Hola! Advanced students can practice speaking (and/or writing) skills with Duolingos conversation bots. Its free AND high quality. You can avoid using up your data on Duolingo by choosing this option. Duolingo time! The app integrates well with other language curricula (mostly). And for conversation practice, I highly recommend that you check out iTalki, which is what our family uses for affordable and age-appropriate practice with a native speaker. Im happy to say, however, that with Duolingo, what you get is not what you pay for. ), it is important for them to correct those mistakes in order to set correct patterns of speech and writing. As you read this blog post, keep that fact in mindbecause my evaluation of Duolingo assumes that you understand that it is a practice tool, not a curricula. But heres the thing: there truly is a language for every child included in this app. (If youre struggling with homeschooling on a budget, heres some specific encouragement for you). This is just a basic best practice in education: students should have a sense of the road ahead of them and how the information that theyre learning fits into a larger goal. This is essential to ensuring that errors dont become permanent patterns for your language learner. This is great for families where children are learning languages that are not spoken by the parents. I'm writing as both a homeschooling mom and a foreign language educator with advanced training in language pedagogy (and a PhD in Spanish). They're both free, convenient, and make impressive claims about how well they teach foreign languages. Duolingo and Mango Languagesare two of the most popular language learning apps in the homeschooling communityand for good reason. For families with older children, this means that you dont have to remind your kids to practice dailyDuolingo will send an e-mail directly to their personal e-mail account. Having spent a few weeks working regularly with the app, I'm now ready to share what I likeand what I don'tabout Duolingo for homeschool language learners. Duolingo accounts for glitches within its own software.

Welcome to my series on homeschool language learning apps! While I dont recommend speeding through each activityyour childs brain needs some time to process and retain new language skillsyou could create some friendly rivalry by encouraging your children to see who can keep up the longest Duolingo streak. The app is excellent for a free resource. Duolingo was developed by a professor at Carnegie Mellon University as a gamified foreign language program,and it was released to the public in 2012. So that, in short, is a summary of all the positives that I found with Duolingo. Tinycards is not exclusively for language learningthere are also flashcard reviews of the periodic table, for examplebut its a nice complement to Duolingo itself. And I have some suggestions on how you can make the most of this free language learning app in your home. By the way, Im not associated with or compensated in any way by Duolingo. (Update: some readers have told me that they have seen what their families consider objectionable contentspecifically related to same-sex relationshipson the app. While I didnt see any objectionable content on the groups that I joined, I would be wary of your childs or teens participation in such groups. I really was pleasantly surprised by how much I enjoyed the appespecially since I never used any language learning apps when I was a student myself! In addition, I also spent time on the app learning Korean (super fun! Since so many homeschooling families are learning Chinese, Japanese, and Hebrew, this was something I considered essential. Duolingo provides immediate feedback on mistakes, as well as corrections. ), so that I could understand what it would be like to use Duolingo as a total beginner and as a language learner working with a (totally unfamiliar) non-Latin alphabet. Got a twenty minute drive to sports practice? Update: recently, there have been concerns about data security and Duolingo, so please do your own research and proceed with caution. And thats all well and fine for a motivated adult learner like myself, but it would be problematic for a homeschool studentespecially a young teenager. My name is Anne, and I have a PhD in Spanish and three boys who I home educate bilingually. When you begin a language with Duolingo, the app immediately starts teaching individual letters of the target language's alphabetwithout necessarily providing information on how that alphabet functions, overall. Duolingo is great, but to really learn a language, your child needs more than what an app can offer. If your child has access to the app with his/her own e-mail account, I would suggest reviewing basic safety rules for social media before use and doing random checks to ensure that they are not communicating with other language learners.

Considering that the technology exists to have students practice writing on touch screens, I would imagine that Duolingo could develop this capacity in the future, but for now, it's just not there. If youre already using Duolingo in your homeschool, Id love to hear about your experienceplease share how its worked for you in the comments! Up the ante. The examples that it uses are appropriate for all ages and did not contain any objectionable content. Does your teen need to decompress with some screen time at the end of the day? Of course, I can only speak for the two languages that I studied on Duolingo, but I saw nothing on the app that would raise an eyebrow. This is a fun perk for those families who just cant get enough of language learningwhich, as I suspect, includes many of you! And thats it, folks! Win win. I really appreciated this, as it saved a lot of frustration and helped me to maintain my momentum through each activity. First, I tested the app in Portuguesewhich I speak fluentlyso that I could move quickly through it and get a sense of how the lessons progress. Some activities are designed to be solved by guesswork (not application of learning). And in case you've decided from this that it's not a good fit, I encourage you to come back next week, since I'll be providing another in-deth review of Mango Languages for homeschool language learning. And, since its online, its a great option for this school year, when in-person tutoring might be off the table. Join our Facebook community of parents sharing practical tips and creative ideas for language learning at home--we'd love to have you! Not good. Today, I'm here to offer my honest assessment of Duolingo for homeschool foreign language learning. It has an extremely intuitive design that you and your children will pick up immediately. If you remind your child to review his final answers before submitting these kinds of activities, you will spare him undue frustration. Thats a relief for homeschooling families! In sum, each of these things is something to consider when deciding whether or not Duolingo is a good fit for your family. But are they really all that they're cracked up to be? This element of the app was a real noveltyIve never had a conversation in Portuguese with a robot before! But it is good to be aware of these potential issues, so that you can plan accordingly and protect your children. I respect your privacy and your time--no sharing, no SPAM. This will also protect your child from potentially dangerous communication with other users (see below).

