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Duolingo Spanish Review

A comprehensive review of duolingo spanish after using the app for three months.

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In This Article

In late 2022, Duolingo completely overhauled how their app works. I had used Duolingo previously, but when I heard this update was so massive that it had upset a huge portion of the user base, I knew I had to retry it . So that’s what I did. I signed back up for Duolingo and used it for three months. Here’s what I found, and what I now think about this Spanish language learning app.

• Free Version
• Mobile App or Desktop
• Lessons take just 5 minutes
• The program is legitimately fun (and somewhat addicting)
• The vocab repetition is great for burning new words into your brain
• There is very little conversational practice
• Not much emphasis on grammar
• Lessons feel cursory compared to those from other apps

Duolingo Spanish Updates: How It Now Works

The biggest change with Duolingo has been the switch from the tree format to the path . In short, Duolingo used to have a pretty flexible learning format where you could pick and choose what you wanted to learn .

You could do basic exercises like matching vocab words, listen to short stories, learn how to order food, or talk about sports. Or, you could always jump to old lessons to review, or work on legendary status. In other words, you could essentially drive how and what you wanted to learn.

The update, however, has turned the tree into a linear path. Rather than having optionality, you work on a straight line through lessons . The lessons are organized into units on the path, and there are hundreds of units to complete to finish the entire language course.

Basically, the units are kind of like checkpoints under the old version of Duolingo Spanish. The crown system is also gone , and it has been replaced by the path as well.

So rather than earning different crown levels within a particular skill on the tree, they’ve taken the same lessons and spread them out across the path.

Plus, another change is that they’ve taken stories, which used to be separate on the dashboard, and integrated them directly into the learning path. The stories, which are really fun and popular, are no longer separately accessible under a different tab.

To be clear, you can actually review old stories you’ve already completed on the path under the “practice” tab, but it’s not like before , where you could go do a new story whenever you wanted.

Also, “tips” are now gone from the program, and replaced by a grammar guidebook at the start of each unit. That’s actually a good opportunity to explain how Duolingo does grammar instruction.

Rather than build grammar directly into their lesson work (similar to how Babbel Spanish and Pimsleur Spanish do it), Duolingo Spanish used to provide grammar “tips” with each skill on the tree. Now, however, they’ve dialed the grammar back and put it into the form of a “guidebook” at the start of each unit on your path.

Lastly, in a similar vein, Duolingo has taken their practice work and layered it into the path as well, based on a spaced repetition model . This is opposed to letting people practice of their own volition, as it used to be.

To recap these major updates : the path has replaced the learning tree; stories are now layered into the path; the grammar tips are now guidebooks at the start of each unit; and practice is also worked into the path like the stories.

Otherwise, the content of each lesson remains the same . The exercises and drills that make up the heart of Duolingo remain relatively unchanged. You’ve still got basic matching pairs, translation exercises, speaking drills, and writing exercises.

It’s really the same core exercises each day, with the same funny little characters and motion graphics.

Duolingo Spanish Negatives (What I Don’t Like)

Now that I’ve broken down the new updated format of Duolingo Spanish, let’s get into what I like and don’t like about this update. And let’s start with the negatives, as there seems to be a lot more criticism of these changes then there is praise for it.

Lesson Navigation Is Now Harder

The biggest downfall of this update in my eyes is how difficult it has become to navigate through the course . If you want to go forward or backward, you have to scroll through for an eternity.

Basically, you have to follow the new path all the way down, or all the way back up. The old Duolingo was not like this. The old user interface had easy to read lesson names and icons , so you could tell exactly what each skill or level was about.

The issue with this has to do with going back to review. Previously, it was really easy to go back to older lessons to get more crowns and work on legendary status.

Now, however, you have to scroll a long way, and you’re just guessing at what each step in the path covers as they are not individually labeled .

For example, say you’re at unit 60; however, your legendary status only goes to unit 30. This means you would need to scroll 30 units up to find your legendary progress.

And even then you won’t have a great idea of what you’re reviewing because the steps aren’t labeled. This can be a big deal .

Let me explain further. Let’s say you’re getting ready for a trip to Mexico City and you want to review the lessons on ordering in a restaurant and asking for directions.

