Sustainable Development of the Future Learning Standart: The Use

of the Mobile Application in the Learning Process

Milyausha N. Kemalova

, Farida H. Sakhapova

and Olga G. Evgrafova

Naberezhnye Chelny Institute, Kazan (Volga region) Federal University, Mira prospect, Naberezhnye Chelny, Russia

Keywords: M-Learning, Student, Teacher, Method, Mobile Application, Duolingo.

Abstract: The given article is devoted to the study of the mobile application Duolingo as a sustainable method of

teaching and learning foreign languages. In the light of the recent lockdown and rapid move to online learning,

the problem of introducing effective and engaging teaching methods of the future is becoming more and more

relevant. As we live in a modern IT world we are given innumerous applications to choose to learn something

new and develop definite skills. However, not all of them could be used as a supplementary part of the online

lesson or session. As far as the mobile application Duolingo is concerned, the bite-size lessons seem to

contribute to fruitful work and further great feedback from students. Adding to the lesson plan few minutes

of learning in the form of a funny game due to this mobile application is likely to help your students to manage

pandemic anxiety symptoms, i.e. depression and tiredness and get ready for further studying. Having done

the peer review asking 60 students we analyzed the application Duolingo underlining its strongest sides. Also

some disadvantages are mentioned for those who are going to download and use the considered application.

1 INTRODUCTION

Mobile learning or M-learning is learning across

multiple contexts, through social and content

interactions, using personal electronic devices

(Crompton, 2013). It`s also a form of distance

education, m-learners use mobile device educational

technology at their convenient time (Crescente,

2011). The use of alternative relevant methods of

teaching and learning are being studied by foreign

researchers (Trentin and Repetto, 2013; Saylor, 2012,

etc.).

M-learning suggesting different special

applications (e.g. Drops, Simpler, LinguaLeo, etc.)

for learning foreign languages, popular and less

taught ones (as Irish), could definitely catch the

attention of students and at the same time containing

educational value be useful. Just by watching and

listening to students` talks in a group it becomes clear

that they prefer this modern approach to be added to

the learning process (Keegan, 1996). Moreover, in the

light of the recent lockdown the most of the students



https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3711-2511



https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4272-4977



https://orcid.org/0000-0001-9682-7747



had to move to online studying and it took hours and

great efforts to get used to it for students as well as

teachers. In the classroom we could control many

aspects of the environment; we do our best to provide

a safe, inclusive environment conducive to both

learning and teaching. Once this is taken away, we are

to support students in their own learning spaces,

which are linked to physical learning environments,

tools and devices, connectivity, personal support.

Unfortunately, it is impossible to keep in mind all the

given aspects in order to minimize students` anxiety

level and encourage them for better learning. Not

saying about the great pressure, teachers work under,

when they need to teach balancing online and offline.

It becomes clear that something relaxing and

engaging should be added to our lesson plans to help

both teachers and students to feel at ease and continue

working further with a greater motivation and win

time if you have technical problems ranging from the

slow connection speed, bandwidth to stability, etc.

Here we are to come up with the following decision –

to analyze the educationally valuable application for

Kemalova, M., Sakhapova, F. and Evgrafova, O.

Sustainable Development of the Future Lear ning Standart: The Use of the Mobile Application in the Learning Process.

DOI: 10.5220/0010595106330637

In Proceedings of the International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure (ISSDRI 2021), pages 633-637

ISBN: 978-989-758-519-7

 2021 by SCITEPRESS – Science and Technology Publications, Lda. All rights reser ved

633

learning a foreign language in order to see whether

this method could be introduced and used as the

sustainable method in future education.

However, it is necessary to highlight that we

should be careful while choosing the applications we

would like to use on the online sessions as a powerful

source and tool for studying. To avoid inappropriate

ones we are to try them ourselves first. It would be

wise to add that while choosing the mobile

application for the better learning process you as a

teacher or tutor should take into account that free or

no fee applications are more preferable to suggest

your students on lessons. Hence, in order to enrich

your lessons with engaging activities to keep your

students motivated and simultaneously relaxed

during both synchronous and asynchronous online

sessions you need to choose better one established

application than several typical ones which have not

been tested yet.

In the given article we are focused on examining

the educational value of the popular among students

(and adults too) mobile application Duolingo. Giving

the brief history of this free educational platform

suggesting different languages to learn, underlining

its strong sides, evaluating the progress of the learners

in a graph, as a next step we are to draw conclusions.

