Apps for learning-practicing a second language

At present, all study and working fields have something in common, that is
technology, which has helped us and made some activities a lot easier, like making online
payments, buying online, provides us comfort, and has helped in the research and
educational areas, etc. Which has also let us improve the learning-teaching experience in
every area and the process to acquire a second language (L2) is not an exception thanks to
technological advances.

Day by day it’s less common to find people that don’t speak a second language,
either by labor issues or just for fun. Everyone knows that a second language can open us
many doors for the future, because in these days, languages have had an influence
basically in any working environment, due to globalization and through technology it gets
easier every day to learn a L2, even though it’s true, there are languages that need a class
for learning them, it’s not always necessary. Technological advances have helped us to
implement and improve the acquisition and the practice for a L2.

If you want to immerse yourself in the world of languages, there are many free and
paid applications that can help you do this, it’s not necessary to have specific knowledge,
practically the only requirements are know how to use a cellphone or a computer and to
have an internet connection. Apps like “Duolingo”, “Babbel” or “Busuu” are some of the
most successful and popular ones existing at the moment in terms of second language
learning.

Mostly, people feel some fear when coming into contact with an unknown language,
these applications have the advantage that no one will see them, everything will be
private so self-confidence could increase significantly.

The downside of all these applications is that many of them are limited to a certain
number of languages, or in some cases, when achieving an "intermediate or advanced"
level, the applications will start to monetize their use by requiring a certain fee that the
user will have to cover in order to continue using the applications with new and different
content.
 When the person has previous knowledge of an L2 or is in the process of acquiring a
third language, there are more advanced applications, which allow a deeper approach to
the real world because you can interact with native speakers in real time to practice the
languages or to solve doubts about the language in question. Applications such as
"HelloTalk", "Tandem", or "Speaky" are some of the most popular (and free) platforms
that allow us to do a "language exchange", which consists of teaching your native
language in exchange for another language. Not only will you gain new and more realistic
knowledge, but you also have the opportunity to make friends all over the world. One of
the disadvantages of using them is that you never know what kind of individuals you are
talking to, many people may feel insecure for this reason so the use of this type of
applications is left to the subjectivity and responsibility of the people who will make use of
them.

From a Foreign Language graduate's point of view, these programs can bring us
great benefits, we can use these apps as dictionaries, we can turn to native speakers and
ask them about any word. It is of utmost importance to highlight that these different
platforms will provide us a more realistic approach to the culture of the language to be
studied, having native speakers on our side, we will be able to investigate idiomatic
expressions, argots and even "slangs" which will give us a greater perception of the
culture and an improvement in language acquisition.

The apps used for these purposes may have certain limitations and are not always
linked to the process of learning or practicing the language, often users are limited by the
languages offered, you will always find English, but rarely they’ll have available languages
such as Russian, Turkish or Arabic.

Sometimes the user stops using these services when the application requires a
payment for its continued use, which is a negative trigger for abandoning the applications.
At some point we will encounter limitations and not necessarily related to the process of
acquiring a foreign language.
 Like all technological advances, these platforms also require continuous
improvements, such as updates to keep up with the language as it evolves over time by
presenting linguistic variations such as morphological-syntactic, phonetic, phonological,
lexical-semantic changes or implementing a wider availability of languages.

It is also necessary to renew the software used to obtain an application as optimized

as possible and thus the user gets a better experience. A very delicate and important
aspect is the area of security, which must be necessary in these apps since, when
interacting with foreign people, we will never know who they really are, so the creators
must have certain security filters, which not all of them have.

Having said this, we can deduce that technology has advanced so much that
nowadays even learning an L2 can be easier and faster depending on the dedication given
to it. It is more than clear that there are immense benefits to be gained from all of this and
we will always encounter limitations. Applications for learning or practicing languages are
becoming more and more common and it is not unusual to find that you may have heard,
seen or even used even one of the applications mentioned above.