The Psychology Behind Duolingo

Duolingo is an online program for learning languages that has been getting great reviews and awards (pcmag). Duolingo takes a new approach to teaching languages, and best of all, it is free. The program involves gamified learning of vocabulary and grammar and crowd-sourcing through translations.

I must admit to being addicted to Duolingo.  I have a 70 day streak going in both Portuguese and Spanish. My husband Wayne, noticing how I was enjoying the program, decided to sign up and expand his knowledge of Spanish. I could not resist hovering as he worked on his computer (I'm a former language teacher).  Then I begin thinking about how Duolingo uses psychological principles to keep learners on track and successful. Here are a few that come to mind:

(1)  The daily reminder.  If you don't log earn XPs (experience points) on  Duolingo at least once a day, you will receive a gentle reminder by email.

You are still in control of the reminders, because you can turn them off in settings or specify what time you want the reminder sent.  But I realized that I need a little push to overcome habitual procrastination.

(2)  Losing hearts.  We humans want very strongly to keep what we already have.  We don't like things being taken away.  Duolingo gives you three or four hearts at the beginning of each exercise.  Every mistake costs you a heart. If you lose all of your hearts, you hear sad music and receive a message that you need to start over.  Drat!  Wayne asked me, "How do I get my hearts back?"  I assured him that he will be given new hearts for each exercise.  And I often use lingots (Duolingo currency) to buy a heart refill, just to take the pressure off.

(3) Competition.  We humans like to get ahead of everyone else.  When I see that one of my Duolingo contacts has pulled ahead of me in weekly XPs, I feel like a teenager at a stoplight who has just been challenged to a drag race.  Win, win, win, against all odds!  

(4) Aversion to rote learning.  Current language teaching methodology reminds us that we acquire other languages more easily by focusing on something other than the language.  That recommendation appears to be counter intuitive, but when Duolingo gets us wrapped up in the game, our mind is free to notice and retain patterns that all languages have. If I am consciously concentrating on earning lingots, for example, my subconscious mind can intuitively pick up grammar rules.

I can hardly wait for Duolingo to publish Irish in Beta form.  I'll be a newbie in Irish, but a planned trip to Dublin, Ireland next year should give me a push.