The relevance of the topic is provided by the fact

that the recent lockdown has changed our lives

dramatically and in order to adapt to the new

unfamiliar and sometimes depressing conditions is

our main goal. To achieve it we need to think about

the modern equally useful for teachers and students

ways of future learning in the given life

circumstances we were not ready for.

2 METHODS

The methodological framework of the study is based

on the comparative method, i. e. the survey containing

learners` answers covering numerous aspects of the

mobile learning that allow to investigate whether so

popular and beloved application Duolingo could be

useful and effective way of teaching and learning a

foreign language or languages. It would be wise to

mention that 60 students of the Naberezhnye Chelny

Institute/the brunch of KFU, Kazan Federal

University (from the freshmen to graduates) were

surveyed.

Also the analytical technique is used while

assessing the contents of the mobile application

Duolingo, its educational value, also taking into

account the data of the surveys which led to further

statistics.

The experimental data provided in the paper

belong to the authors of the article. Being teachers of

English we have tested this application ourselves

choosing English, Turkish and Arabic languages to

learn. The choice was made deliberately in order to

scrutinize the application from the point of view of a

new learner and advanced one, respectively.

The following works laid fundaments of our

study:

 Keegan, D. (2005). The incorporation of

mobile learning into mainstream education and

training. Retrieved from

https://ru.scribd.com/document/245786939/Ke

egan-the-Incorporation-of-M-Learning-in-the-

Mainstream-Education-Training.

 Keegan, D. (1996). Foundations of Distance

Education. Routledge.

3 RESULTS

The application under consideration is Duolingo that

is an American language-learning website and mobile

application, as well as a digital language-proficiency

assessment exam. The company uses the so-called

freemium model. Freemium is a blending of the

following words free and premium, in more common

sense is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or

service is provided free of charge, but money (a

premium) is charged for additional features, services,

or virtual (online) or physical (offline) goods that

expand the functionality of the free version of the

software (Guliani, 2017). This business model has

been used in the software industry since the 1980s. A

subset of this model used by the video game industry

is called free-to-play. The analyzed application and

the website are accessible without charge, although

Duolingo also offers a premium service for a fee. As

of 10 February 2021, the language-learning website

and application offered 106 different language

courses in 38 languages. The application has over 300

million registered users across the world (Settles,

2013). Hence, this mobile application is definitely

worth analyzing and underlining advantages and

disadvantages, respectively. While scrutinizing its

relevance and educational value the screenshots

would be added to support statements that were

formulated during our experimental use of the given

application. Three languages, English, Turkish and

Arabic, were chosen to learn by means of Duolingo.

Having used this application for nearly six months we

could outline some of its main working principles.

They are the following.

ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure

634

Doubtless, Duolingo is bright (mostly in green

color) well-developed application that is to engage

the students` attention providing them bite-size

lessons. The full core of the application is well-

organised that is one of the advantages. The

appsymbol friendly owl Duo and a range of other

different heroes, i. e. a kind energetic sportsman,

teenage rebellious girl with dyed hair, wise elderly

professor, a cheerful Muslim girl, a bald baby boy

with only front teeth - people of different age, culture,

occupation and even character) accompany you on

your studying and motivate to go on even if you make

mistakes. Each hero could remind you yourself, they

are realistic and sincere in their self-expression. The

choice of them is optimal because they are all

different and unique. Despite heroes` attractive

images and true-to-life human like mimics the learner

is not distracted while doing exercises. For your

progress on learning a language per day you are given

an award, several gems (the amount varies depending

on the level of exercises, goals, etc). For those who

are likely to go on learning via Duolingo these gems

could be spent or invested, so that you keep or up-

grade your progress that is counted in numbers and

shown in the leaderboard. The gems also could freeze

your permanent score, if you want to skip lessons and

save your progress.

In your profile you could also study the statistics

per day and observe whether your language skills

developed or not during the definite period of time.

According to the graph, which is automatically

produced, each user is able to study the statistics in

detail. Then, the total amount of days is counted in

order to send your personal progress statistics on your

email. The user could follow others or could be

followed too.

Hence, the atmosphere of the friendly competition

is created deliberately so that users are not going to

feel the dissatisfaction with their level of foreign

language or marks and be jealous with other users. As

you use Duolingo you are gradually moving from one

league to another. We have started from the lowest

and achieved the highest, i. e. Diamond League. If

you continue working hard you are likely to be

promoted, otherwise you are going to be sent back.

