Running head: PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 1

Students’ Practices and Perceptions Towards Using Duolingo Applications

Student’s Name

Institutional Affiliation
PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 2

Literature Review

Definition and description

Duolingo is defined as “a free language learning service” (Definitions.net, n.d.). The

application is downloadable from iTunes or Google Play and installed on Android or IOS

devices. English students have an opportunity to choose from 16 languages (Nushi & Eqbali,

2017). Unfortunately, learners or speakers of other languages have no many options to select

from. A students speaking English get a chance to choose from 15 courses: 4 beta courses while

Spanish students choose from six languages; a French student choose from four languages

(Nushi & Eqbali, 2017).

However, when the Duolingo application is compared to other applications, for example,

Busuu and Babbel, there is still a vast languages yet to grow because of the broad and unique

community of learners and the available platforms where they get an opportunity to contribute

towards Duolingo. When a student selects the preferred language to learn, he or she will be asked

to “pick a daily goal” from a list (Nushi & Eqbali, 2017). The daily goals are categorized as

“casual,” “regular,” “insane, “to denote numbers 5, 10, 15, and 20 minutes of daily practice.

Then, the application would inquire if a learners has a grasp of the language he or she selects. If

the learner agrees, then a test is provided. When a learner notes the language as new, the apps

provides the basic from which the student starts to learn the language.

Technology in language learning

Learning in the present world is characterized by use of technology in teaching, research,

and learning a new language. Technology is helpful to both teachers and learners. It enables

teachers to come up with a better approach to teaching that keep students interested in learning

((Blake, 2013, 2016; Stanley, 2013). Also, it enables learners to have access to vast learning
PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 3

resources and be creative as they learn a new language (White, 2017). Moreover, technology has

enabled learners to easily learn a foreign language through various approaches and online

resources such as online dictionaries, podcats, vodcasts, etc. (Larsen-Freeman and Anderson,

2011). Integration of new technologies to learning environments creates an atmosphere that

increases a learner’s accessibility to new approaches to learn a foreign language, creates avenues

over which a student will be able to improve his or her learning experiences (Stanley, 2013). For

instance, accessibility to new opportunities to enable them learn at their convenience i.e., able to

choose when and where to learn and thus increase learner’s flexibility because they are able to

personalized their time of learning.

The authors add that technology is helpful to learning grammar that forms a significant

process when a student is interested in learning a second language. According to Larsen-Freeman

(2003), grammar is defined as “the ability to use grammar structures accurately, meaningfully,

and appropriately.” Learners have the opportunity “to see grammar as a skill, not merely as a set

of abstract rules, and use that skill to choose the appropriate language form for particular

contexts and meanings” (Nushi & Eqbali, 2017).

Technological advances such as tablets, computers, smartphones, MP4, MP3, ipads have

the potential to give students a chance to study at a time of their convenience anywhere and at

any time and, thus, experience ‘ubiquitous’ learning. According to Keegan (2003), m-learning

would revolutionize learning. Thus, Wagner (2005) mentioned that “the mobile revolution is

finally here. Wherever one looks, the evidence of mobile penetration and adoption is

irrefutable…. No demographic is immune from this phenomenon,” (p. 40). Mobile-assisted

language learning (MALL) is a field that experiences constant growth and promises a huge

impact on learning and teaching a second language (Pachler, Bachmair & Cook, 2010). Nushi &
PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 4

Eqbali, (2017) states that “Smartphones are a prominent example of ubiquitous learning devices,

and they are now a crucial part of many people's lives.” The devices are essential in the learning

process because of their portability, context sensitivity, social interactive, and ability to connect

individuals in an interactive language learning. The features of smartphones continuously evolve

and new ones added that meets different needs of users. For example, technologies of

smartphones constantly changes and new applications designed to make learning interesting and

user personalized.

M-learning

Several authors have written literature about M-learning (mobile learning) differently.

They have defined M-learning differently. According to Osman (2010), m-learning refers to “any

type of learning that takes place in learning environments and spaces that take account of the

mobility of technology, mobility of the learner and mobility of learning” (qtd in Fazeena et al.

2016). Laouriss and Eteokleous, from their research, provide an academic definition of M-

learning. The definition is drawn from an analysis of the description from several authors based

on devices, learning environments, and experiences from learning. English vocabularies belong

to 8,000 to 9,000 families of words in reading context and 5,000 to 7,000 in the context of oral

address. Students in Chinese colleges encounter 3,934 words after completion of the second year

(Godwin-Jones, 2011). When the words were calculated from a standardized method devised by

the Ministry of Education from a pool of 6,674 words, that constituted simple words such as

"in," "I," "one," etc. when the same technique used in the survey is used, the number of

vocabularies produced is about 2,000 words.

