UNIVERSITY OF EL SALVADOR

WESTERN UNIVERSITY CENTER AHUACHAPAN

LANGUAGES EXTENSION PROGRAM

GRADUATE WORK
RESEARCH:
IMPLEMENTATION OF DUOLINGO AS AN ENGLISH LANGUAGE LEARNING TOOL FOR
STUDENTS OF MODULE 5 OF THE ENGLISH EXTENSION PROGRAM AT AHUACHAPÁN
UNIVERSITY CENTER, WESTERN MULTIDISCIPLINARY CAMPUS OF THE UNIVERSITY OF EL
SALVADOR

PRESENTED BY:
CALDERÓN HERNÁNDEZ AMY ALESSANDRA
MÁRTIR CASTILLO MARÍA DE LOS ANGELES
OLMEDO VALENZUELA CAREN JOHANA
MAGAÑA MARTINEZ MARJORIE YANELI

ADVISOR:
KARINA E. HERNÁNDEZ

AHUACHAPAN, OCTOBER 2021

AHUACHAPAN, EL SALVADOR, CENTRO AMÉRICA
INDEX
 INTRODUCTION

The need to learn English as a second language has increased to world level, not only for
the academic opportunities that the mastery of this language offers, by allowing access to
scholarships offered by aid workers from speaking countries speech English, but also, by
the need to cover a labor demand of people bilingual in that area. In the case of the
European Union, a situation is shown favorable, since 47% of the population studies
English as a second language and 66% of young people between fifteen and sixteen years
old say they are fluent in this language, as opposed to other languages 1.

Language learning is a fundamental tool to encourage the brain, prevent dementia,

promote memory and concentration, among other benefits. English is fundamental
language to learn today as it opens the doors to a greater number of possibilities and
expands the frontiers of studies and work.

In the globalized world in which we live, English has exceeded the natural limits of a
language and has become a working tool. Internationally, having an upper-intermediate
command of English has become a requirement to access many sources of employment.

Interestingly, the Spanish language is the second most spoken language worldwide, as far
as the number of native speakers is concerned, second only to the Chinese language. From
here, we could deduce that it is not worth learning English since we know a language that
is more spoken by "native" people from all over the world. Nothing could be further from
the truth, since English is the most learned language as a second language, which means
that in the long run there are many more people who speak English with respect to the
population that speaks the rest of the mass languages (including Chinese and Spanish). It
is estimated that there are about 400 million Native Anglo-Saxon speakers and a similar
number of people who learn it as a second language worldwide, surpassing together any
of the languages to which we have referred before.

1
European Commission, 2004
Technology has come to revolutionize the teaching-learning process in a way significant,
since it breaks the paradigm of traditional classes. To motivate the student to learn a
second language has been encouraged the use of ICTs in the classroom for the
transformation of the educational process. In the case of the Subject of English is
supported by the application Duolingo is already one of the largest platforms in the world
for the learning of the English language.

Duolingo is a popular app to learn English, and it is known for its effective learning
methods, this app is a help to improve the learning of language that doesn't care the age,
with this investigation, it is trained to prove the platform gets better the listening,
speaking, reading, and listening. That say when you are finally the levels your learning is
guaranteed.
CHAPTER I

STATEMENT OF THE PROBLEM

English is one of the most spoken languages around the world, and it is known to offer so
many advantages, not only for finding job opportunities but also for finding scholarship
opportunities.

One of the main problems for new learners in an online course is the lack of orientation to
introduce the students to new platforms and apps in online English classes, for example,
Schoology, Moodle, some other applications.

Time to carry the course may be one of the reasons, it is known that it does not have a
huge complexity. Some apps are so intuitive, but some students need to find out more
information to use them while doing online learning. Another important thing to mention
is the internet that has changed everything, without a doubt in communication and in
virtual or online education.

Learning English has changed in recent times, and no longer need to hire English courses
with a fixed schedule and that force you to move. With the internet you can already
attend English classes with native teachers from at home, or any part of the world from
which the connect, and also at much cheaper or even free prices, the implementation of
platforms that can be supportive in learning the English language has been a novelty today
even if the people do not have full time to learn can do so asynchronously and according
to their pace of learning, Learning with retrograde techniques, books and recorders
remained in the past with the updates of the Technology we can learn English from our
computers, tablet, or smartphones that is why it has been seen the need to implement
platforms in the teaching of the English language being Duolingo one of the best known
and with good comments about its usefulness in the English language.

