses, which are the so-called game currency, and buying various additions to the functionality for them , for example, the ability to complete a task for a while.

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

Cons

Despite the many positive qualities, Duolingo also has disadvantages. User reviews allow us to compile some statistics: the application does not cause any complaints only among beginners. For those who are fluent in the language and, for example, want to deepen their knowledge or prepare for any exam (IELTS, TOEFL), the application will be of little help. However, here we can mention a wonderful alternative - the LinguaLeo project. Its significant drawback is its narrow specialization: exclusively English, but there are significantly more materials than in Duolingo.

You can also learn English from scratch using this service. True, some functions will only be available when purchasing premium, but you can easily do without it if you know a few tricks. For example, using a mobile application along with the functionality of the site itself will expand the number of available workouts (for some reason, there is a significant difference in tasks on these platforms). In addition, many interesting and motivating videos are available without any premium. English subtitles. For beginners, such materials may seem complicated, but for those more advanced in the language, the videos will be very useful.

Tasks where you need to speak out the answer can become real problem, if the Internet connection is unstable or does not exist at all. The same applies to listening.

There is one more small disadvantage to Duolingo. Reviews about the program are periodically updated with messages about bugs in some courses, but they are not critical and are quickly fixed by the site’s programmers.

Instead of a conclusion

No, Duolingo is not a program that will install a foreign language into a human one" operating system". Without effort, there will be no effect. But for those who really want to learn a language, this application will really help. However, you need to learn comprehensively; Duolingo alone is not enough. “Learn languages ​​for free” is the slogan of many speaking clubs.

Some of them are truly free, and some do not charge money only for those who already have a good command of the language. In any case, this will not only be an excellent addition to the main tasks, but also an opportunity to make interesting contacts. Often native speakers also come to the evenings of conversation clubs, and this is also an opportunity to get to know the culture of another country better.

Without leaving your home, you can use various chat services, where people from all over the planet are looking for interlocutors to talk in the language they are learning. There are many tools for self-learning, and most importantly, many of them are free (or almost free), you just need to know how to use them correctly.

is a simple free service for learning foreign languages ​​in a playful way. With its help, you can learn basic vocabulary on topics such as “Family”, “Home” and so on, as well as learn how to build simple grammatical structures. The service has listening and pronunciation exercises, but it is designed primarily for mastering the basics of grammar and vocabulary.

If you have already read my book, you know that Duolingo is a convenient auxiliary tool in language learning, but it (like any other program) does not replace the practice in reading, writing, and communication necessary for full mastery of the language.

Linear plot - good or bad?

Some programs offer multiple courses to choose from from the start. On the one hand, there is plenty to choose from, but on the other hand, the user’s eyes run wild and he doesn’t know what to do. In Duolingo, this is easier: there is only one course (for each language), its “plot” is straightforward, you cannot deviate from it except to get ahead of yourself by passing the test as an external student.

After registering and selecting the language you are studying (for Russian-speaking users, English, German, French, Spanish and Swedish languages), you are led by the hand along a chain of tasks, occasionally allowing you to take small steps left/right. Is this good or not?

It's up to you. If you want a simple and understandable course, compiled by competent teachers and not requiring unnecessary independence from you, then good. I note that such a lesson course is also very well implemented in the “Teacher Method” (on the service) - unlike Duolingo, you can only learn English there, but the course is very detailed and is designed for a Russian-speaking audience.

What does Duolingo teach you?

Duolingo is designed for beginners, with 55 “skills” (groups of 2-10 lessons with common theme), starting with articles, ending with topics such as business vocabulary. Some tasks are more designed to improve your vocabulary, and some are more about practicing grammar structures, but I would say that grammar in Duolingo is taught in a very unobtrusive and entertaining way. You are required to be able to construct phrases, and not to memorize the wording of the rule.

Please note that Duolingo does not provide practice in reading, listening, writing or oral speech. There is only the most initial, elementary practice in the form of reading and listening to individual phrases. You should not expect that the program will help significantly improve your reading, listening comprehension, and especially speaking skills - it has a completely different goal. The main content of Duolingo is basic vocabulary and grammar plus the development of initial listening comprehension skills.

Game-based learning

Learning in Duolingo is done in a playful way. Here, as in ordinary ones, you need to follow storyline, complete tasks of increasing difficulty. For the most part, the assignments are based on translation, but the course also helps develop initial skills in listening comprehension, writing (spelling, not the ability to compose, say, an essay in English) and even.

Most tasks are for translation

Typical tasks:

• guess the meaning of the word (select the desired picture);
• translate the sentence;
• write a sentence by ear;
• read a sentence into the microphone (the program evaluates the quality of pronunciation) - you can skip these exercises if you wish, for example, if you are not comfortable with at the moment speak.

Repetition is the mother of learning

Repetition is the mother of learning

The material you have covered can be repeated in the “Strengthen Skills” mode. In the picture of each completed lesson there is a scale of knowledge strength. By looking at it, you can find out which lesson is best for you to retake.

In addition, in the right column there is a “Strengthen Skills” button, which starts the repetition of forgotten materials. I recommend starting each lesson by reviewing what you have learned.

How the owl Duo rewards diligent students

The program does its best to motivate you to exercise regularly, or better yet, daily. So, for each successfully completed lesson you are given virtual gems lingots. If you practice daily, then Duo the owl will give you bonus lingots for regular practice.

