Life-long learning

Photo by Tim Mossholder on Unsplash

 An essential skill in our modern ever changing world is curiosity, the desire to learn and the willingness to adapt. When I was growing up, books and school were my literal windows to the big world outside of my small town. Now our students have the whole wide world quite literally at their fingertips with their phones. If we are able to help foster in them a desire for continual learning and adaptability, we are setting them up for success in a world that is ever changing at a rapid rate.

    This week I invited my friend Rachael W. to contribute to my blog and give her personal review of learning Spanish using Duolingo. I invited her because she has been a life-long learner of languages. She might not exactly see it from this perspective if asked but I thought she would have a great perspective on learning languages independently. Throughout her life she has studied a variety of languages, some for school and some for personal curiosity and enjoyment. When we first met in college over 20 years ago, she was learning Japanese through self-study due to her interest in Japanese pop music, Anime and Manga. Through the many hours of watching anime, reading, Manga and listening to Japanese pop music, she developed her abilities in speaking, reading, and listening to Japanese. This was all done with self–study and curiosity due to her personal interests. She was doing what purely by her own personal interests exactly what I encourage my students to do to further their language abilities. She was interacting and interpreting the target language in a way that was comprehensible and acquiring the language through that comprehensible exposure. While she may not be able to speak or write in Japanese, she is able to interpret what she hears and reads in a comprehensible manner

    In the classroom this is exactly what we focus on, listening, reading, writing and speaking the target language. She was able to use authentic resources made for native Japanese speakers (music) and resources made for non-japanese speakers (subtitled anime and manga) to further her abilities. This marked the beginning of her language learning hobby. Throughout our friendship she has studied German and Spanish in a formal classroom setting. Japanese, Chinese and Korean in an informal setting for enjoyment via entertainment media. I asked her to review the language app duolingo, which she still uses to this day about her experience learning.

    Duolingo is the first language app that I’ve tried. I’ve been using it since January of 2020. However, my “streak” isn’t four years long because I’ve pseudo-quit more than once. While it’s intellectually interesting to learn a new language, the daily effort requires lots of repetition that can get boring. Still, I don’t think my efforts have gone to waste.

    At my job, I have to catalog some items in different languages for a public library system. Items in Spanish are, by far, the easiest foreign language for me to catalog. I can’t read every word, but I have a good word base and an understanding of the sentence structure that’s very solid.

    For me, there’s two big weaknesses when it comes to the Duolingo app. First, is that there’s not a big emphasis on listening without the words displayed on the screen. Visual recognition plays a big part in my memorization techniques. Which isn’t helpful when I can hear the words, but can’t picture the spelling, so I have no idea how to interpret the sounds I hear. When I hear a sentence like, “Ya se lo había dado,” I hear the first three words as one. Then I’m left wondering if I actually know the word “yaselo.” I think I would be better at listening if I had more opportunities to just listen. Luckily, the app recently updated to include that emphasis more. Such as, a new feature during the story exercises where you can listen without the words displayed; a podcast exercise that’s about 90 percent listening; and an occasional feature where you repeat what is said without the text displayed.

    The second weakness when it comes to Duolingo for me is the silly sentences they use sometimes. For instance, I’ll be doing a lesson with words like king, queen, ring, necklace, and people, but then the next sentence will say “The pig stole the ring from the cow!” It throws me for a loop and makes me think I misheard every single time. I can’t say whether the gamification part is helpful or not. I’m not really a gamer, so that aspect doesn’t appeal to me. I try to keep my streak going as long as I can, but that’s more to do with completing daily practices rather than competing against other people.

    Overall, I think the Duolingo app is a good tool to get started. It helps create the baseline of understanding for a different language. I can say without a doubt that I know more Spanish now than in 2020. Not too bad for an app I’ve been using for free for four years. by Rachael W.

Her experience shows that even though a language learning app may not be completely without flaws, it is a practical tool that our students can use to explore their interests and further their learning. I believe that if we can foster in our students the skill of curiosity, adaptability and the desire to continue learning that we will properly prepare them for their future. 

If you are interested in learning a language on your own here are a few resources you could check out.
Duolingo It is a free mobile or web based language learning app. 
Babbel It is an online language learning platform that also has an app. It has a subscription fee to use the entire program.