APPLICATIONS FOR MOBILE ASSISTED FRENCH LEARNING: DUOLINGO AND MEMRISE
Yabancı Dil Fransızca Öğretiminde Mobil Destekli Uygulamalar: Duolıngo ve Memrise Örnekleri

Author : Ertan KUŞÇU
Number of pages : 304-318

Abstract

The speed at which science and technology develops in the 21st century continue to baffle human beings, reaching from one end of the world to the other end of it has become as easy as touching a button with our fingers. As a result of all these developments, the obstacles to foreign language teaching have gradually disappeared and subsequently, learning or teaching a foreign language has become a lot easier, more economical, more enjoyable and more enjoyable. In other words, with the applications installed (Duolingo, Memrise) on mobile devices such as smart phones and tablets, it is now possible to master linguistic skills anywhere -- on the bus, in the shopping center, in the car, at home, in the park, etc. Moreover, apart from communicating and teaching foreign languages, some mobile applications can easily perform many unimaginable tasks such as banking transactions, shopping, giving directions, and weather forecasting. In this study, such applications as Duolingo and Memrise which can either be used online or be downloaded from Apple and Google markets have been examined. The most remarkable difference of these Internet-based applications from the classical language teaching practices is that they seek to teach the language to millions of people and make use of the techniques that have never been tried before. On the other hand, in the literature, these applications are referred to as e-learning and mobile learning. To give a brief sketch of them, Duolingo and Memrise can be described as applications aimed both at teaching language to the adults who cannot find the time to attend a course and at helping students improve their linguistic skills that they have gained at school. These applications can be accessed anywhere as long as a connection to the Internet is available. They help to improve the basic linguistic skills with games and stories; moreover, they are designed to work in accord with the theory which favors the teaching of a language on the basis of words and sentences. They are also designed to support the idea of teaching how to use the grammar rather than the grammar itself. These applications are enhanced with authentic materials which specialists in the area of teaching language have designed.

Keywords

French, e-learning, mobile devices, mobile learning, mobile applications, Duolingo, Memrise

Read: 1,060

Download: 357