According to English teacher, one problem for learned English is because the
anthropometrically people was born in Latin America don´t created for pronounced some
sound.

Research questions
a) Are online learning approaches effective for the acquisition of English language for
students in level 5 of Ahuachapán University Center, Western Multidisciplinary Campus of
the University of El Salvador?

b) What online learning approaches are preferred by the students in level 5 of

Ahuachapán University Center, Western Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El
Salvador?

c) What are some advantages and disadvantages of online learning approaches for the
acquisition of English language?

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE’S
GENERAL OBJECTIVE:

- Know the effective impact of the implementation of Duolingo as an English language

learning tool for students of module 7 of the English extension program at the
Ahuachapán University Center, Western Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El
Salvador

SPECIFIC OBJECTIVES:

a) To identify the online learning approaches for the acquisition of English used by
students of level 5 of Ahuachapán University Center, Western Multidisciplinary
Campus of the University of El Salvador.

b) To describe the English learning problems caused by studying through online

learning approaches of students in level 5 of Ahuachapán University Center,
Western Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El Salvador.

c) ) To list some advantages and disadvantages of online learning approaches the App
Duolingo for the acquisition of English found in students of level 5 of Ahuachapán
University Center, Western Multidisciplinary Campus of the University of El
Salvador

JUSTIFICATION
All time the people look different to fulfill their dreams, learning English is one big dream
for many people. But, when a person takes a decision for study English, faces various
situations.

Currently, for learn English it´s necessary the use of technology for identify more
vocabulary, one of the most popular apps among students is Duolingo, this App have a
web page, in this home it´s write “The free, fun, and effective way to learn a language!”
(Duolingo, 2021)2.

But What is more popular on students? What is the propose for investigation this App?
Because the students English it´s in front of the other language identify some areas for
example sounds, grammatical structure, write, pronunciation, etc. The people don´t learn
at same the same rate, for this affirmation is necessary to help other learning methods.

In this investigation will be realized different analysis about this app, because is
necessarily know that Duolingo is an App available in App store and Play Store, it´s app
near for people, cheaper between other web sites.

Level 5 will be studied when they use this application, because in this level they are
learning vocabulary, they don´t know about complete grammatical structure, but it´s a
level where some questions in basic English.

2
Duolingo: The world’s #1 way to learn a languagehttps://en.duolingo.com/
Hypothesis

1. Some students learned more vocabulary when they use App Duolingo in
comparation whit other student who don’t use this App.

2. The majority students don´t prefer learned listen, reading books for learned a new
language.
 Charter II

Theory

Duolingo is an app that gives the opportunity to learn many languages like English, French,
Russian, Japanese, and others. The most complete and best service is for the English
speaking with more than 20 languages to learn with personalized learning, the application
gives you a saves form to learn. Translate, improve listening, writing, and listening. And if
you are a novice that is interesting in learn idioms, this app can help you very much,
Duolingo’s was created only for the United State, but with the time the app became for
the whole world.

The app Duolingo was founded by Luis Von Ahn and Severing Hacker in June 2012, Luis
Von Ahn is a science professor of computer science and informatics Guatemalan of the
university Carnegie Mellon, which has received many awards and the respect of many in
the guild thanks to their interesting jobs in the system of crowdsourcing, originally the
project was funded for the scholarship MacArthur awarded for Luis Von Ahn in 2006 with
other scholarship in science national foundation too, that help Luis and Severing to create
the app at the moment.

Luis Von Ahn creator for reCATPCHA and CATPCHA, the reCATPCHA is the basis become
that today is Duolingo, the relation of Duolingo and reCAPTCHA is ¨ the crowdsourcing¨,
what is the philosophy of obtaining a benefit from your users in exchange for offering
them a service, gives to the opportunity to the speaker of different language to work in
the app.

The app uses this system crowdsourcing, the user that uses the app can translate online
text, collaborating with the development and winning points every time that they level up,
the app has their application for Android, IOS and Windows

Phone, Duolingo has been a commercial success with earnings of $36 millions of dollars in
2018 and for the 2020 $148, 3 million of dollars, the experts of the app said ´´studied 36
hours in Duolingo is like a you studied a semester¨´.
One of the proposing of Luis is the people doesn’t have the gains to studied languages at a
traditional form, have the opportunity with this app, the courses are completely free, you
only need access an internet and a digital apparatus to take the lesson.

The app was given from low on April 20 of 2017 with the purpose of improve the news
technology that was Duolingo created, the same in 2016, the app improve the curses to
was more creative and funnier with some characters created by Duolingo, other is
Duolingo plus that gives you the opportunity to download the lesson for you practice
when you want, and you don’t have internet connections, this is online benefits to the
people acquire Duolingo plus.