As it can be observed in both cases the bite-size

lessons are not aiming at comparing learners or

dividing them according to the scores or marks. That

is the strong side, doubtless. Under the given life

circumstances we should remember that students

suffer from post pandemic anxiety, stress, etc.

Deliberate competiveness based on feeling jealousy

towards other learners` marks will not contribute to

better feedback at all. Future sustainable teaching

methods prove it outlining that teachers ought to

compensate the stress not intensify.

Moving further, we are to add that if you have

registered you are likely to get a notification every

day motivating you to find some time to learn the

language. Once we stopped using Duolingo after six

months and observed that no notifications were sent

to us. Hence, it is up to each learner to decide when

to stop, which is also wise taking into account the

level of students` stress. Compulsory use of the

application would do more harm than good. While

our students were using Duolingo as an additional

part of synchronous or asynchronous sessions we

asked them to create a common chat group, so that

they could share their experience, ask or give some

advice. The great feedback accompanied with sincere

emotions released the students who were feeling stiff

some time ago. As a result, we may underline one

more brilliant advantage of Duolingo. This

application could be treated as an alternative remedy.

There is the table below depicting students`

comments on using Duolingo.

Table 1: Students` comments on using Duolingo.

Surveyed people

(Naberezhnye Chelny

Institute/the brunch of KFU,

Kazan Federal University )

Time spent on using

Duolingo in the online

lesson (in minutes)

Time spent on using

Duolingo on the own

pace (in minutes)/at

home

Comments

Students A (1th

year/freshmen)/15 p.

15 15

«difficult because of the

language barrier»

Students B (2nd year)/15 p. 15 15

«quiet interesting but a little

it difficult»

Students C(3rd year)/15 p. 15 30

«cool and motivating, our

teacher really get us on the

same wavelength»

Students D (4th year)/15 p. 15 30

«something new that I`ll

definitely use further»

Sustainable Development of the Future Learning Standart: The Use of the Mobile Application in the Learning Process

635

Concerning the peer preview and positive

feedback we have conducted one more experiment.

The students were given tests on defining the level.

Similar tests were given to them in the beginning of

the term. Comparing their previous answers and the

new ones we could suggest that Duolingo with its

repetitions of sentence structure has contributed to

better understanding lexis, grammar and syntax as a

whole. The vocabulary, spelling, word order were

enriched due to the repetitions while doing Duolingo

exercises. We have strongly recommended our

students to wear headphones in order to listen to the

sounds (vowels, diphthongs, consonants) carefully,

then pronounce thrice in order to revise new

vocabulary from the unit. As for the contents,

Duolingo offers innumerous units starting with the

easiest ones and finishing with the most difficult, as

politics, law, etc. Each theme is accompanied by

colorful flashcards that contributes to better

memorizing via visual materials. At the same time the

suggested flashcards are unlikely to distract the

learner. While doing exercises the user is gradually

promoted to the higher level within the studied theme.

The highest is 5, lowest is 1, respectively.

Table 2: Students` average bandscore before and after using Duolingo.

Surveyed people (Naberezhnye

Chelny Institute/the brunch of KFU,

Kazan Federal University)

Previous marks

(average)

New ones

(average)

Comments

Students A (1th year/freshmen)/15 p. 3,5 4,1 better spelling and pronunciation

Students B (2nd year)/15 p. 4,2 4,6

better spelling and pronunciation, more

complex sentences

Students C(3rd year)/15 p. 4,6 4,9 enriched vocabulary and grammar range

Students D (4th year)/15 p. 4,7 5 enriched vocabulary and grammar range

In addition to both experiments we are to outline

some disadvantages of the considered application.

The first is relevant for Russian students for whom

the English language is not native. The application is

in English so if you do not speak this language the

application is likely to be hard for you. It means that

you are to have at least the basic level. Freshmen do

not always have it as the level of school preparation

differs extremely as in other countries too. The

limited number of classrooms with necessary

technical equipment and WI-FI also seem to be a

barrier for Russian students to use the application or

platform properly. As for the application itself, while

studying you could find some mistakes in the tasks

that should be paraphrased. Yours answers sometimes

could be counted as wrong ones. What should be done

to improve the considered application is for sure

adding some tasks on listening and speaking. Taking

into account the future procedures for development

we are likely to conclude that these types of tasks will

be added.

