Duo Lingo vs Señor Jordan Language Learning Sites LEAH DEVINE EXPLORE MULTI MEDIA IDT 650 8/25/15

Where to learn Spanish online for free?  DuoLingo is a game based website and app for learning Spanish and 40+ other languages in an online setting.  Crowdsourced lessons  The lessons are repetitive and based on language immersion and use.  Topics are taught in themes.    Señor Jordan has a web site with learning videos based on topics, grammar, and themes.  Created by school teacher  He also has a YouTube channel as “Tontitofrito”  There is a videos series about “El Mono” that builds communication skills

Topics, Themes, and Lesson Style  Theme based game units.  New units incorporate and build on material.  You earn access to new units.  Each unit follows a similar lesson pattern:  Introduce  Practice  Translate  Choose  Create  Videos by topics – Communication, Grammar, and themes.  El Mono Series is immersion based.  Grammar videos starts simple, review, and build on knowledge.  You can access any video at any time and search by key word.  ~200 videos  Grammar charts  Dictionary

Motivation  DuoLingo has an Owl name “Duo”  Learners set goals and their progress is charted.  Reminder s / texts to practice  Earn “Lingots” that can be used to buy lessons on special topics or buy outfits for Duo.  Señor Jordan uses humor to motivate learners  He is encouraging  His videos use repetition and provide opportunities for success.  Sometimes the movies may seem too slow and cause leaners to lose interest.

Feedback  DuoLingo provides specific feedback with each question answered.  Feedback includes hints  Repeats questions that were missed in future lessons.  Señor Jordan provides time in his practice videos for those watching to come up with answers. He then provides examples of correct answers.  There is not feedback specifically meeting the learner’s answer

$$$ El Dinero - Funding  Duolingo is Free for all users  Students and whole classes can sign up  No advertising  Investors and venture capitalists  DuoLingo crowdsources translation services and receives compensation for this service.  Information from the Business Model Section of  Señor Jordan is a teacher who offers his videos & resources for free  He sells t-shirts and has an online store.  He accepts donations.  His YouTube videos sometimes start with ads.  His website has ads.

Drawbacks  DuoLingo  Immersion environment but based on a lot of translation  Includes some images but is mainly verbal.  Can only access topics once you reach them in the game  Excessive reminders when you have not studied can be discouraging.  One reminder message every day  Señor Jordan  Videos require YouTube which is blocked at many schools or require a special login.  Videos of sometimes low quality images.  So much material on one website can be overwhelming.

Conclusion  DuoLingo and Senor Jordan provide helpful free learning tools that aid in language acquisition through immersion based lessons, multimedia presentations, and active cognitive learning.  As a Spanish teacher I highly recommend both of these sites!!!  As a language learner, I found DuoLingo’s Portuguese lessons useful and motivating.  These free tech tools can supplement language learning and create a more confident multilingual society.  Utilized in this project: