Delving into the Psychology Behind the DuoLingo Approach

When I logged on to my DuoLingo program this morning, it gave me a pat on the back by telling me that I was on a 14 day streak. This means that every day for two weeks straight, I have earned a minimum of ten XPs (Experience Points) on DuoLingo.

It is still surprising to me how much I want to maintain that streak!  In my free time, I could walk around the yard and check on plants, take a nap, read an article on Flipboard (my favorite iPad app), pet the cat, or watch House Hunters on HTGV. But because someone (???) cares how much I am sticking with my Portuguese maintenance program, I'll work on a DuoLingo exercise instead.  I would not have guessed that I could be so easily seduced.

Another motivational feature of DuoLingo is charting how many XPs I have earned each day for the previous week.  

As you can see, on Thursday and Friday, I did just the minimum amount of work to earn 10 XPs. On Monday, a holiday, I got busy and earned 200 points. I wanted that orange bar across the top to move closer to the next skill level, Level 12.  And I discovered that if I can test out of certain skills, I will earn 90 XPs instead of just 10.  

Testing out is not easy, as I discovered when I got right  to the end of a test yesterday and made a mistake with no hearts left.  (I understand that for gamers, hearts are like lives.  When they are gone, you are dead!) I got a message from the DuoLingo Professor Owl saying that he was very sorry, but that I was out of hearts. I was sorry too.

I have never been a gambler.  Las Vegas casinos have no appeal for me.  But when I saw this offer on DuoLingo, I have to admit I was a bit tempted to participate.

Lingots are the virtual currency of DuoLingo and can be earned by various means.  If I want to bet five of my Lingots that I will maintain a seven day streak, I can double that amount and end up with ten Lingots. If I don't maintain the streak, I'll lose five of my present 21 Lingots.  It sounds like a pretty sure bet to me!  I hope this decision doesn't lead to a life of crime!

There is one more DuoLingo message that I'm not sure I want to hear about.

When I first read this message, I thought, "How sad!" But then I realized that introverts like myself would prefer to learn alone than to actually have to interact with another human being, even virtually! 

I've got to rate DuoLingo very high for motivation.  And I now understand why my son and his friends, when they were teenagers, wouldn't stop playing those video games until they either got killed or reached the next level.  I really want to reach DuoLingo Level 12 this week!

Language acquisition for procrastinators

I am a procrastinator.  And I'll bet I am not alone in the world.  But I think I have found a language learning program that I will stick with for a while.

Last week I wrote about starting DuoLingo,

a web-based language learning program available on computer and mobile devices.  For the first few days, I tried out the program just on my laptop.  Recently I also put the free app on the iPad, and today, waiting for a friend at a restaurant, I downloaded the app for the iPhone. Now I have fewer excuses not to improve my language skills.

Instructions for using the program are minimal, which for a procrastinator is a good thing. You can't put off starting by saying that you are going to learn how to use it first (old thinking!).  I just started clicking on buttons.  Nothing disastrous happened.  I chose Portuguese as my language and was taken through a series of  questions and then placed at a certain level.  If I would have realized that I was being given a placement exam, I would have been a bit more careful with my answers, but I feel comfortable with the results.  The questions are (like the Three Bears) sometimes a little too easy, sometimes a little too hard, and sometimes just right.

I'm not absolutely certain about the following information, but it appears that you can practice grammar skills

and vocabulary

to gain experience points (if you are successful - not always easy). You can also participate in real world translations.  I have only felt brave enough to choose the practice option up to now.

When you sign in, you are given three icons at the bottom of the screen.  One is learn, one is practice, and one is store.  The store allows participants to spend virtual currency, called Lingots, for virtual prizes.  I'm getting in over my head here, so I'll stop and talk about motivation, an important topic in the field of language acquisition.

Language acquisition is a task that is appealing to many people but very difficult to follow through on.  I am very impressed with the motivational features of DuoLingo and surprised at myself for devoting extra time for a few extra experience points.  And when I receive an email from the DuoLingo gently chiding me because I haven't participated yet that day, I feel real guilt and move language learning up to the top of my to do list.  

Last night I really wanted to skip language instruction and escape into a good murder mystery novel, but I used my iPhone to do a practice and earned 10 experience points!  I'll be exploring more features this week. If you use DuoLingo, please let me know your experiences.

.

Something new in language learning!

In last week's post, I traced the arc of my lifelong goal to acquire the Spanish and Portuguese languages. Unfortunately, that arc is now at its nadir because I haven't been using those languages.  The dreaded condition of language attrition is starting to take its toll on my hard-earned foreign language fluency. I need a new approach!

Fitness experts say that a person needs to vary an exercise routine to achieve maximum results, don't they?  I wish I could confirm that recommendation, but right now it's my mind rather than my body that I feel is in need of attention.  I've studied languages through various approaches - grammar-translation, audio-lingual, and communicative, but I want a fresh approach that will keep me on task.

I decided to investigate a web based program called Duolingo (http://www.duolingo.com). I don't remember how or when I first heard about it, but somehow yesterday I found myself staring at my laptop computer screen and reading the motto "Free language education for the world."  Hmm, generous and ambitious, I thought.  I googled Duolingo to learn more about the program before I went through the sign-up procedure.