These particular lessons are now much harder to find for those specific reviews . The bottom line is that it’s not a huge substantive issue, but it is definitely annoying.

Frankly, I feel like a really easy fix for Duolingo would be to collapse the path view for all but the current unit . In other words, just allow users to scroll through unit headers with labels of what’s within, in order to find what you’re looking for . That would be nice improvement.

Light on Grammar

The second complaint I have with the update has to do with grammar. Duolingo has really scaled back their grammar instruction by doing away with “tips.”

The new grammar guidebooks that are appended to be beginning of each section are helpful and contain some of the same material from the old “tips” sections, but honestly, they feel somewhat neutered.

It feels like these more robust grammar tips have been replaced with a few example phrases and teaching points. It’s not a great way of managing grammar instruction in my opinion.

Something else I have noticed in using Duolingo Spanish for a second time is that the program overall feels a bit easier.

Now, it could just be me, but it feels like post-update, the program is much heavier on repetition. Every stepping stone on the path just hammers the same phrases and concepts, over and over .

I might just be more acute to differences post-update, or maybe it’s just the new linear format, but I’ve seen other Duolingo users say this as well . The program overall just feels a little bit more repetitive and easier.

Too Many Ads In The Free Version

Full disclosure, my fourth negative is something I actually haven’t experienced myself since I pay for Super Duolingo, their ad-free premium version. However, I’ve heard from a lot of people on the free plan that the ads are much heavier and more frequent after the update .

To be honest, this doesn’t really shock me. If we peel back the layers, one of the biggest points of the update for Duolingo was to get more people to upgrade to the paid Super Duolingo.

They say this major change was for improved learning science and user experience, but if we’re being honest with ourselves, part of it was driven by the desire to get more people to upgrade from free to paid.

The free version under the new format is harder to navigate than if you have the paid version, and with the heavier ad impressions , I just think they’re really trying to get people to pay up for the Super version.

Duolingo Spanish Positives (What I Like)

Now let’s switch gears and discuss the things I actually do like about Duolingo Spanish.

Path Offers Learning Structure

Even though everyone loved the old tree and skills framework, the reality is that it wasn’t perfect either. Because you could jump around to learn whatever you want , it gave the program a very hodge podge feel.

In fact, that’s why Duolingo had suggested ways of using the program, such as the waterfall method (which by the way, not that many people used). The reality is that there are lot of people with 1,000+ day streaks who still have low confidence in their ability to speak Spanish.

They just don’t feel comfortable jumping in and holding conversations. And the reason for this, at least in part, was the lack of structure . People used the learning modules willy nilly, and there was no flow to the program.

That is why with this new path structure they’ve placed a big focus on progressive building . The lessons all build on one another, and even the stories have consistent characters which get developed along the way.

This update brings the Duolingo courses in line with other Spanish language learning apps that are more structured and help people to work through language programs in an orderly fashion.

Spaced Practice & Review

Another aspect of this Duolingo Spanish update that I actually like is how they’ve built practice sessions right into the path . Every few stepping stones, you’ll get a review session that forces you to practice stuff you’ve already learned.

This is a change from the past program , where it was on you to manage your own reviews and practice work.

This built-in practice work ensures you’re regularly revisiting material , which is crucial for learning Spanish .

Spaced repetition is a huge factor in internalizing a new language, and I think this new format will ultimately help learners develop a stronger foundation long term as they stick with it.

Shockingly Fun

Lastly, my final positive is that the app is still fun . Yes, it’s more rigid, and there are definitely some negatives with the changes they’ve made, but the content is still the same .

The lessons only take 5 minutes ; you still get to compete against other users in leagues; you can still do friend quests; you can earn gems, lingots and XP points; and all the same little characters and motion graphics are still there.

In other words, the gamification aspect of language learning with Duolingo that everyone loves is still there front and center, and I really like that .

Final Verdict: Is Duolingo Good For Learning Spanish?

That brings me to my closing thoughts—is Duolingo worth it? Or is it time to consider another app? Honestly, my thoughts on Duolingo haven’t really changed that much post-update. Even before the major changes, I thought Duolingo was best used as a supplemental tool , and not a standalone Spanish program.

