Duolingo Improvement Ideas Part 1

Duolingo is a language learning app with the mission to provide free education for everyone. I learned many years of Spanish in school, but never became truly good at it. This app has helped me solidify my vocabulary and basic understanding of Spanish. I'm confident that I could travel to a Spanish-speaking country and get around just fine. Overall, the improvements they have made over the last ten years are phenomenal! 

The instant feedback has been crucial in being able to quickly and correctly learn. They have made improvements in giving more feedback for mistakes, but I think it could go a step further. 

When grammatical errors are made, like putting no away from the verb, it could say that generally the verb is right next to the no that negates it. Some phrasing is similar to English, but I struggle with any sentences that put the subject at the end. I still don't understand why ustedes can be used to speak to a single person. I was taught that it was more like 'y'all' or 'you all' but that doesn't seem to be the case. I know it is a more formal and respectful or polite way to talk to someone, but I'm still unclear as to when it exactly it should be used and how it should be used. I would like to see more sentences that aren't similar in grammatical form to English.

I particularly love that I have the chance to write and have my writing corrected after reading stories! 

I wish I had been able to do that throughout unit three too. I love the incorporation of podcasts, and being able to skip back five seconds during them is awesome and much needed for me right now. I can't wait to be ready for the duolingo podcasts app, and this is exactly the preparation I need! It's also where I left off in school. My teacher started to have us try to write down all the lyrics we could understand when we first listened to a song, then see the full lyrics, then try translating them. I would love to see music incorporated, like traditional music (La Bamba, De Colores, La Cucaracha, etc.) and also today's music. FluentU is a possible collaboration source. Since music is in a different section of the brain than other things, it tends to stick in my mind the most, even when I forget regularly studied material. So I think using more music would make lessons more memorable. I also fear that I will finish Duolingo and sound like a textbook..but listening to music showed me that instead of saying 'Para que' sometimes it's shortened to 'Pa' que.' I also liked learning informal ways of saying hello, and I think small things like that could show the characters' personalities more. 

Perhaps the introduction of a younger male with a 'surfer dude' sort of laidback lingo could be introduced.

Another thing that I still struggle with and to this day only get right because of a rhyme my teacher taught us: "This and These both have t's, that and those don't." This is in reference to eso/esa/ese and esto/esta/este. I just need a lot more repetition of those so that I don't have to think about it before saying it. 

I want to be able to set a goal to finish the entirety of Duolingo's Spanish course. 

I want to know exactly how many lessons I need to do each day in order to finish in a set amount of time. I've been chugging along at slow weekly classes for years in school, which did give me a solid foundation, but basic; now, I'm looking to reach the end. I'm more motivated than ever to study daily, but feeling like I'm on a never-ending learning path is a little...discouraging. 

 I would like to have the vocabulary expanded. Maybe add another quick quiz type thing but show pictures and have to choose the right definition from three answers for topics like classroom items, colors,  office items, animals, kitchen and cooking, foods, etc. starting from topics that little kids learn. I feel like I have to go to an outside app for extended vocabulary and have in the past, but just keeping a streak on one app is a lot, so it would be nice to be included here.

Duolingo never did teach the Spanish alphabet which would really jump start pronunciation and sounding out words as it did for me in school. My kids learned it rather quickly to a song that is a call and repeat type, which is how I learned it as a kid and knew it would work for my kids. This could be quizzed using voice recognition. 

I don't see so many notes and explanations, I think I miss them and just keep going from circle to circle. Maybe put them into the learning path as an introduction, or have an intro video done by one of the characters. Verb tenses are really glossed over, I wish I had had some just fill in the blank practice with all of the verbs I had learned to that point. Going over some of the rules of irregular verbs would be useful too. The lack of hard point lessons makes it more of a supplement than a full course.

As far as writing goes, I haven't memorized all of the tildes in words. 

If there was a way to be able to practice all the words that include a tilde at least once in each section, that would be so helpful. 

If I ever hope to do more than travel for a short amount of time, I think I would need to know that, and my goal is to be fluent one day.

Even with all of the different content, I still sometimes hit a slump or get burned out or bored. 

The streak freezes are nice and do help, but sometimes a particular lesson is difficult or more frustrating, so maybe opening that whole unit so that I can start with the podcast or video, or just skip over a lesson and come back to it before moving onto the next unit might help. I was always at my best work when I had the whole class open to me, and started to be late when I could only do a week's worth of material at the time in online college. Having only one linear lesson open at once is less stimulating to me.

Also, different types of lessons like dragging a picture to a word in a scattered set of ten words, or just types of activities that are a little different would be interesting.

It would also be nice to have the option to speak an answer instead of pick words or type. 

