Duolingo For ESL Teaching

There are a lot of ways an ESL teacher can do to improve his/her students' skills in a particular language. ESL teachers can put smart phones to really good use of teaching and practicing languages.

There are mobile apps for both Android and iOS that will help learners to improve English. Most of these apps take advantage of the interactivity that smartphones can provide in order to create gamified learning environments that will definitely be a lot more interesting than what students can find in language books.

I asked my students to download  Duolingo. When you download this application, first it will ask your first language and what second language do you want to learn? This application gives option to learners what English they want to learn American or British. After choosing language, it will ask everyday practice target, 5,10,15,20 minutes. Then it will ask your level of language, basic, intermediate, higher. When you choose your level it will start. It gives a sentence and ask you to write its translation in your own language, or language you chose as a second language. Sometimes it gives you sentence in Arabic (the first language of my students) and ask you its translation in English.

 It is gamified learning system  instead of the usual progression through lessons, Duolingo structures your lessons as a skill tree, with "skill points" being awarded for completing lessons, achievements for tracking your progress as well as a lives system that encourages you to answer each question correctly. You can then use your knowledge to translate real-world content, which is then rated by other users.

My students like this application because it has Arabic language.  They felt this application is easy to understand and use. I am sure it will help them a lot for self practice and improve their English language out of the classrooms.

By: Aayesha Qureshi