With the jewelry you earn, you can buy various useful (and useless) things in the Lingot store, for example, an extended language test, or new suit for the owlet Duo.

I will only add that no Lingots motivate to learn a language as much as real success in English. When you suddenly realize that you know what is being sung in the book that is written on the cover of this book, when, communicating with a foreigner, you understand what you find common language, then you realize how great it is to speak a foreign language - this insight gets you hooked on the language better than any Lingot.

"Discuss the proposal"

A big plus of Duolingo is the discussion of assignments on the forum. Under any lesson question there is a “Discuss the proposal” button. By clicking on it, you go to the forum where you can discuss the issue with other users, as well as teachers who created the Rus - Eng version of Duolingo.

Individual approach to each student

According to the developers, Duolingo calculates which words, tasks, and lessons are easier for you and which are more difficult. Based on these statistics, the program gives tasks designed specifically for you. This is especially noticeable in the repetition mode (Strengthen Skills) - the program really gives you those words and phrases that you have not repeated for a long time.

Mobile application

The mobile version of Duolingo (works on iOS, Windows and Android) received Apple's "App of the Year" award and the title of "Best of the Best" in Google Play. Usually, as, for example, in the case of, mobile applications of educational programs are their stripped-down versions.

Duolingo for smartphones and tablets is slightly inferior to the web version, there are slight differences. For example, in the large version, translation of phrases must be done by manually typing the text. IN mobile version you need to put the translation together from words, like a puzzle. Apparently, this was done because typing on the phone is not very convenient.

Another difference is that in the larger version, before some lessons, grammar notes are given and the rules are explained. Unfortunately, this is not available in the mobile application.

How do you know if you need a Duolingo course or not?

Very simple. As I said, you can take the test externally on Duolingo. Scroll through the skill tree to the last test (after that there are several more lessons), complete the tasks, and if you did well, then you definitely won’t need Duolingo.

How effective is Duolingo?

At the request of the service's owners, scientists from the City College of New York and the University of South Carolina conducted a study to determine how effective the program is. They recruited 156 volunteers (carriers English language) and invited them to take a 22-hour Spanish course using Duolingo. As a result, statistics say that the 88 people who reached the finish line (many got lost along the way) moved at such a brisk pace that the experiment did not last 22 to 34 hours; they would have mastered the material of an entire semester (130 hours). It was this finding that gave the company the basis to claim that Duolingo is superior to university-level language learning (“Duolingo trumps university-level language learning”).

True, there are some “buts”

The authors of the study themselves Veselnikov And Grego noted that the study involved English-speaking volunteers learning Spanish. Whether the numbers will be the same with another language pair is impossible to say.

If you have studied Spanish, then you probably know that there is much more in common between Spanish and English than between Russian and English, and this somewhat changes the conditions of the problem.

I studied on Duolingo myself Spanish(in the direction of English - Spanish, since Russian - Spanish is not there) and I can say that this language pair has a huge advantage that those who learn Russian - English do not have.

On the Russian-language Duolingo forum, everyone communicates in Russian; there are no native English speakers there (although the course developers actively help). There are a lot of Spanish speakers on the Spanish-language forum, as they actively use Duolingo to learn English. This, again, greatly changes the conditions of the problem.

Moreover, as the professor noted Stephen Krashen(University of California) in the article “Is Duolingo Superior to a College Course?” (“Does Duolingo “Trump” University-Level Language Learning?”) comparing adult volunteers who are motivated to learn a language and students who often learn under pressure is not entirely correct.

And let's not forget that out of 156 subjects, 66 mysteriously disappeared along the way. Why did they abandon the program, some in less than 2 hours? Science does not know this.

What shouldn't you expect from Duolingo?

In my opinion, Duolingo is good for adding variety to activities, developing initial listening comprehension skills, helping with spelling, memorizing words, composing simple phrases. Big plus - mobile application, which almost completely repeats the functionality of the large version.

However, you should not expect that after completing the program you will learn to read unadapted literature, understand films, or speak English. To master a language, vocabulary, grammar (which in Duolingo is given at a very modest level) and simple listening exercises are not enough. Practice is important - in reading and listening (not individual phrases, but at least adapted texts), writing and speech. Duolingo doesn't do that.

It is worth noting that specialized programs cope with each separate function better than Duolingo: for developing listening comprehension, it’s more suitable, for memorizing words, it’s more suitable for writing practice.

You shouldn't expect quick progress from Duolingo either. If you are studying only According to Duolingo, learning a language will take a long time. One of the service users posted the following screenshot on VKontakte:

It shows that the student was studying 200 days contract to take the course. 200 days is more than six months. I am sure that in six months, even if you study without a teacher, you can gain basic vocabulary, study the textbook’s grammar from cover to cover (I’m not talking about knowledge of the rules, but the ability to construct sentences), develop solid listening, oral and writing, learn to read fairly complex unadapted texts.

Duolingo is primarily an educational game, useful to complement and diversify the main activities, be it lessons with a tutor, courses or independent work according to textbooks. This is also a good option for those who have just started (or want to start) studying English, but do not yet know what is best to take up. Duolingo is not overloading unnecessary information, but simply leads you by the hand, helping you learn the basics of the language.

Why Duolingo is free

is not only a training service, but also a platform for collective translations. Various organizations(for example, CNN and BuzzFeed) order translations of texts from Duolingo, students are asked to translate them on a voluntary basis as language practice, and Duolingo receives money for this. In the end, everyone is happy.

What do you think about Duolingo?