Duolingo have 85 million of people using the app, 22 million are Latin-Americans. Duolingo
in some years train to get the best with the app, developed it every year, like the Duolingo
school, Duolingo characters, Duolingo test center, and other developed to the app, that
make the experience unique.

It is known that everyone searches for a way to learn different languages and one of them
is online tools like Duolingo but like the other applications, this one has advantages and
disadvantages.

ADVANTAGES
Can study everywhere and every time that you want, and you decide how long you should
study

Your learning progress is saved if you created an account and Duolingo will remind you to
study too

Helps you improve, your pronunciation and intonation, speaking through a microphone

The way of learning is entertaining because it has different ways of learning, it is easy to
understand and use.

The platform can be downloaded on different devices (IOS, Android, PC and is free

You learn a lot of vocabulary that helps you improve your conversations

DISADVANTAGES

Teaching is not based on grammar, phonetics, or text comprehension and these points are
very important when learning a new language

•If you have questions, you don't have anybody who answered because the platform
doesn’t count with a teacher, this can confuse with your learning.

• The exercises are repetitive and rigid, and they are not adapted to the needs of the
student. Thanks to this, learning can become boring.

• It is known that students can study whenever they want but if they do not have
discipline the platform is useless

• Does not prepare you enough for real conversations where you must listen,
understand, and respond

• Internet is needed to play the levels and the platform has a lot of ads
 CHAPTER III

METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH INSTRUMENTS

3.1 Research methodology

According to this investigation, it is going to use the Inductive and Analyzing different
information, based on an observation through different instruments such as: interview,
checklist, and survey. So, for those reasons the investigation is Qualitative because it
follows appreciation of multiple realities from students and teachers in the English
Learning approaches. Observing details about the class, analyzing the survey of every
student and the interview of the teacher may give a great interpretation about the
investigated situation. Integrating not only the main problem that it is looking for, but also
it may give more new ideas to new investigations in the future. This method is according
to the context of the students. And it is going to follow from particular to general, to
conclude the general perspective point.

3.2 Online research techniques

Due to the fact that this research is in an online environment, the research techniques are
used through different means, such as Google Forms and online meetings. Three
techniques are used to get information in this research, they are: survey, observation, and
interview. They are described below:

3.2.1 Survey

This technique is a resource to get information through a set of questions related to the
topic investigated. It is really useful since it allows us to get information from groups of
people and not only one person, also, several types of questions may be used in this
instrument which is perfect for this research’s purpose.

3.2.2 Observation This technique allows the researcher to get information from what he is
seeing through several instruments. It does not consist only in writing down the observed
things but also allows us to do it systematically. There are several kinds of observation
according to the observed situation, the researcher role, and the instruments.

3.3 Description of the population The population interviewed during the research process
was based on a teacher and several students of the English language of level 7 of the
English Extension Program at Ahuachapán University Center. The interviewees are
investigated, and their answers will be analyzed to obtain results. These results reflect the
online learning approaches, problems they present, opinions of different magnitudes and
points of view.
Research General Specific Hypothesis Units of Variables Definition of Indicators Instrument
questions objective objective analysis the variable

Is Duolingo Demonstrated To get better If the Students Independent Guarantees -virtual Survey
an app that the support the speaking, students of of basic Variable: the that the interaction (students
guarantees for the listening, and basic levels English Duolingo app teaching -student’s and teacher)
the learning development writing of the of the levels of improve methods are role
of English of basic basic levels of University University teaching good on base -practice
for the levels of the the university of El of El methodology the critics
students of university of of El Salvador use Salvador about the app
basic levels El Salvador Salvador Duolingo in
of a constant
Ahuachapán and
university disciplined
of El way to be
Salvador? more fluent
in the
English
language.

The app Evaluate the Evaluate if Dependent The -constant

guarantees app's teaching the teaching variable: the interaction of use
that it will system to methodology constant use of the app with - practiced
apply it to are good for the app by a minimum what
help to student the basic students of the time of 15-20 learned
improve the learning of levels basic levels minutes per
level of basic levels day to -get used
English at improve the to using
least 5 language online
percent tools

Which are Increase the

the vocabulary,
advantages giving 50
of learning words
English approximatel
with y
Duolingo?
CHAPTER VI
The information obtained from the different instruments passed to the students and teachers of the level 7 of
the English course of the university of El Salvador tell us how Duolingo helps with the learning of English:

Students interpretation
survey

1- Do you This is the first question of the survey. Here, it was found that most of students learn thirty
consider that words in English, which help to improve. Now the students of level 7 have better
Duolingo performance when they talk with another person in English.
teach you at The eighty percent of students said that was easy learn new words thanks to how repetitive
least thirty are the classes
words in
English?