There is good reason why people with 1,000 day streaks still complain about not feeling comfortable and confident is their conversational abilities. It’s because Duolingo is a brain game— not a full blown Spanish course . Thus, I would say that if you’re just looking to learn some basic phrases and elementary-level understanding of Spanish before a trip, then Duolingo is great for that. Go for it.

However, if you’re serious about becoming fluent in Spanish at an intermediate to advanced level, you have to use another Spanish app which is more robust, like Babbel , Pimsleur or Rocket Spanish , and then supplement with Duolingo Spanish. That’s where I see Duolingo being the most beneficial—as a complementary tool to a more comprehensive language course.

After using Duolingo for three months, I definitely think there are better apps to learn Spanish. While Duolingo is fun and kind of addicting, it just isn’t that effective for actually learning to listen and speak.

The problem with Duolingo Spanish is that it can take a really long time to learn Spanish. If you do just one lesson per day, you really won’t make much progress. You’ll get a long streak, but you won’t become fluent.

I like Duolingo for what it is, a fun game. I love doing the lessons and keeping my streak up, but feel as if it would take forever to actually become fluent in Spanish just using the Duolingo app.

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Duolingo for Spanish in 2023 – EVERYTHING You Need To Know

• Posted by by Matt
• Last updated: April 13, 2023
• 11 minute read

If you’re thinking about learning Spanish, then it stands a chance you’ve come across Duolingo’s Spanish course.

Spanish is one of the most popular and widely spoken languages on the planet. It’s thought to be spoken by over 559 million people globally , and is by far the most popular language on Duolingo for English speakers.

It was also the first language I had a stab at on Duolingo all the way back in 2014.

The course has changed A TON since then, to the point that it’s now easily one of Duolingo’s best courses. Not just because it’s so long, but because it gets all the latest and greatest features before the majority of Duolingo’s other courses.

So does that mean Duolingo is good for learning Spanish?

In this article, I’ll give you all the essential details, such as:

• How Duolingo’s Spanish course is structured
• A closer look at the course’s special features
• Other features you need to be aware of
• The pros of Duolingo’s Spanish course
• The cons of Duolingo’s Spanish course

Shall we get to it?

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What you’ll find in Duolingo’s Spanish course

If you’re new to Duolingo, then it’s worth pointing out that all of Duolingo’s courses are structured in pretty much the same way.

There might be one or two slight differences depending on which platform you’re using. However, for the most part, they all look and work the same.

The below represents what you’ll currently find on Duolingo’s IOS app!

The Spanish course follows what is referred to as the learning path .

Basically…

The path is broken up into a set of units …

Each unit has a set of levels …

Each level has a series of lessons …

And all of this is organised into a set of sections …

The basic goal is to work your way along the path by completing every lesson… in every level… in every unit… in every section.

As of March 2023, Duolingo’s Spanish course has a total of 216 units , spread across 8 different sections . The sections range from beginner all the way through to intermediate.

As you move through the path, you’ll get opportunities to complete some timed challenges by tapping on the adjacent characters …

Once you’ve completed a level, you’ll then get the opportunity to tackle an extra-hard challenge to make it legendary…

The exercises in the Spanish course are basically the same as in all the other courses. Some of the common exercises you’ll come across include:

• Complete the translation
• Mark the correct meaning
• Picture flashcards
• Select the missing word
• Sentence shuffle
• Speak this sentence
• Speak the correct response
• Tap the pairs (standard and audio)
• Translation
• Tap what you hear
• Fill in the blanks
• Listen and respond

You can see some of these exercises in action in the video below:

Special features in Duolingo’s Spanish course

Although English speakers can learn nearly 40 different languages on Duolingo, it’s important to point out that not all of the courses are created equally.

Some courses have special features that others don’t.

Some of these include stories , the match madness timed challenge, and AI-powered features (exclusive to Duolingo Max).

As of March 2023, Spanish is one of Duolingo’s most feature-packed courses. It currently has 288 stories, match madness, and is one of only two courses taking advantage of Duolingo’s new AI features.

Duolingo Spanish stories

Duolingo’s Spanish stories are designed to improve your reading, listening and speaking. They’re entirely in Spanish and most of them are only a few minutes long at most.

They’re written for learners of all levels and come with the usual hints you find in the normal lessons.

