Language Learning On The Go: How To Find A Great Language App

When was the last time you picked up your phone? Oh, you’re looking at it right now? And you want to learn a language?

Game on! It’s time to talk about effective apps. When you don’t have a lot of time and want to fit in some language study on the go, there are hundreds of language learning apps that can help you succeed.

But how do you know you’re spending your time well? Is your app effective for teaching you another language?

This article idea was supported by the team at Drops, a gorgeous vocab training app that I love. So I decided to use their app as the example of great ways that app design can help you learn a language.

Here are 5 ways to find the best apps for YOUR language learning routine, using Drops as an example.

1. There Is a Clear Purpose

Some apps are designed to help you learn and memorise new vocabulary, others train your pronunciation, some aim to be full courses, yet others are games or dictionaries. It’s important to understand what each app is trying to do so that you get the right mix.

In my Language Habit Toolkit, you’ll learn that there are three types of key language learning resources:

1. Guiding Resources, which help you through grammar and communication goals in a language (like courses)
2. Input Resources, which help you experience the language in context and practice understanding it (like videos and stories)
3. Reference Resources, which help you look up information as you need it (like a dictionary)

Now when you look at language apps, you will be able to slot most of them into one of those categories. One of my current favourites is Drops, a beautiful app designed around learning new words of vocabulary.

Drops is a guiding resource, focused on words only. It teaches you a curated list of words (around 2300 per language) through playful actions, but it doesn’t include speaking practice or grammar.

For me, that’s no dealbreaker. As I’ve mentioned before on the blog, I love it when an app focuses on doing one thing and doing it well.

2. The Language App Works For Your Language Goals

The most effective way to learn languages with apps is to break down the different parts of a language course. Think back to your school life or any teacher led class. What are the different things you do and learn? Once you have a list of the elements that you are looking for, you can make sure your group of language apps covers you for each of them.

Then, divide your study goals into listening, speaking, reading and writing and make sure you cover each.

For example, here are a few different things you’ll do in a good language class, and the different apps that can help you with each:

1. Learn new words (for example Drops)
2. Practice speaking a language (for example Tandem)
3. Listen to another language (for exampleSpeechling)
4. Help you read and write the language (for example Clozemaster)
5. Schedule and track your study sessions (for example Streaks)

You can add many more ideas to this list, for example keeping up to date with news in another country or preparing for an exam.

Learn more about language apps and the ones the Fluent Show hosts use on our podcast and list about apps.

3. The App Teaches You The Right Language

There is more than way to answer this question!

Of course, the app should offer the language you’re learning. Some are common like French and Chinese, others a little bit rare like Welsh and Hawaiian. (Drops offers 3 out of the 4!)

Different themes to choose in Drops app

Secondly, it should cover what you want to talk about. Most language courses are developed with an eye on their market, for example travellers or people who need the language for travel.

The key is to talk about what you find interesting, instead of suffering through vocabulary about politics just because your textbook says that this is what you “should do”.

Drops offers in a cool twist on the “language tree” system of other apps. In this app, you get to choose what matters. For example travellers can start by learning helpful vocabulary for their travels first, business students get to grips with the Business & Tech words, while romantics may want to start learning how to talk about relationships.

4. The App Maximises Your Language Study Time

Time and habits are closely related. When you’re thinking of learning a new language, one of the first questions in your mind will be: When am I supposed to do fit this in?

The trick for many learners is to stop thinking of language study as these super-sessions that last 3 hours, and instead to study little and often. This is certainly how I’ve been studying languages myself, and I can now have conversations in several languages that I studied for a few minutes on most days.

So with any language learning app, the question is: What can you do in the app, given the time that you have? The good ones will know that you are not here to study for many hours, and they’ll maximise your results for this short time.

Timing Your App Usage

That ticking clock knows no excuses!

For those of us who are pressed for time and easily distracted, Drops has introduced a simple and effective tool: the countdown! Learners who start out on Drops will only have 5 minutes of app time available to them. That’s right, after 5 minutes the app will lock and you’ll have to wait.

You can gain extra seconds by keeping up a streak and checking in regularly. But the app will still help you to stop learning and keep up a habit of small steps, rather than a huge study session that you won’t want to repeat.

When you see that countdown ticking as you study languages, it does something magical: you’ll stick with this app. Most of the time, our phone usage is bitty as heck. Using a smartphone is frantic and distracting, and that’s not a great way to study. But the timer in the Drops app acts like a gentle reminder: Stick with this, you’ve decided to do it and it’s only 5 minutes.

