Duolingo

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Duolingo
Duolingo banner.png
Duolingo Logo
URL duolingo.com
Slogan With Duolingo you learn a language for free while helping to translate the web
Type of site Online education, Translation, Crowdsourcing
Registration Free
Available language(s)
Created by Antonio Navas, Brendan Meeder, Hector Villafuerte, José Fuentes, Luis von Ahn, Marcel Uekermann, Severin Hacker, and Vicki Cheung
Launched 30 November 2011; 17 months ago (2011-11-30)
Current status Public

Duolingo is a free language-learning website and crowdsourced text translation platform. The service is designed so that, as users progress through the lessons, they simultaneously help to translate websites and other documents.[1][2] As of December 2012, the site offers Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Italian courses for English speakers, as well as English for Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian speakers. They plan to offer Chinese.[3] Duolingo started its private beta on 30 November 2011, and accumulated a waiting list of more than 300,000 users.[4] Duolingo launched for the general public on 19 June 2012.[5]

Contents

Model [edit]

Duolingo employs a crowd sourced model, where members of the public are invited to translate content and vote on translations. Documents can be added to Duolingo for translation with an upload account which must be applied for. Duolingo offers extensive language learning lessons and tools with a skill tree which users can progress through and a vocabulary section where learned words can be practised.

"A screen-shot from the English to French Duolingo
A screen-shot from the English to French Duolingo

Users gain "skill points" as they learn a language, such as when they complete a lesson. The site maintains a translations area where users can translate web content, and are awarded skill points for doing so.

Skills are considered "learned" when users complete all the lessons associated with the skill, and "mastered" after completing a set number of translations somewhat related to the skill. Up to 13 points are awarded per lesson, with one deducted for each mistake. Users start with four "lives" on early lessons, and three on later lessons, a "life" is lost with each mistake. A user must retry the lesson if they make a mistake after all lives have been lost.

Duolingo also includes a timed practice feature, where users are given 30 seconds and twenty questions and awarded a skill point and seven additional seconds for each correct answer.[6]

As of March 2013, Duolingo charges for its translation services but does not charge for its language learning services.[7]

History [edit]

The project was started by Carnegie Mellon Professor Luis von Ahn (creator of reCAPTCHA) and his graduate student Severin Hacker, and then developed also with Antonio Navas, Vicki Cheung, Marcel Uekermann, Brendan Meeder, Hector Villafuerte, and Jose Fuentes.[1][8] The project was originally sponsored by Luis von Ahn's MacArthur fellowship and a National Science Foundation grant[9][10] and is mainly written in the programming language Python.[11] Additional funding was later received in the form of an investment from Union Square Ventures and actor Ashton Kutcher's firm A-Grade Investments.[12][13]

On November 12, 2012, they released their iOS app.[14]

Portuguese was added to the site for English speakers on 30 October 2012.[15] Italian was added for English speakers on 18 December 2012.[16]

On November 13, 2012, Duolingo made its iPhone app available to the public[17] through the iTunes App Store. The app can be downloaded for free and is compatible with most iPhone, iPod, and iPad devices.[18]

On May 14, 2013, Duolingo announced that their Android app would be available to the public on May 29, 2013.[19]

References [edit]

  1. ^ a b "Meet Duolingo, Google's Next Acquisition Target; Learn A Language, Help The Web". TechCrunch. 
  2. ^ "Translating the Web While You Learn". Technology Review. 
  3. ^ "How The Creator of CAPTCHA Will Translate The Entire Internet". FastCompany. 
  4. ^ "We have a blog!". Duolingo Blog. 
  5. ^ "reCaptcha Founder's Language Learning Site Duolingo To Open To The Public On June 19". TechCrunch. 
  6. ^ "Ready, Set, Practice!". Duolingo Blog. Retrieved 8 November 2012. 
  7. ^ "Duolingo: Info". Retrieved 20 March 2013. "Duolingo is a free service..." 
  8. ^ "The Duolingo Team". Twitpic. 
  9. ^ "Online Education as a Vehicle for Human Computation". National Science Foundation. 
  10. ^ "Learn a language, translate the web". NewScientist. 
  11. ^ What language is Duolingo written in? - Quora
  12. ^ Todd, Deborah M. (3 July 2012). "Ashton Kutcher backs CMU duo's startup Duolingo". Pittsburgh Post Gazette. Retrieved 13 July 2012. 
  13. ^ "The Daily Start-Up: Kutcher-Backed Language Site Duolingo Finds Its Voice". Wall Street Journal. 19 June 2012. Retrieved 13 July 2012. 
  14. ^ "Duolingo on the go. Our iPhone App is here!". Duolingo. 13 November 2012. Retrieved 27 November 2012. 
  15. ^ "Portuguese is Here!". Duolingo. Retrieved 8 November 2012. 
  16. ^ "Ciao! You may now begin learning Italian". Retrieved 19 December 2012. 
  17. ^ "Duolingo on the go. Our iPhone App is here!". Official Duolingo Blog. DuoLingo. Retrieved 29 April 2013. 
  18. ^ "Duolingo - Learn Spanish, French, German, Portuguese, and Italian for free". iTunes App Store. Apple. Retrieved 29 April 2013. 
  19. ^ Duolingo confirms the release date of an Android app Duolingo on Twitter. 14 May, 2013. Retrieved 15 May, 2013.

External links [edit]

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Duolingo&oldid=555820275"