The language-learning platform Duolingo has launched in the Arab world, allowing Arabic speakers to learn English through free exercises, games and exams.
The app, pictured below, was designed to feel like a game, says Gina Gotthilf, vice president of marketing and communications at Duolingo.
“This attracts users who wouldn’t otherwise be interested in learning a language, who [think it] takes away time they would normally use to play games on their mobile phones,” she said.
The company was founded in November 2011 by two IT entrepreneurs at Carnegie Mellon University, Luis von Ahn and his graduate student Severin Hacker, with the aim of bringing science-based language-learning access to everyone, regardless of location or finances. The pair researched language books and then used detailed user surveys to develop a curriculum.
For example, to find out whether it was better to teach people adjectives before verbs or vice-versa, they gave 13,000 users one version and 13,000 users another version and measured if the variance led to any statistically significant change in terms of learning, Gotthilf said.
From the app’s English platform, there are 12 beginner through intermediate languages available, including the fictional Star Trek language Klingon – made possible by user crowdsourcing. The language courses under development don’t yet include Arabic, but do include Turkish and Hebrew.
“Our goal is to bring free language learning to everyone. This launch meant we could do an English course through Arabic,” says Gotthilf, pointing out that expensive English courses can be a major barrier to entry for people from poor or rural areas looking to enter certain professions.
Original article by Brooke Anderson
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Language learning platform Duolingo launches in the Arab world
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