Here's what I know about Duolingo so far.  The five languages offered in complete form are Latin American Spanish, French, Italian, German, and Brazilian Portuguese.  That suits me fine, because at the moment I want to maintain Spanish and Portuguese (maybe French for later on if all goes well).

There is no cost to the program.  That raised a red flag in my jaded mind.  I was suspicious of the claim until I read about the Duolingo business model. Because it is a crowd sourced text translation platform, income is generated by charging organizations that want their web site or other documents translated.  Crowd sourcing!  Doesn't that sound hip and modern?

Duolingo has other modern features that may provide a partial solution to my nagging fear that the world of technology is leaving me behind.  Duolingo  is available on the web and also on both Apple and Android devices as a free app.  I have dreams of putting it on my iPad and iPhone so that I can play around with a foreign language in my free time and anywhere I choose.

After the simple sign up procedure on Duolingo, I tested my Portuguese language abilties.  I didn't really know what I was doing, but I just followed the simple instructions.  I was asked questions using various language skills, translating from Portuguese to English, translating from English to Portuguese, multiple choice grammar questions, audio bites to write in Portuguese (with a slow down feature, fortunately), and even remarks like "watch your accent marks"when I failed to do so.  It was absorbing and fun.  I was given a chance to further practice my skills , which I did.

It will take some time to fully understand the program, I know.  The practice structure is described as  "gamified", which will be a real challenge for me, because I have never played a video game in my life.  And this morning I received an email from Duolingo, gentle chiding me for not practicing yesterday and reminding me that learning a language requires constant practice. Everyone needs a little nagging now and then.

My main impression of Duolingo  at this early stage is that it is new and challenging.  And best of all, I am looking forward with great anticipation to continuing it.  Language study has now moved from my "have to" list onto my "fun to do" list.

I'll keep you posted!

     

Oh no! I'm losing it!

I suppose I could say I am losing many things these days (except those extra pounds off my body), but what has me most concerned recently is the loss of my foreign language abilities. Linguists have a fancy term for that phenomenon- second language attrition, and I am a victim. Here is my sad story.

.

Five minutes!  I spent a lot more time than that!

When I was in college, my best foreign language was Spanish.  I have heard Spanish all of my life and studied it from sixth grade through a Master's degree. That extended period of study equated to countless hours spent listening, speaking, reading, writing, and yes, studying grammar in Spanish.

After graduation, I taught Spanish in public school for quite a few years. Instead of improving my own Spanish language abilities, I concentrated on how to teach others a foreign language (not an easy task!). My Spanish took on the typical basic characteristics of Spanish I and Spanish II courses.

I'm not sure all of my students were this eager to learn!

Recently, I began an informal project with a friend to reread the Spanish classic, El Ingenioso Caballero, Don Quijote de la Mancha. I pulled my old college copy off the shelf and was delighted to discover that my much younger self had made very helpful summary notes at the bottom of each page. Not only were the notes a guide to reading comprehension, but they were written in fluent Spanish.  I could hardly believe that it had been me writing those notes like a native speaker of Spanish. Where had that fluent Spanish gone?

I can still read  Spanish fairly well, although it takes more concentration than reading in English. I need absolute peace and quiet in the house!  But my Spanish oral fluency is not what I would like it to be. My husband inquired as to whether reading a 17th century novel was going to increase my ability to speak Spanish on our trip to Spain this fall.  I told him that at the very least, I am starting to hear Spanish swirling around in my mind again.  I may surprise a few Spaniards by speaking to them in the style of  Don Quijote!

Don Quijote and Sancho Panza

Then there is the matter of Brazilian Portuguese.  Intellectual curiosity caused me  to sign up for a Portuguese course at the local university one semester many years ago.  It was love at first sight for me.  I signed up in subsequent semesters for all available Portuguese courses and even spent a summer in Brazil on an NEH grant.  We were given an exit exam at the end of the course. I received a 10, the highest possible score! My Portuguese abilities were in great shape!

A Brazilian praça

But when I returned to my Spanish teaching job in the fall, I had quite a shock. I would try to speak Spanish and out would come Portuguese.  About the time I was getting the two languages straight in my mind, I began an administrative job in the school district which required different skills than pure language skills. Both my Spanish and Portuguese went into a slow decline over almost two decades.

My third career was teaching Portuguese courses at the university level.

I quickly immersed myself in Portuguese language and Brazilian culture and survived the first semester.  As time went on, Portuguese completely took over Spanish in my mind.  Students would speak to me in Spanish, and I would understand them with no problem, but if I tried to answer back in Spanish, it was all Portuguese.  Very embarrassing! Now it has been almost a year since I have spoken Portuguese on a regular basis, and I am beginning to feel very sad that I no longer hear that beautiful language in my head.

So I definitely have a bad case of second language attrition.  I'm going to work on remedies this week and let you know what I have self-prescribed in next week's blog.  If you have suffered from the same disease and have found a cure, please let me know!