"People, actively language learners through DuoLingo, more than in the entire public school system,” says Louis von Ahn, founder of the free language learning app. Since its launch in 2012, more than 30 million people have downloaded the application in the Apple Store, which made education more playful and attracted a new audience of language learners.
The rise of technology for use in education has changed the way we learn and access education. This is especially true of languages, an area in which the explosion of mobile apps and interactive software has provided choices for a range of people who were previously unable to access education in a foreign language.
Von Ahn says that when he founded DuoLingo, he was determined to find a way for people to learn a language for free. "It's ironic that the people who need to learn the language the most don't have a lot of money, but learning a language costs a lot of money."
Free access to languages was something that Von Ahn was personally interested in: he grew up in Guatemala, where he was surrounded by people trying to learn English, half of whom could not do it, and most of them could not afford it. .
One of the big changes brought about by technology is the demographic shift in language learning. Languages have long been associated with the elite, but now people from the less privileged are finding affordable ways to learn. English continues to be the most in-demand language – the British Council estimates that 2 billion people worldwide will be learning English by 2020 – thanks in large part to the benefits it offers to economic migrants.
To learn with online tools, users need a smartphone or internet connection, but Von Ahn says that's not as far-fetched a scenario as it might seem. “Lower middle class people in developing countries like Guatemala usually have a smartphone – a lower end Android phone,” he says.
Italki, a provider of online tutoring in its home countries, also wants to see technology being used to make learning more accessible. Comparing the social network for language learning to the sharing economy of startups like Taskrabbit and AirBnB, italki CEO Kevin Chen says: “We believe helping people communicate helps students who were previously unable to access native language teachers, and teachers who previously could not teach students outside of their city.”
Rosetta Stone, a longtime provider of language learning software, has invested time and resources into its market research and concluded that mobile is the way forward. Rosetta Stone has added apps to its language learning toolkit. “Mobile is becoming a big breakthrough in traditional self-paced learning,” says Donavan White, vice president of Europe, the Middle East and Africa (EMEA). “Every week, the number of people accessing the app is increasing. People are so passionate about mobility, whether it's an iPad or any other device they can carry around with them."
Von Ahn says the unexpected result of DuoLingo becoming an app is that it has attracted an unusual type of user. DuoLingo was designed as a game, and the company has discovered that many users aren't even necessarily die-hard fans of the language, they're just looking for an educational way to pass the time.
"They're still putting something else aside, but at least it's useful to some extent," says von Ahn. “The fact is that learning a language takes months or years. We have to find a way to keep their interest, and that's where gamification came into play."
According to White, technology is also making education more personalized. Users will be able to pinpoint their specific needs, whether it's tailoring an in-class lesson to the interests of a specific age group or learning the basics for a vacation abroad.
Chen says that technology not only offers personalization, but also encourages users to take a more active approach to learning. “[italki] students feel they should take responsibility for their education,” he says. “More and more students are trying non-traditional methods of self-learning, and now is the time to become an education technology startup.”
While advances in technology may have created opportunities for more people to access education, the question remains whether it is really possible to learn a language with online tools alone.
“It all depends on what you mean by language learning,” says von Ahn. "You can learn to the point where you can navigate and have relatively simple conversations, but you probably won't write great works of literature."
White believes that technology will not eliminate the need to be highly motivated to learn: "I think it's possible to learn a language on your own with the help of some technology platform, but I think it will take you a long time and you need to be very disciplined."
White and Chen agree that online tools will be most effective when used as part of a larger arsenal of learning tools.
“Education should come from as many different sources as possible,” Chen says. “Learning will be personalized for students so they can learn in the most effective way for them. For italki, we are just one part of this ecosystem.”
