Duolingo - An Interesting Website for English Beginners in China

Duolingo (https://www.duolingo.com) is a website that combines language learning, language assessment and many other functions. I will focus on its English learning function in this article.


Probably the most impressive thing about Duolingo is its mascot, Duo, a cute green parrot, and learners can enjoy the cute animations and illustrations of Duo while learning.



It is worth mentioning that the layout of Duolingo is simple and clear, so that visitors can quickly find what they need. In addition, there are nearly no ads on the pages or in the learning courses that may distract learners, which is great.





Before starting the course, Duolingo will invite you to take a simple assessment in order to find out your current level of English. Once a result is obtained, learners can 'skip levels' and move to the more difficult content.


Is this your first time learning English?


Currently, Duolingo has 122 units of English learning courses, most of which are about the use of English in specific situations (e.g. sharing travel experiences, inviting others, etc.). It is very practical.


The units in Duolingo are based on problem solving. It covers listening, simple sentence construction and translation between L1 and L2. The following pictures are some exercises in Duolingo. (Chinese is defaulted as the learner's first language)


How to express "soft"?

Please write this sentence down in Chinese.





However, Duolingo has some drawbacks, such as the courses are not deep enough. It offers lessons that are ideal for introductory or interest building purposes, but are somewhat inadequate if you need to apply English in more specialised areas. What's more, it lacks introduction to English grammar, which does not facilitate systematic learning. In addition, Duolingo's courses are mostly about reading and listening and there are few opportunities for learners to practise their spoken English.






Comments

  1. Yifan11 March 2023 at 11:06

    Hi Yuqi. Thank you for sharing us such a useful tool. 'Duo' is really cute, I like it.

    ReplyDelete

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