I’ve no doubt that other education apps are going to introduce this super cool countdown feature as well, because it’s perfect for busy smartphone users.

5. The Language App is Fun

If you get frustrated or bored using any language learning app, I’d say delete it. There is a huge market out there with well-designed apps, and the phone is not the place to start trying to practice tenacity when something isn’t fun.

Ask yourself these questions to be sure that the app will work correctly:

Is it fast?

The app should load quickly and minimise the time you have to spend typing on the world’s smallest keyboard. Save your thumbs! For me, this is the area where Drops was most surprising. There is no typing at all.

Drops is the most considerate app for phone users I’ve seen so far.

Is it pretty?

I’m not talking about pink unicorns. If the app interface doesn’t make you want to look at it, you are less likely to use it. Choose an app that makes you think “experience”, not “homework”.

Does it work well on your phone/tablet/watch?

If the app you’re using hasn’t been tested well enough, it may come up with a number of bugs. Screens getting stuck, freezing, shutting down, or a failure to save your hard-earned progress will warrant an email to the developer, but they’re not a reason to stick with this version.

6. You’re Still Learning With The App

Download a bunch of language learning apps, and then track yourself as you go ahead and use them. You’ll find that a few apps are always “top of mind” and just keep you coming back, while others don’t seem to get any screen time.

It’s okay to say “this one just isn’t right for me”. With the range of apps that we have available now, my advice is to cut out the apps that sit on your phone and don’t get used. The key is to know where your focus is, and that should be where you have fun as well.

As a final tip, consider putting some money on the line for a subscription to an app that you enjoy and use the most. Paying for something can help a user feel more satisfied and more effective using it, and supporting good developers can only work in our favour as language learners. After all, “free” doesn’t always mean the same thing as “good”. In no language.

_By the way…_Drops has a free version and a paying subscription, here is a link for 40% off if you decide to go for it.

What Is Your Most Effective Language App?

If you haven’t given the Drops app a go yet, I can definitely recommend it! I’ve been using this app for weeks now for my Chinese practice, and found that I’m remembering new words well and feeling confident about the “Kangxi Radicals” it’s teaching me.

I’d love to hear from you. Do you download lots of apps and test drive them all? Or are you a one-app one-time kind of learner? Leave me a comment below to join the conversation.

3 Tutor-Approved Ideas For Learning a Language With Duolingo

Language learning was so boring before a little owl in a tracksuit came along.

Armed with addictive streak and modern technology, today's smartphone language learning feels more like a computer game than a language lesson. And in many ways, that's a great thing. Did you know that every month, the world completes over 6 billion Duolingo exercises? That's a lot of language learning done voluntarily - no school teacher forcing you, no boss breathing down your neck asking "where are you with that language tree?"

Is Duolingo Good For Language Learning?

On the whole, I'm on record as a Duo skeptic. I'm a tutor, I've used it and worked with app users, and it really didn't make them "fluent". But I've come to realize that making you fluent is not the point of Duolingo.

Duolingo mobile provides structure and training in several core skills. Plus, it's sort of a productivity app, with the streaks and bite-sized lessons designed to fit into user's busy lives with ease. All in all, you get a free language-based computer game, an addition to classic courses and tutors and most certainly not a replacement.

Chat bots are a recent addition to Duolingo's courses in more common languages. I haven't seen any in Welsh yet.

I could make a clear case both for or against using this app. On the one hand, I want you to ignore when Duolingo tells you that you are "now 53% fluent" because that is laughable. But on the other hand, I've been truly excited to see constant improvements in recent years.

This app might not become any more effective in terms of teaching you language. But as users, we're becoming better at fitting a language learning app into our lives. And if you've tried it, here are some invaluable tips for raising your Duolingo game.

1) Use the Web Version of Duolingo

Duolingo's mobile app is nice enough, but it lacks solid explanations. If you're a new language learner, you might find it difficult to figure out many of Duolingo's exercises by yourself. Sometimes you are asked to construct sentences, even though the app never taught you how to do these things. In other exercises, a new topic is introduced and can feel overwhelming for app users.

The Duolingo web app is a different story and comes with Personally, I don't use the web app much - Duolingo is a mobile experience for me and I enjoy learning away from the desktop (more about how I learn in my Welsh language updates). But if you're a committed user and want Duolingo to be your main resource, here are 3 awesome things you will find in the web version:

Explanations in Duolingo's web-based interface

• The web version offers a fun practice option called "Timed Practice", allowing you to challenge yourself against the clock.

