Autor: Jimena Gonzalez Sánz.
Welcome back to our section! Are you still motivated towards English language learning? Whether your answer is yes or no do not stop and continue reading because today we can offer you another resource, which has a lot to do with that: motivation (and gaming too!)
This time we want to provide you some information about Duolingo (https://en.duolingo.com/). It is also available on Google play so you can use it in your smartphone, tablet, laptop and MAC. In any case, you will need to have an email account. This app allows you to learn a second language for free! You just have to choose the target language and select your mother tongue. When it is done, you can select your goal. It can vary from casual to insane. Then you will find your personal coach DUO who is going to remind you every single day if you are on the right track to pursue the goal you chose.
Once you have selected language and goal, you can try a starter test to place you in the right level according to your knowledge or you can start from the very beginning.
Duolingo is organized into modules, which are made up of lessons. Once you complete each lesson of each module, you can continue with the following one.
Each lesson offers you different activities like translations or arranging words to make sentences. Vocabulary is introduced with images and grammar is explained with speech bubbles. There are also exercises where you are asked to type what you listen and some others where you have to repeat what you heard.
At the end of each module, when you finish all the lessons, you can see your weakest words. Therefore, you can revise and exercise them here and there or go back later. An additional benefit of Duolingo is that it helps you track your progress. At the end of each lesson you can see your days of work, your progress and your prizes: lingots (that is the Duolingo currency) that you can use to buy boosters and practice at the Duolingo store.
As any App, it has some cons for example it allows you to have little room for mistakes. Thus, when you type anything be sure you put the accent marks in Spanish when translating and the appropriate use of capital letters like in I (first person of the personal pronoun). Another fact I personally do not like is that sometimes translations are literal and it means that you are going to find from time to time expressions that seem unnatural like translate : the bear was sleeping in my bed (when there are high possibilities you are never going to use that expression at all, thank god! LOL).
Except these two tiny things, we enjoy Duolingo. Therefore, we strongly recommend you use it. Every day or from time to time when you feel your English is rusty and want to practice a little bit. It requires little effort, it is enjoyable, we do love the interface and it is available in your phone anytime free of charge.
We hope you enjoy it and we cannot leave without reminding you can share any of your experiences and questions to help you in the task of English learning. BW!
Jimena González Sanz.
