When it comes to language acquisition, Duolingo is the most popular app to do that. Thanks to the gamification of its lessons, language learning has never been fun. However, linguists and those in the academe evaluate the efficacy of the app in learning a new language.
According to Roumen Vesselinov, a statistics assistant professor at Queens College at The City University of New York, Duolingo seems to work. He based this observation on the experiment they conducted showing that 34 hours of Duolingo is equivalent to a semester of language class.
However, he was quick to add that the experiment that was used was text-based rather than an oral-based test. He said that it would have been more objective if the test was oral based because that would really evaluate the oral proficiency and vocabulary of the student.
Based on the experiment they conducted, he also said that the biggest group of people who benefit from Duolingo are beginners. If you are an advanced student, on the other hand, it is more difficult to advance further.
Suzanne Flynn, a linguist at MIT, said that Duolingo is a good app to learn new vocabulary but it is not effective for language acquisition. The most effective way to learn a language, she said is through immersion or similar experiences. In fact, linguists recommend that if you really want to become fluent on a new language, you need to go where the natives are - meaning you have to move and live with the locals who speak the language you want to learn.
Furthermore, UCLA linguistics professor Robert Daland said that another important factor in language acquisition is perception. He said that in order to learn a language, you have to understand what the person is saying to you. More so, each language is unique so the meaning can be different and the only way to really know those differences is speak with a native speaker.
