I have been fascinated recently about how a small change in my favorite web-based language learning tool, Duolingo has made a big change in my language habits. As much as my head believes that making errors is an accepted, even necessary, part of learning a language, my heart still wants to produce perfect language. And I know I am not alone in this fantasy.
When I first started using Duolingo, about a year ago, the program was presented like a video game. In most instances, you were given three hearts in the upper right hand corner of the screen at the beginning of each exercise set.
For each mistake you made, you would hear music with a tone going from higher to lower tone and watch a heart disappear, turning from red to grey. Losing a heart was similar to losing a life in a video game. No fun!
When your three hearts were gone, you heard more downbeat music and received this message from an apologetic Duolingo owl.
Cursing at the owl (though I tried it frequently) had no effect on my status. It was back to the beginning to try again.
Granted, an opportunity was available to gain a one-heart refill before you started an exercise by spending four hard-earned lingots, the currency of Duolingo. I spent my lingots with much more abandon than I do my U.S. dollar savings account, because I really, really hated losing all of my hearts and having to start over again. Having one extra heart gave me a little wiggle room.
One day, I logged on to Duolingo, and instead of seeing hearts at the top of the screen, I saw a bar.
In this new system, if I answer a question correctly, the bar advances. If I make a mistake, the bar retreats. And I do hear a downbeat music sound when my answer is not accepted. But the beauty of this new approach with the bar instead of hearts is that I can keep trying to score correct answers for as long as I want, without ever "dying" (so to speak).
You may not think this change is a big deal! But I can assure you that it has had a positive psychological effect on my language learning! I'm free! I can play with language, try out creative responses, and produce language at a faster pace. If I make an error, I pay it little mind, much as I should do when practicing a new language in the real world of give and take communication. No fear language learning is what I experience.
Because the new bar system is not yet available on mobile devices, I find I gravitate more and more to my old laptop in order to use the web-based program. Many thanks to Duolingo for being at the forefront of language acquisition. I think it's a bunch of fun!
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