Every now and then you’ll have to answer a question to make sure you understand what’s going on, which is a great way to measure where you’re at with your comprehension.

Check out this video to see one of Duolingo’s Spanish stories in action!

Match Madness

Match Madness is one of Duolingo’s main timed challenges.

It’s basically a fancy match-the-pairs exercise, where you have to match the Spanish word with its English equivalent.

However, in Match Madness, you have to do this against the clock, and the time you have to complete it gets shorter and shorter in each round.

It’s a great test of your comprehension speed and has quickly become one of the Spanish course’s best features!

Duolingo Max

Spanish is currently one of only two courses to be taking full advantage of Duolingo’s latest subscription tier — Duolingo Max.

Max is built on GPT 4 — the latest release from OpenAI — to give learners a fuller-bodied learning experience.

The two main features that Max adds to the Spanish course are Explain My Answer and Role Play.

You can learn more about them in Duolingo’s blog post .

As exciting as these features are, it’s important to note that Max is still in its early days and is currently only available to select users. It’s also a paid plan, meaning Max features don’t come with the standard Spanish course.

Duolingo Spanish podcasts

Although these are no longer available on the app, you can still access Duolingo’s Spanish podcasts on a wide range of podcast platforms.

These podcasts also offer a cool way to practice your Spanish when you’ve got your hands full.

They’re described as “Fascinating stories in easy-to-understand Spanish”. They’re split into healthy measures of Spanish and English, so they’re fairly easy to follow, even at an early level.

The podcasts are a great complement to the standard Duolingo course and work wonders for your listening comprehension.

The Duolingo Spanish podcasts are available on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Google Podcasts, Stitcher, PocketCasts, iHeartRadio and Overcast.

Other features in Duolingo’s Spanish course

Duolingo’s Spanish course is built on the same stuff as all of Duolingo’s other language courses.

We won’t go into too much detail here, but some of the features worth knowing about include:

• XP – As you work through the Duolingo Spanish course, you’ll earn experience points, which are more commonly known as XP. You’ll earn XP for pretty much everything you do. Some lessons, tasks and exercises will earn you more XP than others.
• Leagues – Every week you’ll be entered into a league with other Duolingo learners. There are 10 leagues to work through, starting at Bronze and ending at Diamond. The leagues are basically leaderboards — simply earn more XP than others in your league to have a chance of winning.
• Gems – XP isn’t the only thing you’ll earn as you learn Spanish. You’ll also earn gems, which you can spend in the Duolingo Shop . There isn’t really much you can buy here, but you can use your gems to pick up things like Streak Freezes and Timer Boosts for timed challenges.
• Friends – Duolingo is a social experience, so you’re able to follow other users and compare your progress. The guys at Duolingo reckon you’re 5 times more likely to finish your course if you follow people! To get you started, feel free to give me a follow — my username is DCiiieee !
• Duolingo Plus / Super – This is Duolingo’s premium membership. Pay for Plus/Super and you’ll get access to some useful features, including unlimited hearts , no ads and Practice Hub .

Is Duolingo good for learning Spanish?

Now it’s time for the main event:

To answer this, let’s weigh up some of the pros and cons.

Beginner-friendly

Learning a new language can be pretty intimidating, especially if you only speak the one language.

This is why one of the nicest things about Duolingo is just how accessible and welcoming it is.

Regardless of the language you’re learning, Duolingo presents its courses in a really warm, vibrant and inclusive way. So whether this is your second language or your tenth, you can feel at ease straight away!

This is the case for the vast majority of Duolingo’s courses, but it’s particularly true for the Spanish course.

It’s easily one of the best-supported courses on the app, getting new updates on a regular basis, with loads of support from the start of the path to the end.

The bespoke guidebooks are a big selling point of the Spanish course, as they generally do a good job of unpacking the complicated aspects of a unit. This is super important for helping you understand Spanish grammar, which can be a bit tricky at times.

And as with all of its courses, Duolingo’s Spanish course comes with the usual placement test when you first start, so you can rest easy that you’ll start your path from a place you find comfortable.

RELATED: The BEST Way To Learn Spanish For Beginners

Massive course

Duolingo’s Spanish course has received a lot of updates over the years, to the point that it’s one of Duolingo’s elite courses.

