"Language is not just words, it is culture and tradition, it is the unity of society, it is a whole history that defines what society is, all embodied in language."
(Noam Chomsky, American linguistics professor and philosopher)
We begin to learn our mother tongue in our mothers' wombs, when our ears begin to work in the seventh month of pregnancy, and the mother's voice is the first sound that penetrates our minds and through it we form an idea of the voices of the outside world. Languages differ in their tones, and this difference also determines the way we cry as children, the melody of crying corresponds to the melody of the mother tongue that the child heard in his mother's womb, so even if our ears are similar to the sounds of crying all the children of the world, each child cries "in his mother tongue" (1).
Just as crying as a child was your way to express yourself and meet your basic needs, and then your mother tongue became your way to express your thoughts fluently, and then open up to the world around you, the need to learn a new language was born that would be your window to this vast world, and the opportunities it provides you to integrate with charming cultures and different peoples, as well as help you advance in your working life.
Your second language is in your pocket
Two decades ago, it was common to use cassette tapes to learn languages, followed by CDs that you could navigate and play in mobile devices, while the teacher spoke in your ears and taught you the grammar of your second language. The internet wasn't overcrowded at the time, and free language learning resources like YouTube were a fantasy. The matter developed at an incredible speed until mobile phones dominated the scene and replaced cassettes, radios and even televisions, and with them educational applications developed in all fields, especially the field of language learning. Perhaps the secret to the popularity of these apps is that they have brought the whole world between your palms without making an effort in the pursuit of learning.
Today, Duolingo is the world's leading language learning app (2), with 500 million downloads and profits of more than $160 million in 2020. Dulengo means "bilingual", and is a very expressive word for the purpose of the application. Although Dulengo was not the first app of its kind, as it was released in 2011, and was preceded by Babbel and Busuu, which were released in 2008 by a few months, its freeness first, and then the way it works, made it a favorite in the world. Let's consider how this game-like app works more than a boring learning app.
The app offers language components in the form of multiple-choice questions, flashcards, and delivery games, in which each word, sound, and sentence is repeated several times until you master it completely. With every word you learn you earn points, and with every mistake you make you lose a "heart" just like games. The app is filled with cute cartoon characters that clap for you if you answer correctly. The app also has a feature to constantly review old lessons, learn new words, and send you alerts to remember to use it daily. The app isn't completely free, but there are some features that won't be available until you pay the subscription, although the free part is pretty good.
The Duolingo app is filled with cute cartoon characters that clap for you if you answer correctly.
Language learning applications exploit the theory of imitation and repetition in learning. Skinner" (B.F.Skinner), the leading American psychologist in the field of behavioral psychology, the child learns the language by imitating his parents and those around him, and depending on the reaction of those around him enhance his language and grow, either to meet his tradition with approval and this pushes him to repeat the word, or to be met with ignorance and thus may not care to repeat this word again (3). Therefore, applications are keen to retest you in the same word repeatedly, and push you to repeat its pronunciation, writing, reading, and correcting your mistakes, until the word becomes part of the convolutions of your brain, and speaking or writing it becomes an automated matter that does not require a thought.
Apps like Doolingo and Memrise also deliberately use Skinner's Operant conditioning theory, which uses "incentives" to make the learning process more enjoyable and sustainable. What you promote and encourage will grow and continue, and what you neglect and reject will go away and die. So with each new level you learn, you earn a crown like in Dulengo, or you plant a rose for every word and watch it grow as in Memrise. These simple gestures give motivation to keep learning, like a child who gets a star from the teacher when he masters a new letter. But while this method may work very well for children, it may not be enough for you as an adult to commit to the learning process until the end.
With each new word you learn on the Memrise app, a seed is planted, continues to grow, and blooms as you review it to save it in your long-term memory.
