Language Learning Apps Research Articles

A systematic review examining the efficacy of commercially available foreign language learning mobile apps

A systematic review examining the efficacy of commercially available foreign language-learning apps (FLL) was completed. A database search of ERIC, PsychINFO, and LearnTechLib produced 1,786 journal articles. After applying specific inclusion and exclusion criteria based on Burston’s seminal study (2015) requiring a minimum number of 10 participants, quantitative learning outcome data and rigorous research design, eight studies remained. These studies were categorized in terms of the app studied, year of publication, language taught, age group of participants, setting, length of study, and device(s) used. Descriptive statistics demonstrate there is a dearth of studies examining app efficacy, that English was the most commonly taught language, and that vocabulary was the most commonly tested area. Although commercial apps were found to successfully support FLL, the included studies’ methods varied in ways that made direct comparison difficult.

User Review Analysis of Mobile English Vocabulary Learning

More and more language learners today rely on mobile assisted vocabulary learning to expand their grasp of words. Against this background, reviews left by target users are impactful in a language learning app market because online reviews play roles as a decision-making tool used by prospects before committing to any service provider and as a channel through which a mobile app developer understand users’ current expectations and their using and learning experience in depth. The aim of this study is to explore the issues users concern the most in app-based vocabulary learning and provide suggestions to mobile app developers, hoping they leverage the advice to perfect apps’ performance and gain a competitive edge in a booming app market.

An overview of popular website platforms and mobile apps for language learning

This paper aims at providing a survey of the most popular online educational platforms and mobile apps for language learning. It gives an overview of the development and current trends in what is generally labelled computer-assisted language learning (CALL) with reference to select pedagogical theories; in particular, those embedded in the theoretical framework of broadly defined constructivism, as well as select learning processes, including self-regulation, self-directed learning, personal knowledge management and the concept of learner autonomy. Following this theoretical backdrop, the analysis of 30 educational platforms for language learning is presented, which were evaluated against several criteria, such as accessibility, revised Bloom et al.’s taxonomy of learning outcomes, language levels, typology of exercises, etc.

Mobile-assisted language learning in older adults: Chances and challenges

AbstractIn an increasingly ageing, multilingual, and digitalised society, there is still a lack of research on older adults’ adoption and use of mobile technology for supporting their self-directed second language learning. In the present study, we investigated the extent to which seniors residing in Germany (aged 60+) engage in mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) and the factors encouraging or discouraging them from using language learning apps by conducting a web-based survey (n= 208) and a series of in-depth individual interviews (n= 22). Our results show that (1) participants were resistant to fully embrace the potential of MALL despite their active engagement in language learning and extensive use of digital technology, online resources, and mobile devices; and (2) self-perceived digital literacy and openness towards new developments are strong factors favouring the use of language learning apps in older adulthood. We interpret and discuss these results in the light of theoretical accounts of mobile learning and education in (older) adults, emphasising the need to consider the specific requirements of late-life learners in future implementations of language learning apps. Based on our results, we highlight several implications for designers and developers of such apps intended to facilitate full inclusion of seniors as mobile language learners.

Digital Technical Language Teaching ---- Teaching/Learning Principles of Duolingo

Duolingo is a free online language learning app. It adapts to the needs of “mobile learning” and allows language learners to take full advantage of “fragmented” time for language learning, using gamification and adaptive learning techniques to teach foreign languages. Once on the start screen of Duolingo, 16 language courses will be presented in English. Learners can control four learning modes and choose their learning styles. Beginners can start from basic courses. If you are not a beginner, take a five-minute placement test to match your placement. In addition to the 16 languages mentioned above, there are 38 language learning combinations (English <> Spanish, English > French, English > German or English > Portuguese, etc.). The system will prompt the user to create a personal profile to save the learning progress, and be able to set the learning, practicing content and learning time. Duolingo is as effective as any leading language learning software. As a language-learning app, Duolingo can be used as a tool for self-study or blended learning context.