It is extremely difficult to work Duolingos family sharing feature. The native speakers who narrate different portions of the app have neutral accents that are easy to understand, and being able to listen to their delivery multiple times (if desired) allows students to mimic the accent more easily. If you have a number of children learning languages (or even better, the same language), enhance the Duolingo experience by making it into a competition. Duolingo smartly gamifies language learning. Encouragement and practical tips to support language learning in your homeschool, brought to you a fellow mom with a PhD in Spanish. This was a serious issue for me while I was trying to learn Korean, as the characters of the Korean alphabet were totally unfamiliar to me. If you have a younger child who wants to use the app, I suggest that you set up an account with your name and e-mail and thenthis is importantuse the app alongside your child in order to abide by the terms of use. Duolingo offers supplemental materials to aid students with language practice and cultural learning. By this, I mean the physical tracing of characters. Audiobooks are an excellent way to boost your childs listening comprehension, but there are other ways to do this as well. Yet many of Duolingos activities did not allow for self-correctionif I responded incorrectly, the app simply displayed the correct answer and then moved on to the next activity. Students gain listening comprehension by hearing clear examples delivered by native speakers. There are still some software bugs that leave language learners in the lurch. If your child is memorizing the parts of the body in Vietnamese, for example, he/she can easily access that content on Duolingo and use it for reviewprovided that he/she has reached the level within Duolingo that includes such content.

Language learning without culture is like studying math without ever using moneythere has to be a real-world connection, or the subject will quickly lose its appeal. This is also a great idea for families who want to use Duolingo when worldschooling, roadschooling, or just during the drive to swim practice.

Of course, you can make this part of your morning basket, or before lunch routine, but given its portability, Duolingo can also be used effectively during your childs downtime. Use cultural education to give your childs Duolingo use a real-world meaning. My Honest Review of Duolingo for Homeschool Language Learning, Language Learning At Home Facebook community, gamified learning is incredibly effective, so many physical and cultural elements to speaking a foreign language, boost your childs listening comprehension, which actually helps students to learn languages better. Duolingo provides students with regular, encouraging reminders to practice their language skills. Students can study more than one language on Duolingo (as my experience shows). If you need some ideas to start the discussion with your children on social media etiquette and rules, I highly recommend Leah Niemans resourcesshes a homeschooling veteran who now works to help families manage technology wisely. The app can be used by families with limited Internet access. If he/she has a favorite author who writes in another language, use Duolingo to help your child be able to read that author in the original. Find resources for your homeschool--search below by language, homeschooling philosophy and more! When language learners make mistakes (which are normal and even good! I have to admit, I was very pleasantly surprised by how engaging this activity was, as well as how effective it was from a teaching point of view. No background/overview of content to orient language learners. Duolingo facilitates this by allowing your child to repeat individual lessons or entire units of study as needed. Theres no wondering what to study next, since Duolingo funnels learners directly into the next unit based on their skills. And again, as I mentioned above, Duolingo offered no explanation of how Korean letters combine to form words. It's important to me that the resources that I recommendare not only practical and affordable, but also pedagogically soundI don't want to tell homeschooling parents to use tools that ultimately won't work! I know that a lot of the families in our Language Learning At Home Facebook community are eager to learn Chinese, so if thats you, be sure to check out this new addition to the Duolingo line-up. Unless every child in your family has his/her own device, you will have to either assign a different language to everyone (not practical) or sign your children in and out of the app as they use it, since each account needs its own e-mail address (annoying). While theres nothing to be done about the former, the latter is just something to be aware of. While I am still a huge proponent of face-to-face interactions for language learningsince there are so many physical and cultural elements to speaking a foreign languageI have to admit that Duolingo has developed a great tool here, and I hope that they expand the options for conversation available within the app. Furthermore, Duolingo also allows students to test out of each level if they can demonstrate proficiency, which is great for those kids who really want to progress quickly. If youd like to learn more about Duolingos gamificiation of language learning, you can read about it in-depth here, but suffice it to say that this is a sound educational strategy that makes Duolingo a great option for gameschoolers or anyone else who sees value in this kind of learning. Above all, contextualize what your child is doing on the app within a larger goalthis will give your child a real motivation, which actually helps students to learn languages better. If you've decided that Duolingo will be a good fit for your family, here's how you can make the most out of this app for homeschool language learning: Since Duolingo is structured by short, daily practice sessions, think about where those might fit into your typical schedule. The apps structure allows students to progress at their own pace. This is a heads-up on that, if your family is sensitive to it). I mean that so sincerely that I wrote an entire blog post explaining why. Sometimes, the transcription part of the app wouldnt pick up my spoken response correctly, but Duolingo provided a way for me to edit my response in writing so that I wouldnt be penalized for a wrong answer. I also think that I would have been able to learn the letters more quickly had I had the opportunity to practice writing them out. The latest education research demonstrates that gamified learning is incredibly effective. The absolute, number one most important thing that I need you to know about Duolingo is this: Duolingo is NOT a homeschool foreign language curriculum. No opportunities to self-correct (on certain activities). Just one year later, Apple named it its iPhone App of the Year and since then, its grown to over 30 million users worldwideincluding many homeschooling families. As I am writing this, there are currently 21 languages available to learn through Duolinguo, including: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese, Dutch, Danish, Irish, Swedish, Russian, Polish, Romanian, Greek, Esperanto, Turkish, Vietnamese, Hebrew, Norwegian, Ukrainian, Hungarian, and Welsh. Here they are: The lack of writing practice. While the app provided plenty of activities that taught me to recognize the characters, if you asked me to write them out on paper, I wouldnt be able to do soand therefore, my writing skills in that language would be woefully underdeveloped.