With a whopping 216 units of Spanish levels and lessons, the Spanish path is comfortably one of Duolingo’s biggest.

This will take you A LONG TIME to work through. And that’s a good thing!

Some of Duolingo’s courses are really short, so you can breeze through them pretty quickly but not come away feeling as though you’ve learned much.

But rest assured, you’re unlikely to experience this with the Spanish course. Not only is it jam-packed with vocabulary, each unit comes with a bespoke tip section to help you get your head around the tricky aspects of Spanish grammar.

Duolingo have also totally redone the voices of a lot of their characters, making them sound alive and engaging.

Special features

Duolingo’s Spanish course has more special features than the majority of Duolingo’s other courses.

And one of the main ones is the stories feature.

Duolingo’s Spanish stories are among the best on the app. The Spanish course has one of the largest libraries of stories, coming in at a gigantic 288 as of July 2022.

They all have authentic, animated voices, so they sound real and engaging. They’re genuinely hilarious and binge-worthy!

This doesn’t just go for Duolingo’s Spanish course, it’s the same for ALL of them!

One of the best things about Duolingo is that it’s more than just a language learning tool.

It’s also a game . And although this isn’t to everyone’s liking, it’s a big part of why so many people show up every day to do their daily lessons.

For everything you do in Spanish, you’ll earn XP, which contributes towards your position in the weekly leagues.

Now this isn’t something you should take too seriously (you can read more about why here ) but if you take it lightly it’ll definitely make your Spanish a lot more enjoyable.

Because ultimately, the more you enjoy something, the more likely you are to do it. Learning Spanish is going to require A LOT of your time, so the more enjoyable it is, the better — and Duolingo definitely has you covered here.

Another great thing about Duolingo is that the Spanish course is 100% free .

There is a premium subscription — Duolingo Plus/Super — but this isn’t something you need in order to complete the course. The whole thing is completely free; Plus/Super just adds a few features that make things a bit smoother.

This is great if you’re just dabbling with Spanish and aren’t ready to commit just yet. But also if you’re keen to get started with the language but don’t want to fork out on special software or tuition.

Super motivating

I take it you’ve seen the owl memes ? Spanish or vanish!

Yes, the owl can be *a bit* of a stalker at times, pestering you at all hours to do your daily Spanish lessons!

But relax, contrary to popular belief, he’s not gonna kidnap your family anytime soon!

Jokes aside, Duolingo is brilliant for keeping you motivated .

Learning Spanish takes time. It’s not something you’re going to pick up overnight.

According to the US Foreign Service Institute , it takes roughly 600 “class hours” to reach “Professional Working Proficiency” in Spanish.

So yeah, if you’re going to learn Spanish, you’ve got to be in it for the long haul!

That means creating an unbreakable habit. And Duolingo’s amazing for doing that.

Put it this way — my current streak (i.e. the number of days in a row I’ve used Duolingo) goes all the way back to May 2016.

And that’s not just because I’m a bit obsessive! It’s thanks to Duolingo being such a great way of keeping me motivated!

If you’ve read any of my other articles then you’ll know one of the things I dislike most about Duolingo at the moment is the heart system .

Hearts are basically lives or chances. You start off with 5 then lose one every time you make a mistake.

If you lose all your hearts then you’re not allowed to progress through your course until your hearts replenish.

You can either watch an ad to get one back, do a practice session, spend some gems or wait 5 hours.

It’s far from ideal as it does the unhelpful thing of punishing you for making mistakes .

Which, as far as I’m concerned, is ridiculous as mistakes are absolutely essential and unavoidable when learning a language.

Not great for speaking

Spanish is probably one of Duolingo’s best courses for speaking thanks to the size of the course and stories.

However, it still falls short in terms of getting you to a solid conversational level. At least by itself, anyway.

The main problem is that the speaking exercises aren’t conversation exercises. You get a little bit of practice in the conversation mode on the stories (if available), but this just involves reciting what the characters say. You don’t actually come up with your own responses.

Speaking is a skill in its own right and to learn it you’ll need to practice it regularly, ideally with a native speaker, or at the very least using a program that has extended conversation scenarios (such as SpanishPod101 ).

Not a one-stop-shop

A common mistake people make with Duolingo is they expect it to take them all the way to fluency.