The majority of students who attend Chinese colleges get eleven years of being educated

in the English language, that is three years when at the elementary level, six years while at senior
PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 5

and junior secondary schools and two years of English education while at college. Therefore, the

total number of hours they spend learning the English language is about 1,672 hours. The

calculation is based on the attendance of 38 classes weekly; if they are taught four English

classes weekly. Also, according to research, students in Chinese colleges spent about half of their

academic life learning the English language. The requirements, vocabulary size and the number

of time learners spend learning the language force some students and teachers to look for

shortcuts to come up with techniques to master English vocabularies (Dai, 2013; Xue et al.

2010).

Given that the traditional methods of learning the English language are ineffective,

researchers have resorted to using modern technology to come up with more natural ways to

learn the language. Some researchers have come up with learning tools that need a learner to

have a mobile device (Gao & Wang, 2011). The portability of mobile devices makes them

convenient in terms of accessibility and, thus, the right tools than computers and textbooks.

Several types of research conducted on the effectiveness of M-learning in countries such as

Taiwan, Japan, Iran, and turkey suggests that mobile technology improve learning (Hayati et al.,

2013).

Compared to learning through sending of text messages, the MALL is much efficient and

is accessible anywhere and at any time. MALL eliminates the limitation of the SMS method,

which was initially introduced in Chinese colleges. Examples of MALL over the SMS method

include wide learning choice: using the traditional M-learning technology, the learner had to wait

to get their lesson and had no control over the content they were to be sent, learners cannot

access new learning material if they are done with the current (Wu, 2015). Research done on the

SMS method of learning and MALL is still on trial level (Tai, 2012).
PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 6

The limitations of the SMS method have been overcome by coming up with smartphone

technology, which allows researchers to design apps from which learners can access relevant

material. Also, learners have the choice to choose from a vast number of languages and the

material content of interest. The operating system of smartphones makes them able to install

several apps (Burston, 2014). Besides, the devices have different functionalities depending on

the model to accommodate various media players, web browsers capable of displaying well

standard web pages. A high resolution of touch screens aids this.

A study that was done by Wu (2015) to select a better smartphone to survey with

involved four criteria. The first criteria were the smartphone device chosen should have a fast

operating system, a big storage capacity, a large screen, and with a touchscreen of "zoom

function" technology. A screen with zoom function enables users of the device to react to

material content displayed and able to control how learning content is displayed when they zoom

(i.e., zoom technology allows shrinking and expanding the size of the revealed texts) (Wu,

2015). The second criterion entailed consideration of how popular the smart device was, i.e., the

smartphone device owned by most students, with the study involving143 participants all

possessing smartphone).

Since China mobile is the biggest service provider in the country, the company provides a

free smartphone with a subscription plan priced low (Wu, 2015). Therefore, most students in

Chinese colleges can access smartphone devices. The third criteria considered were that the

handset had to have the capacity to install customized applications — the study aimed at solving

the limitations associated with the SMS learning method. Regular mobile handsets have no

operating system and hence cannot support the installation of applications. Few pieces of

research have been conducted on M-learning (Ballance, 2012). Most of the studies done on the
PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 7

topic are centered on learner-instructor interaction through SMS and MSN. Other studies have

concentrated on M-learning involving online tutors or students accessing an online dictionary.

The scarcity of content of the syllabus deters the suitability of smartphone gadgets to be

exploited fully and be resources as a learning platform similar to personal computers in learning

a foreign language. The remedy of this problem is designing good learning content.

Application use in language learning

The Duolingo is a useful tool in language learning especially when learning vocabularies

of a foreign language (Stanley, 2013). A foreign language is often challenging and sometimes a

student feels discouraged because he or she has to master vast number of vocabularies and

words. The technology of M-learning accessible through smartphones is helpful and provides

students with an effective way to grasp the words of a foreign language. Hence, it is important

for teachers and learners to come up with ways to learn the language’s vocabularies (Carneiro &

Simao, 2011). Learning the words and vocabularies of a foreign language entails mastering the

building blocks (Pappas, 2015). The objective of learning a language’s vocabularies involves

memorization and learns how to use words in different contexts of a conversation (Blake, 2013).

However, learning vocabularies is challenging in different learning models that major on

classroom oriented learning compared to one that incorporates both classroom and outside-

classroom learning by employing technology.

Previous research

Munday (2016) conducted research to explore the use of a learning application i.e.,

Duolingo, as a secondary learning tool to study Spanish as a foreign language. The learning apps

employs adaptive technologies in learning that are tailored to specific needs of different students.

The study used Duolingo as a program for students’ study of two Spanish language as a
PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 8

university course; a beginner course in Spanish language and the other, an advanced intermediate

course (Munday, 2016). The students that took part in the study used the application online

which they accessed through their smartphones or personal computers. The apps functionality

and all the activities that can be performed by the app were undertaken, and a description of how

learning is to be achieved was provided.

The study primary findings revealed that Duolingo was easy to use, helpful, and has a

capacity to be used in learning even though it’s not designed to be used in communication of

competence. Students enjoy using the app because of its several features, for example, ease of

accessibility on smartphones; it has a gamified aspects, and availability of several tasks

(Munday, 2016). The study also discussed possible ways the app can be incorporated to the

curriculum to aid student learn foreign language.

