The potential of Duolingo to increase students’ learning and motivation

Abstract

Nowadays languages are an essential requirement in order to tackle today's work environment. Such need for languages together with technological advances has given way to the creation of many mobile apps that allow users to learn languages on their own. This paper focuses on the analysis of the Duolingo app and its potential to teach languages as well as to motivate users to continue learning. Duolingo is characterised by the use of gaming elements, therefore this study starts with a breakdown of the use of gamification focused in the education scope and in language learning. After this, a questionnaire was analyzed in which 87 duolingo users were asked about the impact that the app had in regards to motivation as well as in the learning itself. The results taken from the survey show, on one hand, that the majority of participants (46%) considers the app very useful in order to learn some vocabulary in a foreign language, however, they do not consider it as useful so as to strengthen other skills. On the other hand, the results also show that more than the half of survey participants (51,7%) evaluate that gamification, generally, has affected their motivation in a positive way.