An Informational Blog for Parents, Faculty and Staff
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"Language Learning on the Go"
Language Learning on the Go
Brushing up on French or diving into Mandarin? Graduate from truant to fluent with these apps
F. Martin Ramin for The Wall Street Journal
Searching for the best language apps on the go
FOR YEARS, I'VE BEEN meaning to brush
up on the rudimentary Spanish I picked up during my sophomore year of
college. But like alphabetizing my bookshelf, I never got around to it.
With two young kids, I wasn't about to enroll in night class, and I
couldn't imagine sitting down to a computer-based course after toiling
away at my desk all day. Could learning on the go with a smartphone or
tablet app be the solution?
WSJ's Laura Moser sampled more than 20
smartphone and tablet apps for learning a language on the go. She joins
Lunch Break with a look at her favorites.
To find the best options, I tested close to
20 apps in both German (for the absolute-beginner experience) and
Spanish. I found most apps to be glorified flashcards or compendiums of
travel-abroad phrases, from the outdated (Pimsleur's "Will you accept
traveler's checks?") to the outrageous (World Nomads's "Those drugs
aren't mine!"). Others recalled the dry lessons and verb-conjugation
charts of high-school foreign-language classes. But the three apps below
offered an approach to language learning that was both effective and
entertaining. ¡Qué suerte!
Far and away the best
free language-learning app—and a good deal better than some of the
pricey ones—Duolingo offers the most innovative and addictive exercises
of all the apps I tested. Each lesson struck the perfect balance between
grammar and vocabulary, and the quizzes made good use of the device's
touch-screen interface (for example, by having you drag and drop jumbled
words into the correct order to make a sentence).
Duolingo's lessons are mostly text-based. Unlike other apps, it goes
light on the stock photos and has minimal bells and whistles. But the
exercises are so fun and briskly paced—short enough to complete on a
quick train ride—that I hardly missed the frills. Although Duolingo
doesn't take up much memory, it does require Web access; downloading
lessons before a flight isn't an option. Courses in Spanish,
English, French, Portuguese, Italian and German. Free, with no charge
for additional lessons; available for iOS devices. duolingo.com
Busuu
Busuu
Busuu
downloads exercises to your device in advance, which makes the app
ideal for studying when you lack reliable Internet access. This
well-designed program alternates grammar and vocabulary lessons with
listening-comprehension tests and short writing assignments that are
corrected by fellow Busuu users who are native speakers. (Although in
practice, only three of the eight writing exercises we submitted
received a response from community members; a similar feature worked
better on Livemocha, another online language service that as yet has no
app.) Overall, I preferred Duolingo to Busuu,
but the latter's photo-based lessons may have greater appeal to more
visual learners, and its ability to work untethered from the Internet
makes it the best option for learning on the go. Courses in 12 languages. Free, $5 for additional lessons; available for iOS and Android devices. busuu.com/mobile
Rosetta
Stone TOTALe Online is a subscription service that offers unlimited Web
and app access to all levels of lessons in a specific language. Like
the Rosetta Stone's ubiquitously marketed computer-based product, TOTALe
Online works by means of virtual immersion: Regardless of skill level,
you listen in on dialogues, repeat sentences and answer questions
entirely in the language you're studying. There are more than enough
lessons to keep absolute beginners and fairly advanced speakers engaged
for months. TOTALe Online includes three mobile
apps of varying quality. The oldest, TOTALe Companion (for iPhone, iPod
Touch, Nook and certain Android devices), mostly involves listening to
and repeating sentences ad nauseam. The far superior iPad- and Nook-only
Rosetta COURSE, by contrast, offers lessons that are identical to
what's offered in the computer-based Rosetta Stone program (except more
convenient: no mouse necessary). And an iPad-only app, TOTALe Studio HD,
lets you practice the language with native speakers during prescheduled
video chats.
A caveat: Because voice recognition is a big component of the Rosetta
Stone method, shyer learners might hesitate before using TOTALe in a
crowded coffee shop. (Simply repeating the sentences in your head, no
matter how flawless your imagined accent, deprives you of one of Rosetta
Stone's best features.) Courses in 24 languages. $299 for 12 months of access. rosettastone.com
—Laura Moser
Duolingo
Far and away the best free language-learning app—and a good deal better than some of the pricey ones—Duolingo offers the most innovative and addictive exercises of all the apps I tested. Each lesson struck the perfect balance between grammar and vocabulary, and the quizzes made good use of the device's touch-screen interface (for example, by having you drag and drop jumbled words into the correct order to make a sentence).Duolingo's lessons are mostly text-based. Unlike other apps, it goes light on the stock photos and has minimal bells and whistles. But the exercises are so fun and briskly paced—short enough to complete on a quick train ride—that I hardly missed the frills. Although Duolingo doesn't take up much memory, it does require Web access; downloading lessons before a flight isn't an option. Courses in Spanish, English, French, Portuguese, Italian and German. Free, with no charge for additional lessons; available for iOS devices. duolingo.com
Busuu
Busuu downloads exercises to your device in advance, which makes the app ideal for studying when you lack reliable Internet access. This well-designed program alternates grammar and vocabulary lessons with listening-comprehension tests and short writing assignments that are corrected by fellow Busuu users who are native speakers. (Although in practice, only three of the eight writing exercises we submitted received a response from community members; a similar feature worked better on Livemocha, another online language service that as yet has no app.)Overall, I preferred Duolingo to Busuu, but the latter's photo-based lessons may have greater appeal to more visual learners, and its ability to work untethered from the Internet makes it the best option for learning on the go. Courses in 12 languages. Free, $5 for additional lessons; available for iOS and Android devices. busuu.com/mobile
TOTALe Online includes three mobile apps of varying quality. The oldest, TOTALe Companion (for iPhone, iPod Touch, Nook and certain Android devices), mostly involves listening to and repeating sentences ad nauseam. The far superior iPad- and Nook-only Rosetta COURSE, by contrast, offers lessons that are identical to what's offered in the computer-based Rosetta Stone program (except more convenient: no mouse necessary). And an iPad-only app, TOTALe Studio HD, lets you practice the language with native speakers during prescheduled video chats.
A caveat: Because voice recognition is a big component of the Rosetta Stone method, shyer learners might hesitate before using TOTALe in a crowded coffee shop. (Simply repeating the sentences in your head, no matter how flawless your imagined accent, deprives you of one of Rosetta Stone's best features.) Courses in 24 languages. $299 for 12 months of access. rosettastone.com