Anna et al. (2016) mentions that the Duolingo app contributes to improving learners'

vocabularies, grammar, and pronunciation. Also, their study results show that the language

effectiveness and confidence of learners increase. The objective of the study was to determine

how students perceive the use of educational apps, particularly the Duolingo app, to learn

English as the second language. All the study participants had smartphones while others owned

personal computers. The participants were asked to install the Duolingo app on their phones or

personal computer, then open accounts with the app.

Astarilla (2018) did a research on the same topic and found positive results. The study

involved 135 students from university in Indonesia, Pekanburu and Riau. The results of the study

were that students had a positive perception on educational tool like Duolingo app. The data that

was collected from the questionnaires revealed that about 82.3 percent of students found the

features of the app simple to use (Astarilla, 2018); 83.7 percent agreed that it was convenient to
PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 9

learn English from the app because it allows access and communicate anywhere and anytime;

85.2 percent found the app useful (Astarilla, 2018); 90.4 percent mentioned that the Duolingo

was helpful to improve their skills in English language; 91.2 percent stated that the Duolingo app

was effective in improving their English skills anywhere and at any time.

In general, 89.6 percent students had positive perception towards the app in learning

English language. Above 60 percent of the study participants the app is helpful in developing

skills to self-learning and as an encouragement to learning English (Astarilla, 2018). Moreover,

about 80 percent of students mentioned that the app is a motivation to learning and practice to

English skills.

At the start of the semester, the participants were asked to learn and play using the app

for a duration exceeding fifteen minutes daily. Unfortunately, 7.4 percent of the participants did

not open the app as instructed. Many students used the app to learn more a duration exceeding

fifteen minutes as instructed. From the interviews, journal writing, and questionnaires distributed

to all participants showed that students had a positive response towards using the app to learn the

English language (Krashen, 2014). Regardless of the demerits of using the app to learn a

language, particularly the English language, the advantages of using Duolingo outweighs the

disadvantages. Therefore, the Duolingo app will be good for students to learn a language,

especially when learning their second language. From the students' responses to the

questionnaire question and the interview, most students positively perceive and have a good

attitude towards the Duolingo app to learn a language.

From the positive findings of the study, we can say that the students agree the app is

effective; they can improve proficiency in learning English skills. Also, the app is a motivation

for students to learning (Werbach, 2013). The results of this study agree with that conducted by
PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 10

Refnadi (2016), whose findings mention that the app is designed with good features and hence

increases the motivation and interest of students towards learning English. A similar result with

this study is that conducted by Hyungsung (2012) who mentions that the positive effects of an

app with educational games can help to alleviate the academic achievements of students when

they are engaged with special subjects supported by select educational games (Darina & Christo,

2015; Pappas, 2015).

Therefore, the general abilities of students, such as problem-solving, creativity, self-

efficacy, decision-making, communication, etc. can be improved when students play selected

games (Ewa, 2016). Moreover, a study done by Tory and Anna (2016) states that students and

teachers engage in the exploration of resources to support "face-to-face" activities. This can be

interpreted that the Duolingo app is essential to learners during the learning process and hence

contribute to higher academic achievements.

Advantages of the Duolingo app

The advantages of the Duolingo app as an educational app include: First, it enables

learners to learn a second language in a step-wise manner (Nushi & Eqbali, 2017). Second,

learning a second language from the app is free. Third, Several studies conducted on M-learning,

particularly the Duolingo app reveal positive results as an educational tool while learning

English. The findings show that students' perception of the app is positive because it facilitates

learning: the app gives learners the opportunity to engage in per-to-peer learning (Carneiro, &

Simao, 2011). Forth, using the app as an educational tool can help students to improve their

grades and proficiency in English. The students were also comfortable and enjoyed using the app

to learn English. Moreover, most learners agree that Duolingo is an exciting and effective way to

learn English.
PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 11

Disadvantages of the Duolingo app

Despite the Duolingo app proving to be a useful educational tool, it has several

drawbacks. First, the fact that learning a language through the app can be done anywhere and

anytime, enabling outside-classroom learning as an additional practice tool, the principles and

teaching approach of the app can sometimes collide with the teaching approaches of a common

language such as Task-based Language Teaching and Communicative Language Teaching

(Nushi & Eqbali, 2017). The method of teaching employed by the Duolingo app is via direct

translation (Cook, 2010). Therefore, if a student takes a language class that prohibits outside-

classroom translation of a language, there may be negative consequences a learner familiarizing

themselves with his or her teacher’s translation. Second, the translation voice from the app is

unnatural and a learner would end up pronouncing words of the second language in a way that is

weird to native language speakers (Vesselinov & Grego, 2012). Third, the app does not provide

to learners satisfactory information about grammatical structures and hence learners would be

left to wonder for example, why in French plural words are accompanied by article only

regardless of the gender.

PRACTICES AND PERCEPTIONS TOWARDS USING DUOLINGO 12

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