Mobile Language Learning Applications from the Perspectives of Adult Language Learners in Turkey

Mobile language learning applications have changed how language is learned and have opened new windows for potential learners. At the convenience of our time, place, comfort and pace, we can learn or revise a language through our mobile gadgets. From the reviewed literature, it is evident that more data is needed to understand the users’ views about mobile applications. Instead of focusing on a single mobile application, the researcher attempted to elicit the general perceptions of Turkish adult learners about mobile language learning apps. In line with this thought, a selfadministered questionnaire was sent to potential mobile app users and 231 participants replied to the questionnaire. The aim of this study is to find out what perceptions adult learners in Turkey have and what their suggestions are to enhance future mobile language learning applications. For the close-ended questions, frequencies and percentages were taken, while for the open-ended question, content analysis was done. Easy access was considered as the greatest strength, while internet connection requirements and scarcity of interactivity were considered among the shortcomings. The participants offered some suggestions which can yield new paths for application developers, teachers and practitioners in the field of English language teaching and adult learning.

The Use of Smartphone English Language Learning Apps in the Process of Learning English: Slovak EFL Students’ Perspectives

In recent years, an accelerating trend in an undergoing shift from the use of traditional desktop computers towards the utilisation of smartphones for language learning purposes has been detected. In line with these trends, this study aims to investigate Slovak EFL learners’ attitudes and perceptions of English language learning apps (ELLA) regarding practicing and learning English. Furthermore, the differences in the perception of ELLA between the male and female research participants are also analysed. The target population totalled 158 Slovak university EFL learners, 48 males and 110 females, who were required to display their level of agreement to statements by responding to a 5-point Likert scale questionnaire. The instrument consisted of 30 statements altogether, involving items on apps’ usage and apps’ perception. The calculated means indicate that the participants’ attitudes and perceptions of ELLA range between being neutral and positive, and that EFL learners tend to practice language systems and skills to varying degrees. Moreover, 30 independent-sample t-tests, which were run in order to determine the differences between the male and female attitudes and perceptions, reveal that 50% of statements on apps’ usage and apps’ perception differ significantly, demonstrating considerable differences between the two sexes. The achieved results seem to contribute to the existing research on the use of smartphones and ELLA in the context of EFL learning by casting more light on mobile language learning, an area that merits further scientific exploration.

Examining English Language Learning Apps from A Second Language Acquisition Perspective

This study set out to explore dedicated language learning apps pedagogically while focusing mainly on aspects of second language acquisition. A total of 20 English language learning apps were collected for analysis. The study took one model of analysing course book materials and another, computer-assisted language learning model and combined them into one analytical framework with bespoke criteria, ensuring the analysis was most suitable for our case. The analytical framework which was developed reached a number of conclusions about dedicated language learning apps (DLLAs). The findings revealed that DLLAs tend to provide mechanical forms-focused practice without facilitating collaborative learning nor focusing on developing users’ communicative competence, which suggests that DLLAs reflect a behaviouristic view of language learning. The conclusion offers some suggestions to improve DLLAs and proposes that, for the time being, educators should look beyond DLLAs and instead investigate how can apps that are not designed for language learning (generic apps) be used in the manner of DLLAs to avoid the issues that this paper identifies with them.

Human-computer interaction in foreign language learning applications: Applied linguistics viewpoint of mobile learning

Abstract The current development in mobile learning has seen an unprecedented rise in the last decade and, moreover, the present pandemic situation has speeded up the process of eLearning implementation even in areas that were still rather reluctant in this respect. The paper attempts to provide the results and analysis of the subjective satisfaction of the users of these foreign language learning apps. Qualitative research was conducted at the Faculty of Informatics and Management of the University of Hradec Kralove, the Czech Republic, as a qualitative study through a set of guided interviews with students/users. The respondents (n=18) were the students of information science and data science of the university; therefore, their opinion can prove to be very useful as they are well informed and they also represented the youngest generation, i.e. Millennials, who may have rather different needs from the previous generations, and these needs are, naturally, reflected in their use of technology. The tested apps belong to the most popular and most downloaded free apps for foreign language learning currently available in the iOS and Android markets. The findings of the research clearly show that the main concern of the users of the apps was the lack of AI utilization and old-fashioned interface of the apps despite the fact that they are relatively new. Another major concern was the old-fashioned design, and regarding human-computer interaction in these apps, the lack of machine learning and deep learning strategies.

