Which App?

Now that the schools are starting back, you might be wondering how to support your child with their modern language studies or maybe you have always wanted to learn another language yourself for fun, travel or social reasons? Whatever your motivation is for language learning, one very useful resource is language learning apps. I have used 4 apps for learning various languages in my life so in this article I shall discuss the pros and cons of each of the apps Busuu, Duolinguo, Mondly and Rosetta Stone.

Busuu

A member of my staff told me about this app during the summer holidays and I have been using it to get my German tip top before I start uni. First of all you can pick your level of fluency from beginners, intermediate 1, intermediate 2 and native. I am currently working on the intermediate 2 course which is at B1 level and I feel like I’m going beyond Advanced Higher level! You learn by following a course just like any other language learning app but what makes it unique is the fact that learners have access to a community of native speakers of the language that they are learning. The community can see some of the learner’s written and spoken exercises and can correct them. You earn stars for completing lessons as well as for correcting other people’s work. Your number of stars determines your place in your league and the top ten people in every league graduate to the next league at the end of every week.

Although Busuu is free , you can pay for premium . I have done a week free trial of the premium and although you get some advantages such as no adverts and every lesson being unlocked so you can study in whatever order you want. I don’t think it’s worth paying for.

Duolinguo

I started to learn Dutch with Duolinguo about 10 years ago and this is not really the best language learning app in my opinion. You only get to unlock one lesson per day and the language is not really realistic, my friend from uni recently gave me some good evidence to back this up. Like me, Aoife is trying to get her German sharp for the start of class in October and among various other methods, she is using Duolinguo and one day she came across a question involving a woman and her dog running 200km every day which I’m sure you agree is a ridiculous scenario!

Despite this, the game feel of Duolinguo can be good for you if you have a young child who you have decided to raise bilingual. The bright colour scheme and the adorable owl mascot can be appealing to kids and completion of lessons is rewarded with badges so it’s possible that your 4 year old will not realise that they are learning and think it’s a game. The best thing is that it’s free so anyone can get it for their children without having to worry about spending money.

Mondly

I used Mondly to learn Italian ages ago but from what I can remember, it was quite good. Unlike Duolinguo, you actually learn more useful things such as how to call an ambulance in your target language as well as the grammar of the language. Your daily usage is tracked using a line graph which is so satisfying to look at . This can act as a motivator as I personally found myself wanting to use the app so my graph didn’t go flat.

I believe that there is an option to pay for premium but I have never tried it myself and therefore I don’t know what advantages you get with it.

Rosetta Stone 

When I was first starting to learn German I used this app and although it is quite expensive, it’s quite good . Learners pick from beginners , intermediate and advanced levels and I was able to cohesively transition from one level to the other without trouble. Beginners level takes you all the way from learning to introduce yourself to the beginning of Scottish N5 level! Although it doesn’t explain issues as explicitly as Busuu, you get to learn all of the important tenses of your target language. Lessons are split into different skill sets so on any given day you can choose wether you want to study vocabulary before grammar but after listening or in any other order you please. The other good thing about the app is rather than pairing words in the target language with words in the learners’ native language, it pairs words in the target language with pictures only. This encourages learners to start thinking in the target language which is a very useful skill to learn no matter if you are preparing for an exam or going travelling.

In conclusion, there are many different language learning apps out there for many different types of learner. Whether you just want to use one app religiously or pick and mix lots of different ones is up to you. They can help you at whatever stage of your language learning journey you’re at and they make your screen time positive. Why not download one today?

eemmcg💜