Let's get the obvious out of the way

What to expect this week:

5 min read

We’ve got two more weeks of our dive into helping our ELLs - and this week we tackle the elephant (um…owl?) in the room. Duolingo is perhaps one of the most popular language learning apps available at the moment - but does this mean it deserves a place in your classrooms? This week we tear these types of apps apart, and the research behind them, to find out. You can expect: 

• Duo the owl gets a fresh coat of paint

• Research loves (and kind of hates) language learning apps for ELLs

• The push to make academic AI accessible

Tech Talk

Your favorite owl gets better

This week, we're diving into  Duolingo, a giant in the language-learning space. BUT instead of rehashing what the app does, which there are already tons of resources out there to do, let's explore real classroom strategies for your English Language Learners (ELLs) using this popular tool instead. These strategies depend on your students' current language level and require access to a device and a Duolingo account. Keep in mind, Duolingo does have a ‘For Teachers’ option should you want to go the simple route and just assign material for them to finish - which there is absolutely nothing wrong with. Here’s how you can take it to the next level though:

1️⃣ Build a Story: Use vocabulary words from a specific level or week to have students create a story. This not only reinforces vocabulary but also enhances oral communication skills. Students can share their stories with the class or record an audio reading for later reflection. 📚

2️⃣ Role-Playing: Instead of just completing exercises, have students act out scenarios presented in Duolingo. This hands-on approach helps develop oral skills and makes learning more engaging. 🎭

3️⃣ Gamify Your Learning: Create weekly challenges outside of the app for students, with a leaderboard to track progress. To avoid competitiveness, use nicknames or gamer tags instead of real names, and keep the leaderboard offline and in your possession only. Offer a small prize at the end to increase motivation. 🏆

4️⃣ Interactive Quizzes: Create quizzes using Duolingo vocabulary but in a different format, such as Kahoot! This adds variety and makes learning more interactive. 🎮

5️⃣ Reconstruct a Story: Have students translate a short story or article into their native language using Duolingo and other resources. Then, working together, they can reconstruct the original story in English. This exercise improves comprehension and translation skills. 🔄

This is just the start of course. There are tons of different ways to use powerful apps like Duolingo outside of just weekly practice and badge-based grading. By itself, Duolingo can be great as a practice tool. But with these added strategies, it becomes an even better teaching tool. Have you tried any of these before? Hit reply to this email and let us know!

Surplus Scoop

• 1 in 3 teachers really, really, really doesn’t like their job. But why?

• The Polish government has officially limited homework - maybe don’t tell your students.

• Universal access to AI is advancing academic research at breakneck speeds - is your school keeping up with the trend?

Brainy Bits

The good, the bad, and the ugly

This week's peer review deep dive continues our exploration of Duolingo. Yes, Duolingo is so large that there are actually numerous studies devoted to it. This particular study comes from Said & Ismail (2023) and is a concept paper, meaning that they have not actually carried out their experiment yet. However, they include an incredible literature overview of the Duolingo studies, which is exactly what we want to focus on this week. Here are the positive research-backed facts about using Duolingo for ELLs:

• Students using Duolingo in classroom environments tend to spend up to 57 minutes/day on the app, which is well beyond Duolingo’s 5-minute recommendation. This shows that students actually want to spend time on the app, even outside of classroom activity. 📱

• Duolingo’s use of pronunciation, translation, spaced repetition, and task choice aid in forms of language mastery compared to just traditional methods. 🔄

• There is a great push for learner autonomy in the app, which can impact a student’s success in other subject areas as well, especially with the high focus on self-correction abilities. 🚀

However, it’s not all fun and games. We here at The PEN Weekly like to give both sides of the research and tech, and this week is no different. The same literature review has much to share about potential downfalls of Duolingo in ESL classrooms. Here’s the summarized scoop:

• Duolingo’s success and engagement rates dramatically drop when the learner is beyond a beginner level. This means that all of those positive stats above mean nothing for our more advanced ELLs. 📉

• Research shows that when Duolingo is used as the only intervention, the actual transition of language skills does not occur. This means that speaking and writing skills needed for the workplace will rarely develop if only Duolingo is used. 🛑

• All of the human and creative elements found in classroom teaching would be absent as well. 🎨

• The lack of live feedback means tailored learning experiences fall flat within the app. 📝

• Some students may rely on Duolingo as a crutch, leaving them unable to speak/write without it in their new language. 🖊️

• Duolingo lacks the most success when it comes to speaking abilities. Without this initial confidence boost, engagement levels can drop off at the first sign of student struggle. 🗣️

• When only vocabulary is taken into account, Duolingo-only forms of teaching result in fewer words learned compared to traditional teaching methods. 📚

• Lastly, Duolingo is not available offline (or at least not in a large capacity). This means that practice for lower-income families, where there may be no internet access at home, can be stunted. 🌐

Even with these negatives, the authors of this week’s paper argue that the pros outweigh the cons, as long as Duolingo is being used as a classroom tool and not as a sole teaching method. And this is exactly what apps like these are - tools, not solutions.

Keep these research-backed facts in mind when implementing any third-party language apps in your classrooms. If you don’t agree with any of these statements, feel free to hit reply on this email and let us know why!

Tell your friends about us!

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References

This week’s issue adapts information from the following sources:

Tech Talk:

Duolingo. (2024). The free, fun, and effective way to learn a language!, Retrieved from https://www.duolingo.com/

Brainy Bits:

Said, N.M., Ismail, H.H. (2023). Conceptualizing Duolingo and its affordances and constraints as a learning tool in ESL reading classrooms: a concept paper. International Journal of Academic Research in Business & Social Sciences, 13(12), 3156-3173. http://dx.doi.org/10.6007/IJARBSS/v13-i12/20171