These apps also provide an interactive part, such as tests that measure your understanding of context by listening to a conversation, without knowing the actual meaning of each word. There's a "response" test, where the app puts you in front of a hypothetical situation and asks you to pronounce the most appropriate response based on what you've learned so far. This provides an active learning environment, in which the passive learner not only sits down to receive and repeat information, but uses it within the appropriate context as in reality. There are differences between language learning apps, of course, but in the end they revolve around the same goals: to learn a little each day, to learn words and sentences that you may need in real life, and to repeat words and sentences until they are fixed in long-term memory.
Moment of Truth
Now more than 10 years after the launch of the first language learning app, let's take a look at the real success of these apps on the ground, based on the goals announced by those apps themselves. In the study published in the journal Foreign Language annals, 83 American university students took a Spanish course on the Babylon app, provided that their knowledge of the language was below average, and that they committed to studying for 10 minutes on the app daily for 3 months. Of course, this sample is limited and may not represent all sects of American society, but it sheds light on how effective the app is in "making you speak Spanish confidently in real-life situations."
The results of this study are supported by the results of several other studies on the applications of "Boso" and "Duolingo", where the final result was the same. The applications were very successful in teaching students the sounds, vocabulary and grammatical rules of the language, and helping them understand the audible and read language, meaning that the greatest success was related to receiving the language, while the results of actual speaking the language were limited (8). It seems that in terms of actual speaking, classroom instruction still has the upper hand in reaching real results, as even students who were able to speak Spanish after 3 months had very limited answers.
One of the other problems identified by the study is the low rate of students' commitment to learning through the application, and this problem has two sources; the first is the student's own internal motivation, his motivation to learn this language and how much he really wants to continue, while the other source is the design of the application itself, which does not give enough incentive for students to continue using it. It's easy to start using the app, and it's easy to stop too, so the apps started trying to attract learners by making it look like a game where you earn points and compete with your peers.
Students find it difficult to commit to learning through apps.
In another study conducted on 19 students from Borneo University in Indonesia, who study English, the most important advantages and disadvantages of the "Dulengo" application were examined from the point of view of the learners themselves. The students' linguistic outcomes were tested before and after the thirty-day study period, and a survey was conducted among the students to evaluate their experience with the application. Confirming the results of the previous study, the results were positive in terms of increasing the linguistic outcome of students, which the applications proved their ability to do efficiently (9).
As for the flaws identified in the survey, 3% of students agreed that the application was boring or difficult to use, and less useful and expressive than studying in class. Of course, the research sample was very small, and the duration of the study was short, so let's look at a different study conducted on the same application but on a sample of children in the primary stage, over a period of 12 weeks. To measure Dulengo's proficiency in teaching Spanish to English-speaking children, students were tested before and after using the app, then compared to a sample of students who continued to learn in class. The results showed no difference between the two groups in the level of achievement and language learning proficiency, indicating the success of the Dulengo application in teaching Spanish to English-speaking children at the primary level (10).
Difficulties
Several factors must be taken into account that prevent us from generalizing the results of these studies to everyone. While children learn second languages faster, thanks to their neuroplasticity, adults have great difficulties in mastering a second language if they start learning at an older age. Spanish is one of the easiest languages for English speakers, Arabic is not, and Mandarin is almost the most difficult language on earth.
Learning Spanish is easy for English speakers while Arabic is not.
Stephen Krashen, an American linguist, believes that one imbibes the second language in an "acquisition-learning hypothesis" method, where he "acquires" words in an unconscious way from the environment around him as well as children, and this requires spontaneous interactions in an environment that speaks the desired language where the student is the center of attention. Later, the student "learns" the grammar of this language in a systematic way in the classroom in the presence of the teacher, and here the learning is conscious, intentional, and centered on the teacher rather than the student. Conscious learning of grammar and words alone is not enough without immersing the student in a whole ocean of the second language, and while language applications provide the requirement of conscious "learning," they lack the unconscious part that requires talking to the natives (11).
In the end, whether you choose to learn a new language through mobile apps alone, through class alone, or even with a combination of the two, you must spend enough time and mental effort to learn that language and strive to master it and mingle with native speakers. This last step may be the most important, so that you can turn the theoretical rules you have studied and mastered into a practical application that allows you to have a smooth conversation in the second language, nothing good comes for free.
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