Of course, fluency is a funny thing to define. Everyone has their own interpretations.

And while Duolingo believe the Spanish course can get you all the way to B2 on the CEFR, this doesn’t tell the whole story.

Learning a language requires more than just an active learning tool (which is what Duolingo is for the most part). You also need to add an equal measure of passive learning to your lingo diet.

Passive learning is the stuff you do away from the classroom (or in this case Duolingo). It’s watching TV shows, listening to music, reading books, and having real-life conversations.

While the Spanish course does a lot more to hit on passive learning than most of Duolingo’s other courses, it’s still not an all-in-one solution for learning Spanish.

Whatever stage you’re at in your Spanish-learning journey, Duolingo’s Spanish course is undoubtedly one of the most well-rounded and polished courses currently available.

The course is so jam-packed and overflowing with cool new features that it’s easy to see why Duolingo believe it can get you to B2 level on the CEFR scale.

You’ll learn the most important aspects of the language, get to grips with the pronunciation and pick up a sizable chunk of useful vocabulary.

You’ll get to see the language in action in over 280 mini-stories.

You’ll also have a blast working through the course as you compete in the weekly leagues and alongside your friends!

By the end of the course, you’ll definitely be more advanced than when you started.

As far as active learning tools go, Duolingo is one of the best for Spanish. And better still — it’s 100% free!

For best results…

However, if you really want to reach a decent level in Spanish, Duolingo is only part of the solution.

A good tool to use — either alongside Duolingo or after you’ve completed the course — is SpanishPod101 .

SpanishPod and Duolingo complement each other beautifully, as they both target areas that the other misses. Duolingo is great for reading and typing things out, whereas SpanishPod focuses more on improving your listening and speaking.

It basically keeps the wheels turning once you’ve maxed out your daily Duolingo session, but also helps you get comfortable speaking Spanish right from the beginning.

With SpanishPod you’ll also get essential resources like grammar packs, cultural insights, and learn the 2,000 most common Spanish words — so by the end of the course, you should be able to understand as much as 80% of all Spanish conversations.

If you’re new to Spanish

I’d highly recommend taking Duolingo’s placement test, figuring out what level you’re at, and then working through the first section of units. This will get you familiar with the basics of Spanish.

At the same time, I’d recommend taking advantage of SpanishPod’s free trial to get familiar with how the language sounds, pick up some useful phrases and cultural insights, and practice speaking as soon as possible.

Once you’ve worked your way through the Duolingo course (this could take a while) I’d recommend coming back to it daily to keep the streak alive (habit is SO important when learning a language) and start to move through the intermediate to advanced packs on SpanishPod.

Finally, make sure you’re getting enough passive exposure to Spanish as well. It’s really important to experience the language in an authentic environment — so things like TV shows, music, books, real-life conversations — so you can see how everything you learn on Duolingo and SpanishPod works in the real world.

Hey! I'm Matt, the Duolingo-nut behind duoplanet. I started using Duolingo back in 2014, and my current streak stretches all the way back to May 2016. Using Duolingo I've reached a comfortable level in Italian and acquired a basic understanding of Russian. I've also gone deep into the Spanish, German and French courses, and intend to explore more languages in the years to come. Needless to say, I'm obsessed with language learning!

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Wow, this is a really informative and helpful article! I’ve been reading articles on Duoplanet for a while now, and just this morning I started my first lesson in the Spanish course after doing a lot in the Yiddish tree. When I opened the website and saw this article, I immediately read it. I now know so much more about the Spanish course than I used to. Thank you, Matt! 🙂

No problem! Glad you found it helpful 🙂

Hi Matt. I’m on Android studying Spanish and I don’t see audios nor podcasts. You mentioned they are available on mobile. My bottom menu is different and there’s a broken heart (to access past mistakes) instead of the audio icon. Are you using iOS? I’m a plus member, BTW.

Also, the bonus skills are no longer available in the Duolingo shop for me. Wondered why did they remove them…

Hey Tiago. Yes audio lessons are only available on IOS at the moment. Completely slipped my mind (sorry!). I’ll get the article updated.

As for the podcasts — if you can’t get them through the app they’re available on a bunch of different podcast platforms (e.g. Spotify, Apple, Google), the only downside is you won’t earn any XP.

