Duolingo Effective for Learning Language?

" Duolingo is effective for learning languages? "

Today language skills are very important and there are many ways to improve our language skills such as using social media to learn a language, so have you ever heard of learning a language through an app? Learning a language by utilizing social media is very effective, there are many features of social media that can help us to learn languages like Duolingo application. 

Duolingo is the world's most popular language learning platform and most downloaded educational app, with over 500 million users. This application can be accessed via a smartphone or website and can be used for children or adults. 

By learning a language using an application, it can make it easier for us to access it anywhere and anytime. This learning can be effective because learning is done by dictation and writing methods, as well as speaking practice.

The first learning applied by Doulingo application is dictation method. Dictation is one way of presenting language learning materials by using tools orally. Christopher Milne as professional writer, once said that "dictation as a tool for language learning has been around for a very long time". 

Milne said that he believed that using the dictation method in the language learning process would be very helpful, because the dictating method has often been used in the language learning process. 

And according to Liu Li in her report on Higher Education Studies (2020), Examined the effectiveness of using dictation as a teaching technique and provided evidence that dictation as a form of regular teaching practice can improve learners' overall language competence and vocabulary accuracy in the long term. 

The dictation method has been proven to improve the process of language learning and this method needs to be applied in the language learning process. So the Duolingo application that uses the dictation method in the language teaching process has proven to be effective.

The second learning applied by Doulingo application is  writing method. In language skills, writing is often equated with speaking skills considering that between the two have the main similarities as a productive language skill, writing is one of the important components in language learning. According to The Liang Gie (2002:3), writing skills are skills in making letters, numbers, names, a sign of any language with a stationery on a certain page. 

While revealing ideas and convey them through written language to the reading community to understand. Its simple meaning that "Writing" is the process of using symbols (letters of the alphabet, punctuation marks and spaces) to communicate thoughts and ideas in an easy-to-read form. In Duolingo application, we are guided to practice writing and completing the missing words, this is an easy learning process, more interesting and certainly not boring.

 Based on the research journal of the University of Lampung (2019), it shows that Class X students of SMAN 9 Bandarlampung, totaling 67 students, From the pretest results obtained an average value of 55, and this value is categorized as less, while the posttest results obtained an average value of 78.05556, and this value is categorized as moderate.