2- Do you In this case the students didn’t improve the grammar because the exorcises didn’t provide
consider that an explanation of the structure of the sentence so they had to investigated to understand.
Duolingo help
you with the
grammar?

3- Do you Duolingo provide exorcise to may your pronunciation be like a native, Duolingo teaches
consider that words that are constantly used in the conversation and the app teach vocabulary to talk with
Duolingo help different people, young people, old people, kids, etc.
with you
pronunciation?
4- Do you Using different methods for the teaching Duolingo get the attention of people with different
consider that ages and they learn
Duolingo is an
app to people
of different
ages?

5- How long It is now that the learning depends the time that everyone use for learn so the students that
was the app used the app between 15 minutes or more time had best results than students that used the
used per day? app between 10 minutes or less.
10minutes;
15-30minutes
or more?

6-Do you The students came to the conclusion that Duolingo improve the vocabulary and they can
recommend express themselves easily and confidently.
Duolingo for
learn English?

7-Do you The sixty percent of the students recommend the app. Because they speak like a native
consider that person.
Duolingo is a
good app for
learn English?
In general, from the information obtained through the survey, the learning with Duolingo to study English is
fast and effective and improve the vocabulary that help to express themselves. So Duolingo achieve more
fluency when they speak English.
 CONCLUSION
After analysis, we can deduce that Duolingo has the best way to learn English because use a great technique to
improve the vocabulary and grammar.

Some students of level 5 show an increase of vocabulary and their pronunciation, Duolingo provide different
exorcise for practice grammar so thanks for the investigate we can deduce that the app has a big and effective
impact in the learning of English language, but in others students can not improve their vocabulary, grammar or
pronunciation because the app y so repetitive and boring, and other students said that they cannot work because
they do not have internet.

That is to say that Duolingo can help with the learn of English language only if your English is not advanced
and if you have access to internet connection.

it is important to clarify that the app Duolingo is one of the better apps to learn English according to the
students of the level 5 because the words provide by the app are the most use by native persons.

It is recommended use Duolingo for fifteen minutes at day and everyday if you want to see a great result.
 Recommendations
.-

.-about the 5% of the student replied

.-

.-

.-

.-

,-

.-

.-

.-

.-

.-
 BIGIOGRAPHY.

.- https://www.duolingo.com/
.-https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?
id=com.duolingo&hl=en&gl=US
.https://twitter.com/duolingo?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle
%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor
.-https://apps.apple.com/us/app/duolingo-language-lessons/
id570060128
.- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Duolingo
.- https://www.facebook.com/duolingo/
.- https://www.duolingo.com/plus
.-https://support.duolingo.com/hc/en-us/articles/207362396-
How-much-does-Duolingo-cost-

.- https://www.duolingoh.com/
.- https://happilyevertravels.com/is-duolingo-free/
.- https://www.pcmag.com/reviews/duolingo
.- https://www.nytimes.com/2019/05/04/smarter-living/500-
days-of-duolingo-what-you-can-and-cant-learn-from-a-language-
app.html

.-https://www.optilingo.com/blog/general/the-problems-with-
duolingo/
.-https://www.forbes.com/sites/susanadams/2019/07/16/game-
of-tongues-how-duolingo-built-a-700-million-business-with-its-
addictive-language-learning-app/
.- https://www.fluentin3months.com/reviews/duolingo/
.- https://www.fluentlanguage.co.uk/blog/duolingo-review-
fluentlanguage
.- https://www.groovypost.com/reviews/duolingo-online-
language-free-rosetta-stone/
.-
https://www.facebook.com/duolingo/photos/a.42121393125611
5.95959.141935472517297/539232802787560

.-https://www.bbc.com/news/business-51208154
.-https://www.aprendemas.com/es/blog/idiomas-y-
comunicacion/los-idiomas-mas-estudiados-en-2021-y-tendencias-
para-2022-en-el-aprendizaje-de-lenguas-161909#:~:text=Los
%20idiomas%20m%C3%A1s%20estudiados%20en
%202021%20seg%C3%BAn%20Duolingo%2C%20que
%20analiza,de%20500%20millones%20de%20estudiantes.