Language Learning Apps: are they really effective?

While I was searching material for my previous article I ran into a very interessting video (http://bit.ly/2KyXfmH) where Patricia Kuhl, Professor of Speech and Hearing Sciences and co-director of the Institute for Learning & Brain Sciences at the University of Washington, speaks out about studies they ran on babies and their capabilities to absorb a language. What really hit my mind about it was that babies who were exposed to only video or audio  didn’t actually get a thing from them; appearently babies only absorb statistics if coming from a human being; the machine alone does not work.

One big clear question came to my mind then: are language learning apps, which are super popular at the moment, really effective?

If I think about my personal learning experience 1 thing is for sure: I need to put everything in practice in order to absorb and remember it. Abstract concepts, even if in a lexical context, never worked for me; I always had to actually use words and grammar rules in order to carve them in my mind. But hey, that’s me, it does not mean that everybody’s mind works like mine, right? Some people are actually really good learning by earth; my dad was

 

Anyway I went on the search again and read a few articles about Language Learning Apps; some, I found, were actually interesting.

The first article (http://bit.ly/2Yy4iGc)  by Fernando Rosell-Aguilar, Senior lecturer in Spanish and Open Media Fellow, The open University, appeared on The Conversation, and analyses the 2 most popular apps out there: Duolingo and Busuu; apparently even Bill Gates has signed up on Duolingo. 

                                                                                                                        (Credit: Duolingo)

Rosell-Aguilar, who finds up that apps users are using them mostly for extra practice with a different approch between female and male users. furthermore apps are perceived as a more informal learning activity.

Later in his research Rosell-Aguilar concludes that Language Learning Apps are really useful if used in addition to regular classes with a “human” teacher.