CRITICAL ANALYSIS OF THE DUOLINGO APPLICATION FOR USE IN THE ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING PROCESS

The educational context has numerous tools to provide students with more meaningful learning, especially in terms of interactivity, technologies and innovation. With regard to teaching and learning languages, many apps present interesting proposals for their users and potential users. However, learning a new language is a complex task, which requires a lot of effort from those who are teaching and those who are learning. This work develops a critical analysis on the use of the Duolingo app in teaching and learning the English language and points out a comparison with another application with the same functionality. For the analysis, linguistic, pedagogical, technological aspects and usage experience were pointed out. In addition, the potential and weaknesses of the Duolingo application were addressed. In short, Duolingo offers the possibility for potential users to learn several languages, including the English language, as proposed by the application, in a fun and interactive way. However, the focus of learning is on vocabulary and repetition of sentences by version and translation; offering immediate feedback of what is right or wrong, without explaining the structure of the language, just putting it in testing. In sum, we conclude that Duolingo is an application that can serve as a complement to promote English grammar learning practices, however, it does not present activities that really encourage the student to solve problems, interact and have fun.