• The ability to use the full keyboard and type out each of your answers, helping you to increase your spelling skills.

• Explanations 👏! Duolingo web offers an extended "Tips and Notes" section. There are explanations, tables, and even references to which textbook unit you can use to train the same exercise. The content isn't uniform and varies by language, because Duolingo courses are partly created by volunteer experts in each language.

2) Use The Duolingo Skill Tree as a Guide

The Duolingo Skill Tree

The skill tree is a the heart of Duolingo and structures it in a way that's quite similar to textbooks. So using the Duolingo setup as a guide, you can let your own questions guide you. Have a classic resource available to answer those questions - why not outside of Duolingo?

A few resources you could try are grammar books, textbooks, podcasts, online courses, language tutors, and even social media. You can read recommendations for more language learning resources in my Resource Guide when you sign up to the Fluent Cool Kids Club.

If you're wondering about the cost of extra books, I recommend checking out your local libraries and charity shops. You're more than likely to find resources for pennies.

Related: Watch My Talk "What You Need to Know Before Spending Money on Language Learning" on YouTube

3) Take Duolingo For What It Is

Duolingo is a language learning app, nothing more and nothing less. In many ways, this makes it perfect for casual users who want to fit in a few minutes of practice at different moments in their day.

It's certainly not a waste of your time if you work your way through a few lessons, and there are dozens of great advantages of using Duolingo. It's cute, it's a fantastic performing app, it's supported by language communities.

If you're a beginner and learning your first or second foreign language, I think that the web version can be your genuine "digital language textbook". But don't rely on it solely and start adding in other resources very early. A good language learning routine is built on habit, human contact and variation in resources.

Do You Use Duolingo?

Are you happy with the little owl? Or does it make you want to howl? I'd love to hear more from you in the comments - tell me which app version you're using!

And for more guidance on language learning apps, join our Fluent Language Learners Facebook group, where I've got a video in the archive for you.

12 Ideas For Making the Perfect Language Learning App

As a language writer, it's part of my job to look out for new trends and developments in language learning. There are so many new apps released every day, and the language learning market is huge.

What makes a good language learning app?

Lanuage learning with an app only is a tall order for anyone, learner or teacher, and different users will look for different results. The following list is based on what I believe makes a good language learning experience, regardless of what the marketing of the app tells you about how it is going to make you fluent instantly.

The best apps:

1. focus on doing one thing and doing it well, instead of claiming that they can teach you how to be awesome at listening, reading, speaking and writing AND grammar
2. deliver on their promises
3. keep your attention
4. run well and focus on allowing you to learn instead of piling on features that only slow your phone or tablet's performance
5. understands that you're often looking at the app on a small phone screen and you work with an on-screen keyboard
6. are interesting, relevant and fun when it comes to their content
7. encourage that addictive quality to keep you coming back and building good habits

Of course it's impossible for me to tell you all about the million language learning apps on the internet, but before I launch into a big dream list let's check out what is popular.

Language Learning Apps: What's Out There?

Here are the current multi-language bestsellers in the Google Play and Apple iOS stores (does anyone use Windows Mobile?):

Course-Style Apps

• Duolingo

Duolingo is unbeatable, and I've already covered why it's not perfect. Interestingly, Google lists this as a "brain training app", not a "language learning app".

• Mango Languages

Mango requires that you access it through an account that's linked with your school or public library. A fantastic language selection, cute interface and standard sentences to teach you the language basics.

• Babbel

Similar to most of the above, Babbel adds speech recognition to the useful sentences of Mango and the gamification of Mango. Claims to have "reinvented language learning" in the introduction. The result of reinvention? Learning through vocab-based recall learning with flashcards and games. I would recommend this over Duolingo just because its dialogues felt more useful and real.

Vocabulary and Memorisation Apps

• Memrise: The Ultimate Memorisation App

Memrise focuses on teaching through flashcards and spaced repetition, with user-sourced audio to accompany the words you're learning. Excellent for vocabulary training, but less effective for learning or practising sentences.

• Vocab Express

Mixing flashcards and old-school vocabulary lists, the strengths of Vocab Express lie in focusing on keeping things simple. There's a leaderboard for those who compete with classmates. User reviews do bring up some room for improvement when it comes to the keyboard layout and saving your progress.

• Flashcards+

This one has an Apple Watch integration and allows deck sharing.

• Lingualy

The Lingualy app aims to combine flashcards with what you read on your smartphone to help you look up words in news articles and save them for revision.