I enjoy the speaking section of the practice hub, but it would be nice to have the chance to speak/translate off the top of my head and have it corrected much like the writing after stories. That being said, Duolingo is amazing in that I can translate from English to Spanish and back, but I'm lacking being able to just come up with thoughts and ideas on my own and vocalize them.

The blog posts are interesting and informational! I always look forward to reading them. 

Perhaps incorporating tips in the learning path from the blog post about incorporating more practice outside of the app would encourage people to practice outside of the app. 

For instance, after the section that goes over a morning routine (wake up, brush hair and teeth, make bed etc.) put a challenge to narrate themselves while they get ready in the morning, then go further by saying to change the subject each day for verb conjugation practice (yo, tu, el, etc.). Maybe even include a free writing part where you try to write your routine with the help of a big vocabulary box. Encouraging free writing earlier is really key to improvisational speaking down the line I think. 

I learned a lot of vocabulary, different voices, history, and even different types of English by reading books. Although difficult for the first few sections, it would be nice (at least for the later sections) to have books that are good to read for the level that we're at. Even if they're preschool, elementary or middle school levels, I would still enjoy reading them. In fact, I learned a lot of vocabulary from reading baby books to my children. The problem is, I don't know any titles and they aren't readily available at the local library even if I can find some titles. This could be something as simple as a blog post, or could be more incorporated as a sort of book club. I'd be happy with a blog post. Added bonus if I had the chance to write a summary about what each chapter.

I'm so excited about the chat bot! I was looking forward to the creation of a simple chat bot that suggests a topic, has me write or speak about it, corrects the information much like how it corrects my writing after a story, and then maybe adds a couple sentences of its own before moving to the next topic. I haven't tried it yet, but it's very motivating to learn as much as I can before upgrading to Duo Max. Offering music, stories, poems, and traditional Spanish songs with translations (think La Cucaracha, De Colores, La Bamba) and geographical locations like the bot from Bing does would all be a huge plus. Like the Bing Bot plus Grammarly. Perhaps it would be its own app or website, but even better if it was inside of the app and that portion was free for non-subscribers. Perhaps it could share a place, tradition, song, poem, important historical date, short fable, myth, famous person, or subculture each day before practicing a topic. 

It's been amazing to see how much Duolingo has grown since I joined in 2016! I've promised myself a party when I finish the course, and to buy my kid's a plush when they get halfway through, plus of course parties for each when they finish. It was surprisingly motivating when I promised myself this, and at the perfect time too because I was feeling a little bored. 

I would consider buying stickers, pencils, snarky rubber bracelets, a little owl mood ring, keychain, etc. for classroom use. 

Though I could get unrelated prizes, I think having more reminders away from tech is encouraging to practice outside of the app and classroom. I could pass them out for a perfect streak, for reaching a new unit or section, or before Christmas and summer break to try to encourage them to remember to study their language. Things that can be bought in bulk for cheap. Particularly worn things to be used a reminder, like tying a string around your finger type reminder. Keychains would be good for adults, and sizable stickers for laptops and tablets. 

I've only recently followed Duolingo on Facebook. I don't see many reminders to follow on social media in the app. You would think that I would just think to find it, but apparently I didn't and needed that reminder. There were other posts than just the blog posts and I wish I had joined the page sooner!

I have never redeemed a code.

Initially I joined Facebook because someone said that the redeem codes drop there, though I don't see any. I tried all the ones that I found, but none of them worked. Perhaps dropping some redeem codes for free gems, a streak freeze, a store coupon, a collector's badge, or a 15 minute 2x XP would be nice. Even better would be a couple dollar discount on the subscription I already have just for being a loyal subscriber.

Something else that my teachers did that I always enjoyed was learning about each Spanish speaking country. We got to watch a travel video, something a little more in-depth about important places, and then learned basic things like the flag, the capital, and other things that represent the country. It was like shopping around for vacation places watching all those travel videos. We had quizzes and tests to ensure we knew all the countries and where they were on a map. 

I also think art is an important aspect of a history. I don't know much of anything about hispanic artists or what types of art they are known for, but a little art history class with a drawing exercise after it would definitely be a way to break up a few units of lessons. 

It's one thing to be a tourist, it's another thing to want to be fluent, and yet another to want to be immersed in the culture. 

Language is a portal into another culture. I think it's important to share that along with the language. Having more opportunities to do hands-on activities and projects would be a nice break from all the vocab and grammar exercises.

I suppose I see getting a Spanish education as like getting an education at any school. Fluency deepens with each year, and after about 12 years being a full time student, you can probably understand most anything. I'm not sure why language education systems aren't built around this more.

All in all, Duolingo provides an amazing learning experience that constantly and consistently gets better with time! I'm excited to be a Super subscriber and can't wait to experience Max and all the future updates after that!

Originally Published March 11, 2024 on my other blog, Melio-Rater

A cheerful traveler navigates the airport, holding her passport, ready for her upcoming adventure.

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