A Socio-Cultural Approach to Evaluating and Designing Reading Comprehension Apps for Language Learning

Mobile devices are increasingly promoted as tools to facilitate ubiquitous and individualized learning, allowing learners to work at their own pace in authentic and meaningful settings. However, in the case of second language learning, there is a paucity of apps and tools related to improving students' reading comprehension in both Spanish and English. Additionally, there are few studies that address the evaluation of applications for reading comprehension and innovation in this field and this is required in order to respond to the needs of transformation in language learning teaching. The authors present an original evaluation of 25 English language learning mobile apps using the iPAC app rubric, which identifies the pedagogical features of mobile learning: personalisation, authenticity, and collaboration. The results indicate that many of the existing apps fail to fully exploit the affordances of mobile learning and collaboration in particular. The findings suggest recommendations for app developers to design comprehension apps that address these shortcomings.

Quality of Mobile Apps for Language Learning

Mobile apps are new format of learning foreign languages. They are great as an additional way of learning, but cannot be a substitute for ordinary learning. Each app provides its own way of learning a foreign language. Each of them has its own pros and cons, and none of them is the best one. A combination of several apps is more efficient than using just one of them. However, all of them are dedicated to learning a language instead of practicing a language. Therefore, tutors, educational groups, and other regular forms of education cannot be fully substituted by mobile apps for language learning.

Wordhyve: A context-aware language learning app for vocabulary enhancement through images and learning contexts

Vocabulary acquisition is an essential component for mastering any language as words are the building blocks of a language. In informal learning, foreign language learners often struggle to memorize new vocabularies, and therefore, new tools need to be developed to facilitate vocabulary acquisition. In computer-assisted learning environments, images are often used as annotations to represent words because images convey the essence of a word more effectively than verbal descriptions. Also, understanding the learning contexts in which learning happens is crucial for any computer-assisted learning environment. From this standpoint, in this research, a context-aware language learning app called Wordhyve is developed. Wordhyve, a native Android app, is built to support foreign language learners in memorizing foreign vocabularies using multimedia annotations, including images, texts, translation, voices, and contextual clues. Wordhyve allows language learners to capture and record lifelogs. Later on, the app uses those learning experiences as triggers to enhance foreign vocabularies. The analytics of the Wordhyve use those logs for the recommendation of incidental vocabularies and assist learners in memorizing those recommended vocabularies using various learning contexts. Wordhyve uses image analytics on the learner-captured images to recommend those incidental vocabularies.

A Digital Corpus of St. Lawrence Island Yupik

St. Lawrence Island Yupik (ISO 639-3: ess) is an endangered polysynthetic language in the Inuit-Yupik language family indigenous to Alaska and Chukotka. This work presents a step-by-step pipeline for the digitization of written texts, and the first publicly available digital corpus for St. Lawrence Island Yupik, created using that pipeline. This corpus has great potential for future linguistic inquiry and research in NLP. It was also developed for use in Yupik language education and revitalization, with a primary goal of enabling easy access to Yupik texts by educators and by members of the Yupik community. A secondary goal is to support development of language technology such as spell-checkers, text- completion systems, interactive e-books, and language learning apps for use by the Yupik community.

Review of Review of ‘The secret agent’s language challenges’ app

This is a review of a language learning app - The Secret Agent’s Language Challenges which combines (tongue-in-cheek) agent training and language learning in one mobile application. The author describes the benefits along with the strengths and weaknesses of the app.

Mobile-assisted language learning through learning analytics for self-regulated learning (MALLAS): A conceptual framework

Many adult second and foreign language learners have insufficient opportunities to engage in language learning. However, their successful acquisition of a target language is critical for various reasons, including their fast integration in a host country and their smooth adaptation to new work or educational settings. This suggests that they need additional support to succeed in their second language acquisition. We argue that such support would benefit from recent advances in the fields of mobile-assisted language learning, self-regulated language learning, and learning analytics. In particular, this paper offers a conceptual framework, mobile-assisted language learning through learning analytics for self-regulated learning (MALLAS), to help learning designers support second language learners through the use of learning analytics to enable self-regulated learning. Although the MALLAS framework is presented here as an analytical tool that can be used to operationalise the support of mobile-assisted language learning in a specific exemplary learning context, it would be of interest to researchers who wish to better understand and support self-regulated language learning in mobile contexts.
 Implications for practice and policy:
 
 MALLAS is a conceptual framework that captures the dimensions of self-regulated language learning and learning analytics that are required to support mobile-assisted language learning.
 Designers of mobile-assisted language learning solutions using MALLAS will have a solution with sound theoretically underpinned solution.
 Learning designers can use MALLAS as a guide to direct their design choices regarding the development of mobile-assisted language learning apps and services.