4 DISCUSSION

The first table above depicts the answers of the survey

(60 students took part), centered around the acute

question whether Duolingo application could help

learners in studying foreign languages or not. The

second table deals with students` progress in six

months using the analyzed application. Students were

asked to answer honestly how much time (in minutes)

they spent each day in front of the laptops or mobiles,

their predictions on possibility of introducing this

mobile application to everyday online sessions.

According to the responds of students we could add

that the style of life they lead nowadays is obviously

linked to the virtual universe, so the future standards

of educations have already settled down, and mobile

application is only one of the numerous other

effective methods of teaching and learning. Our goal

is to to find and introduce the most appropriate ones

in order to eliminate side effects. We are, teachers, to

try them first, respectively.

Unfortunately, we do not have privilege to

eliminate the use of inappropriate applications at all

and choose only the ones that are aimed at exercising

mental and physical features, training especial

required skills for a number of jobs, educating users

in general. The most adequate here is to work with the

learners` passion for playing the right way, both

motivating and educating, respectively (Malone,

1981). Thus, the role of a teacher still remains

important. Sorting out the applications with high

educational value needs your concentration, patience

and enthusiasm.

ISSDRI 2021 - International Scientiﬁc and Practical Conference on Sustainable Development of Regional Infrastructure

636

5 CONCLUSION

Having considered both the advantages and

disadvantages of the given method, which consists in

applying the mobile application to the online sessions

we have observed in practice that this modern

approach is effective, of course, with the proper

organization of work (schedule, lesson plan, etc).

Thus, the use of any applications should be only

supplementary (Lawrence, 1986). Despite the weak

sides this relevant method can be effectively used in

many schools, colleges, universities across our

country on the base of sustainable learning standart.

It`s also proved to be the best alternative for the

teacher who is thinking about giving the useful and

simultaneously relaxing tasks for students whilst

summer holidays.

It`s necessary to underline here that nowadays the

market of m-learning has become much wider and

diverse, as the demand for educational applications

has grown significantly. Via mobile stores you could

choose and buy the most appropriate one among a

wide range of applications, specializing in certain

disciplines (e.g., English, chemistry, physics,

biology, history, etc.). Companies that provide them

take into account as many factors as they could in the

light of the recant pandemic lockdown in order to ease

and comfort the audience who has been through

difficulties and limitations for a long time. Doubtless,

the sustainable development of this relevant way of

teaching via mobile applications worth further

analyzing.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

We would like to thank all the students and staff of

Department of Philology of Kazan Federal

University, Naberezhnye Chelny Institute for their

help leading to the conceptualization of the project.

REFERENCES

Crompton, H. (2013). A historical overview of mobile

learning: Toward learner-centered education.

Florence, KY: Routledge.

Crescente, M. L. and Lee, D (2011). Critical issues of m-

learning: design models, adoption processes, and future

trends. Journal of the Chinese Institute of Industrial

Engineers, 28 (2).

Guliani, P. (2017). Duolingo looks to dominate the mobile

education market with new flascard app TinyCards.

https://www.forbes.com/sites/parulguliani/2016/07/22/

duolingo-looks-to-dominate-the-mobile-education-

market-with-new-flashcard-app/?sh=2722ede11c1d.

Keegan, D. (2005). The incorporation of mobile learning

into mainstream education and training.

https://ru.scribd.com/document/245786939/Keegan-

the-Incorporation-of-M-Learning-in-the-Mainstream-

Education-Training.

Keegan, D. (1996). Foundations of Distance Education.

Routledge.

Lawrence, G.H. (1986). Using computers for the treatment

of psycho of psychological problems. Computers in

Human Behavior, Vol. 2.

Malone, T.W. (1981). Toward a theory of intrinsically

motivated instruction. Cognitive Science, 4.

Saylor, M. (2012). The Mobile Wave: How Mobile

Intelligence Will Change Everything. Perseus Books,

Vanguard Press.

Settles, Burr (2013). Duolingo's Data-Driven Approach to

Education Official Duolingo Blog. Retrieved from

http://blog.duolingo.com/post/41960192602/duolingos

-data-driven-approach-to-education.

Trentin G. and Repetto M. (2013). Using Network and

Mobile Technology to Bridge Formal and Informal

Learning, Woodhead/Chandos Publishing Limited.

Cambridge, UK.

Sustainable Development of the Future Learning Standart: The Use of the Mobile Application in the Learning Process

637