I’d like to improve my Spanish. Yes, I’ve been out of daily Spanish lessons for 35 years,but I still retain enough vocabulary that I can get the gist of very simple sentences, and I can express myself, albeit simply and crudely, if need be. So all of the basic vocabulary and sentence structure and all that, that one would get in an introductory Spanish course, I don’t need.
Do these apps give you a test or something to evaluate where you need to be in your lessons? Or does everybody start from zero?
When you start a new language course on Duolingo, they first ask you “How much language do you know?” with a range of 5 options from “I’m new to language” to “I can discuss most topics in detail”.
If you choose an option other than “new” they ask whether you would like to start from scratch (start by taking the easiest lesson) or “find my level (recommended)”.
If you choose “find my level”, they then give you a test, on the basis of which they recommend a start point. You then get to choose whether to start at the recommended start point or start from scratch.
Yes, I’ve been studying Indonesian since January, and I remember the app asking me whether I could assess my level before starting. Since I was a complete beginner, I didn’t get to see how it deals with people who already have some knowledge of the language they’ve chosen, but it’s possible, and your answer confirms it.
I may be mistaken but I distinctly remember that Duolingo made me do a test first, and then put me at the appropriate level (i.e. starting higher than the first level).
I’ve been using Duolingo for over two years now, and it has always asked me that question. I’ve tried learning Spanish, which I knew nothing, Portuguese, which I knew nothing but was dating a Brazilian at the time, German, which I took in high school, French and Czech. For each one it asked me either to take a short test or how much I knew.
Yes most apps nowadays test your current level first, and start you off at an appropriate point IME. I will say though, that most apps top out at intermediate level; even if the app calls its top level “advanced” or whatever, it may be nowhere near the level you need to reach to hold a non-transactional conversation.
The only exception that I’ve found to this is lingopie, which uses real tv shows from the target language as the basis of its learning. However, I found it much too hard. There’s a vast gulf between completing the Mandarin course on Duolingo, say, and watching a real Chinese TV show, even one aimed at children.
The only way to get beyond that intermediate level is to actually use the language - talk to real people, watch TV shows, etc. AI isn’t up to that sort of conversation so I don’t think apps are useful.
There are some relatively inexpensive on-line places to have either a personal tutor/lesson or interact with actual speakers of your target language. If you want to advance past intermediate you’ll have to either seek out people to talk to or use one of those avenues to continue to advance.
Agreed. I’m just saying, if a person were thinking “I have some basic conversation skills and just want to brush up a bit”, an app is unlikely to get them any further than they already are. It might help with some vocab gaps, but they will likely need to consider other methods / resources for the bulk of their proficiency improvement.
(notwithstanding what I said about lingopie. It might actually be a great app for more advanced learners. For me, I spent like an hour going through the first three sentences of a children’s cartoon and felt it wasn’t going to be an efficient method, even though I can hold conversations in Mandarin)
I have found that app useful for a quick brush up to just get my brain into the other language groove. I have also found that 10-15 minutes of using the language even at the low level of the app has some use in maintaining my skills. They have their niche, I just have concerns that beginners or the uninformed won’t have a clear idea of that niche, or that they are just one tool among many you’ll need to actually achieve a useful level for, say, conversations or even just asking for directions and understanding the answer.