A Study on the Development of an Evaluative Checklist for Chinese Language Learning Apps

A Study on the Development of an Evaluative Checklist for Chinese Language Learning Apps

Technology of teaching foreign languages on the basis of web applications

What is the best way to learn a new language? Ask anyone who speaks more than one language so you get a comprehensive answer. Classes, textbooks, language exchange programs are tools that help you learn a language to a certain extent. Language learning apps are another tool that is becoming increasingly popular. However, each program has its own direction and method of teaching

The Effectiveness of ThingLink in Teaching New Vocabulary to Non-Native Beginners of the Arabic Language

Low proficiency in the Arabic language, specifically in vocabulary learning, has been a long-standing issue for non-native Arabic speakers. Traditional language pedagogy, such as chalk and talk and memorization, continues to be a widely-known cause of low proficiency that affects 21st century students. Thus, this study sought to investigate the effectiveness of using ThingLink, an interactive image annotation tool, as an intervention to teach Arabic vocabulary to beginners of the language at a public university in Malaysia. The study adopted a pre-experimental design, i.e., the pretest-posttest one group design, involving 30 students who were beginners of Arabic. The Vocabulary Knowledge Scale (VKS) and a modified TAM questionnaire were utilized to examine ThingLink’s effectiveness in three aspects, i.e., perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use and students’ vocabulary achievement. The data were analyzed descriptively and with a paired samples t-test. The results showed a statistically significant increase in vocabulary achievement among the subjects, but the effect of the intervention was only moderate at Cohen’s d = 0.42. The subjects rated ThingLink positively on both usefulness and ease of use, although their endorsement of the app’s ease of use was higher than their rating of its usefulness. The subjects’ reactions to ThingLink indicate that it is an effective tool for language teachers and students to use. The results of the study support the use of ThingLink as language learning app capable of meeting the needs and goals of 21st century education.

‘Things Will Look Up Because They Always Do’: The Continuation of My Autoethnography as a Self-Directed Learner of French

This is the second part of an autoethnography about trying to enrich my vocabulary and improve my listening skills as a self-directed learner through French language songs. I followed the same Study Use Review Evaluate (SURE) learning cycle as my students in a self-access English class, and my work occurred at the same time as theirs, over a period of six weeks. Throughout the project and in the course of writing it up, I was making comparisons and identifying connections between my learning and that of my students. This installment covers the second and third weeks of the project, and part of the fourth. First, it discusses vocabulary, describes how I adjusted a strategy, ways I enlisted help from native French speakers, and a problem that arose with using new words (the second step of SURE). Next, it details how I reviewed grammar through Duolingo, a language learning app, and the unexpected benefits I derived from using this app. Finally, this paper examines fluctuations in motivation and affect, which many learners experience at some point, and this initially led to anxiety and self-doubts about my purpose in conducting this project. Stepping into the learner’s experience was valuable, however, in helping me to rediscover intrinsic motivation and regain my self-confidence as I headed into the final weeks of the project.

‘The blue dot thing’: a discourse analysis of learner interlanguage in instructional design

ABSTRACT We used audio-recorded interactions from a co-design of early designers working together making a language learning app to map discourse practices onto an operationalisation of an early stage of design learning in instructional design. A previously published typography of design discourse operationally defined the discourse practices of an advanced beginner stage. We asked, How did the discourse practices of early designers emerge when they engaged each other in the act of designing? We searched transcripts for examples of nine discourse practices in design that were previously established by the literature which suggested these discursive practices might appear in design language in use. We found that these practices often did appear, but ranged in discursive proficiency, suggesting the existence of an interlanguage of design. This discourse analysis informs scholars of design learning as to the variability in the emergence of discourse practices in design. To illustrate these insights, we present five diverse excerpts that illuminate the breadth of how design discourse emerges in early designer’s discussions. From these data, we concluded that there is an interlanguage of instructional design that maps unevenly across discourse practices of the advanced beginner.