The Language App Wish List

If you're out there and you're making a language learning app, here's what I think it should be like. I don't expect the perfect language learning app to be released any time soon, but perhaps one or two of these features rings a bell and you can build it into yours?

Or even better: Do these apps exist already? Do you know about them? If yes, then please leave a comment and tell me all about them.

1) Polyglot Smartphone Keyboards

I really don't like having to change on-screen keyboards between all the languages I'm learning. I text in German and English, I want to practise French, and ultimately my aim right now is to use the Welsh I learn. So that's four languages, plus the emoji keyboard. On my iPhone, this means I spend a lifetime pressing that little world button and getting annoyed at autocorrect.

I'd love the app of my dreams to do more than switch off autocorrect and the keyboard, and instead give me a better keyboard changing experience.

2) Trivago For Dictionaries

Trivago is a hotel room search engine, similar to Kayak for flights or Indeed for jobs. I would be so happy if there was an app combining the great things about several dictionaries together. The accuracy of LEO with the authority of Oxford or Duden, combined with the real-life examples of Linguee or the versatility of Wordreference. Then throw in Forvo so we can pronounce it. Simply enter a word and choose where you would like to look it up to get the right information, a reliable translation, a pronunciation demo. How awesome would that be?!

3) Placement Tests at the Beginning

It's not easy to design a good placement test, which is why most apps don't do much more than asking you "What's your level?". Duolingo obviously approaches this as "test out of a skill", which is as close as I have seen to a really great placement test at the start. There is nothing, however, that compares to the thorough experience you get at the start of something like Rosetta Stone. But I think apps could do better, especially when working together with language test designers to create a placement test

4) Enhanced Reading

The Lingualy app I mentioned above has a really intesting idea in my opinion. Support when reading in a foreign language needs an arsenal of level-appropriate texts and a flashcard system that talks to the best flashcard apps out there. I dream of a Kindle dictionary that can look up the pronunciation of my word on Forvo and then add it to Memrise for me.

Reading in a foreign language is not about inventing more and more apps, but about connecting the best ones together.

5) Language Exchange + Flashcards

I think HelloTalk is an excellent take on language exchange, but on several occasions while using it I wanted to put what I learnt into Flashcards or into my notebook. The dream app would be able to help me out there and offer an integration with one of the great flashcard apps. This could be as simple as exporting a file.

6) Calendar Integration

One of the biggest challenges of language learning is committing to doing something every single day, and my dream app would help a learner out with the habit-forming challenge. There are some great apps out there that help with this, for example coach.me, but I've not seen a language-focused one.

I’d like to see a daily checklist, a scheduler or daily timed activities. No matter if this is for flashcards or spending 10 minutes chatting to people via language exchange, there's nothing like ticking a box to say "I did this!".

What's Your Perfect Language Learning App?

Now it's your turn! If you're a developer feeling inspired by one of these ideas, feel free to take them and turn them into...not cash, but a really fantastic language learning app.

If you're a language learner, what do you think about these ideas? Do you have a favourite app? Do you have dream features you'd love to see from it?

Leave your message in the comments below - I can't wait to hear what you recommend!

New Podcast Episode: Mobile Language Learning and Big News with Lindsay Does Languages

Big news for the ladies of the Creative Language Learning Podcast in episode 20: Lindsay is engaged and Kerstin is married! 

In this episode, you’ll hear:

• What makes a German wedding and an English engagement special
• Lindsay's and Kerstin's recent language learning updates - we've been learning Semaphore and Welsh!
• How do you use Memrise for language learning?
• Lindsay's exact process for learning a new way of communicating with online resources
• Should you speak early? Is there any reason to hold back?

Article of the Week

Can you really learn a language using mobile apps? on Languages around the Globe

Tips of the Week

Summer is my favourite season, so you won't have to guess hard to work out which tip I chose as the big tip of the week!

1) Get outside and away from all your screens for a summer's learning session

2) Make Language Study your first task of the day with Early Morning Study Sessions

3) Watch your foreign movie...but watch the commentary!

Tips and Links from this Podcast

• Memrise Semaphore Course
• Collins Easy Learning Dictionaries
• Ap Geriaduron, Welsh dictionary app
• LEO, German dictionary app and website
• Omniglot, a huge language resource
• Micro Robert, the French monolingual dictionary

Question of the Week

Are you in an international relationship? Maybe a bilingual one? Tell us your story of living across borders in the comments or over on Facebook!