Hope that helps!

Hi Matt. I just started Unit 6 in Duolingo Spanish and planned to finish Unit 7 by the end of 2023. Now they’ve changed everything and I’m at Lesson 87. I don’t know where I am and I don’t like the new format. What’s your take on it?

Glad you updated this article 🙂

Thanks for a useful article. I’d add a few more criticisms of Duolingo:

1. Too many of the exercises are based on translation, which doesn’t encourage you to think in Spanish. OK there are Spanish-only exercises like gap-fills and reading/listening comprehension, but too few and too easy.

2. Too many of the exercises focus on inidividual sentences, which is not great for building fluency. You can make up for this to some extent with the stories, podcasts etc. but they are presented as extras rather than a central part of the course.

3. They don’t tell you what version of Spanish you’re learning! It’s clearly not how they speak in Spain, I’m guessing it’s Mexican, or possibly some kind of mash-up of Latin American dialects. If they can’t offer different versions (and tbh I don’t see why not for a major world language like Spanish, it would just need minor tweaks) then they should at least make it clear which version they are teaching and, most importantly, flag up which vocab items and pronunciation features will be different in different countries.

4. They claim it’s part of their mission to make learning free, but that sounds a bit disingenuous given how much pressure there is to sign up for the paid version.

5. Different people learn at different rates. I think there should be some kind of “fast lane” so that if you’re getting 100% on most lessons then you could cut down the amount of repetition and move on sooner to more challenging material.

On the positive side, if you do other things as well to learn Spanish, then Duolingo is a great way of reminding yourself to do at least a little bit of learning every day.

Hi there, I just wanted to say I really agree with your point #3 – imagine my surprise when I read a European Spanish phrasebook and saw all the differences! I’m really disappointed that Duolingo designed it this way, if they’re going to use the Spanish flag then European Spanish should be the version being taught. I’m even a bit upset that I’ve spent so long learning something that is pretty much irrelevant to me. I hope the course will split to cover different dialects in the future.

I’ve encountered something strange. My husband and I are both doing Duo Spanish and when I finished unit 30 of section 4 Trailblazer, next offered is section 5 Adventurer. Whereas my husband’s section 4 Trailblazer has 52 units! I tried turning my phone off and on. I don’t want to delete the app as I might lose my streak… Any thoughts?

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Spanish with Stephanie

Ideas from one Spanish teacher to another

How to use Duolingo in your world language classroom

Today’s post is about this fantastic free app called Duolingo. It is a wonderful tool for differentiation, especially for your high-achievers who always finish early!  

What is Duolingo?

Duolingo is a free online tool to learn language. It teaches students through a series of mini-lessons and tracks their progress. Mini-lessons include skills across all 4 domains of language.  Students can learn more than one language at a time!

When a student completes a lesson, the level turns gold.  As time goes on, the gold bars fade to encourage students to go back to review and strengthen old lessons. They get a bar graph that shows their weekly Experience Points (XP) and they get points for both completing new levels and strengthening old ones.

The other incentive is called Lingots.  These are tokens that they can accumulate to “buy” items such as outfits for their Duolingo Owl or other special lessons such as idioms or flirting!

How I use it in my classroom

• Students create an account and join my class:
• Teacher Tutorial Video – Setting up your dashboard
• Teacher Tutorial Video – Student set-up

Daily:  This is their bellringer. (No prep!!) I set a timer that covers the passing period and the first 5 minutes of class. Students are motivated to get to my class on time (or even early) so they have extra Duolingo time!  When the buzzer goes off, they know to put away their device so we can begin class.  

Fridays:  Students begin a drumroll and I project the teacher dashboard to announce the winner each week. We select the winner by the amount of XP points, because this totals how many minutes they spent practicing, including review.  They are encouraged to play outside of class too!

Extra Credit:   Duolingo is the only way to earn extra credit in my class now.  Students can play outside of class on their home computer or on their smartphone. For every 100 XP points earned, they receive 1 point of extra credit. They max out at 10 points a quarter.

Competition

I have a bulletin board in my room entitled “Duolingüista” (This is the Spanish word I came up with for “duolingo-er”) and each class has a scoreboard where we write the winner’s name and their XP total. (Download here)  My weekly winner also gets a prize, and I have included the prize board poster in the download as well.  (Update: My students gave the feedback that they started losing interest when the same kids kept winning and thought the top 3 winners should get prizes, so that is what we do now.)

Helpful Tools for Classroom Management

• Students in my school have their own Chromebooks, but I also let them bring their phone to class because we have found that the speaking activities work better on their phone.  If I see their phone at any other point during class, I take it directly to the office with no warning, so I have not had any problems yet!
• I let students use Duolingo when they finish other work early.  This must be done on their computer though, not their phone.  Phones can only be used during the first few minutes of class when I can monitor everyone.
• Encourage students to use headphones to cut down on the noise. The program speaks to them and has other sounds throughout.
• Homework pass
• Sitting in the teacher chair or another “cool” chair
• Dollar store prizes

​The best part about this app is that the Duolingo staff is so receptive and supportive of feedback.  They have made some great updates within the past year alone that make it even easier to track your student’s progress using their Dashboard feature. This tool has become a hugely effective and motivating force within my classroom!

March 3, 2018 at 2:37 pm

Love Duolingo and my students love it as one of their options for homework! One thing to be careful of with purely XP winnings – students can just repeat the same lesson over and over again, as I have found. I look at both the XP and the “Course progress” columns. Tons of XP and no course progress is suspicious!

March 3, 2018 at 2:51 pm

Thanks Sra. Kennedy! Yes, I have had some students try this. When I catch the first student dong it, I will show the whole class how clever s/he was and then tell them that from this day forward, you can no longer be the weekly winner by just doing the same lesson all week. =)

March 7, 2018 at 7:26 pm

This is a great share of ideas! I use Duolingo and give points using ClassDojo. Students earn points when I receive the Monday Monthly Report from Duolingo listning the students who logged in throughout the week, and the lessons they’d completed. Students earn points based on lessons. But, if they do lesson one (Basic) multiple times, they only get one point. It’s a great resource. Thanks again!

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6 easy ways to incorporate Duolingo into your classroom

It’s no question that teaching is hard, and great teachers are irreplaceable. That’s why every feature and update that we launch at Duolingo for Schools is meant to make educators’ lives easier, and students’ learning more fun and effective. Here are some easy ways to get started with using Duolingo in the classroom. Teachers: make sure to add your students to a classroom at schools.duolingo.com so that you can create assignments and follow along with their progress!

Assign a game as homework: Instead of printing out worksheets and exercises, assign specific Skills that align with your curriculum for students to practice on Duolingo (we’ll handle the grading!). For an added challenge, and to personalize student learning, set an XP goal for them to meet by practicing with any activity they choose. Our research shows that Duolingo is an effective way to gain proficiency in a new language, and we have a wealth of teaching and learning experts dedicated to creating and improving our courses!

Turn XP into extra credit: Our experience points, or XP, make it fun to set up class-wide competitions or challenge individual students. Use XP assignments as extra credit to reward students for practicing language learning on their own time, or give extra points to individuals or teams that win time-based XP challenges.

Warm up cool down with bellringers: Those first five minutes of class can always feel a bit chaotic—and those last five can carry an angsty “watching the clock” energy. Use Duolingo at the beginning or end of class by setting a specific goal for students to complete during these times. This will help everyone settle in, or out, with some fun learning activities!

Gather the groups: Does your class thrive on collaborative exercises, or on competition? Students can race against the clock to see who can get the most XP, or divide into teams for some friendly competition. Get ideas for activities from our Pinterest and Teachers Pay Teachers pages, or by joining our Educator Community on Facebook .

Call for reinforcement: Don’t have time to go back and review everything you’ve taught, or even just the material that you know your students need to revisit? We’ve been there. Use Duolingo to assign specific Skills that students need to practice that aren’t part of your regularly scheduled program.

Reward with learning: Duolingo’s gamefied interface makes learning exciting and fun. It can actually function as a reward to allow students who have completed their in-class assignments or other work to “play” Duolingo! Offer “Duolingo time” as a reward when you have students who have earned it!

Create your classroom(s) , join our community , and get the very most out of Duolingo’s free, fun, effective tools for teachers today!

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