The Effects of Duolingo's Stories and Podcast Features on the Development of Explicit and Implicit Knowledge
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| Title: | The Effects of Duolingo's Stories and Podcast Features on the Development of Explicit and Implicit Knowledge |
|---|---|
| Authors: | N/A |
| Committee Members: | Brandy, Anthony James (author); Hiver, Philip V. (professor directing thesis); Li, Shaofeng (committee member); Papi, Mostafa (committee member); Florida State University (degree granting institution); College of Education (degree granting college); School of Teacher Education (degree granting department) |
| Summary: | Some second language acquisition (SLA) scholars have characterized the astronomic rise in usership of language learning applications as a “revolution” of language learning (p. 25). Alongside this rise in usership is also a small but steady stream of research that has investigated the effects of these applications on user motivation (Isbell et al., 2017; Loewen et al., 2019), learning gains on collegiate foreign language tests (Krashen, 2014; Vesselinov & Grego, 2012) , and oral communicative ability (Loewen et al., 2020). This thesis investigated the role of meaningful input in the form of two new features of the language learning application Duolingo. The two under-researched features (Savvani, 2019) are the Stories feature, which is performed by voice actors and provides the learner with short stories intermittent with comprehension check and translation activities, and the Podcast feature, which are 20- to 30-minute podcast episodes told primarily in the L2 with no user interaction involved (Jiang et al., 2020). These two features offer users more meaningful input, which Duolingo has been frequently criticized for excluding in its curriculum (e.g., Crowther et al., 2017; Teske, 2017). To investigate the effect these new features have on users, this study utilized a quasi-experimental case study design, looking at two Spanish-L2 participants’ performance on a battery of implicit and explicit knowledge tests over the course of a four-week treatment period. The results indicated a steady increase in both implicit and explicit knowledge for the Stories participant over time, but that the Podcast participant was too advanced to make meaningful gains on the test battery as a result of Duolingo Podcast use. Despite this, the Podcast participant still made meager gains in implicit but not explicit knowledge. The battery of tests also accessed different language domains such as receptive (e.g., reading and listening) and productive (e.g., speaking and writing) skills. These findings add nuance to previous critiques of Duolingo and Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in general that posited that the primary outcome of MALL app usage is receptive explicit knowledge (e.g., Krashen, 2014; Loewen et al., 2020). First, it was found that the Podcast participant showed meager gains in the measure of productive implicit knowledge (the Oral Narrative Task) but decreased in performance on the measure of receptive explicit knowledge (the Untimed Grammaticality Judgement Task). Interestingly, the Stories participant showed a large jump of 22% in receptive implicit knowledge of Spanish (as measured by the Timed Grammaticality Judgement Task). Neither participant showed meaningful gains in the measure of productive explicit knowledge (the Metalinguistic Knowledge Task). Although there was a slight effect found for receptive explicit knowledge for the Stories participant, the data from both participants in tandem discount the idea that app-based MALL prioritizes receptive explicit knowledge, at least when considering these novel input-based features of Duolingo. |
| Database: | OpenDissertations |
| FullText | Text: Availability: 0 |
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| Header | DbId: ddu DbLabel: OpenDissertations An: ddu.oai.diginole.lib.fsu.edu.fsu_776815 AccessLevel: 6 PubType: Dissertation/ Thesis PubTypeId: dissertation PreciseRelevancyScore: 0 |
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| Items | – Name: Title Label: Title Group: Ti Data: The Effects of Duolingo's Stories and Podcast Features on the Development of Explicit and Implicit Knowledge – Name: Author Label: Authors Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="AR" term="%22N%2FA%22">N/A</searchLink> – Name: Author Label: Committee Members Group: Au Data: <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22Brandy%2C+Anthony+James+%28author%29%22">Brandy, Anthony James (author)</searchLink>; <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22Hiver%2C+Philip+V%2E+%28professor+directing+thesis%29%22">Hiver, Philip V. (professor directing thesis)</searchLink>; <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22Li%2C+Shaofeng+%28committee+member%29%22">Li, Shaofeng (committee member)</searchLink>; <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22Papi%2C+Mostafa+%28committee+member%29%22">Papi, Mostafa (committee member)</searchLink>; <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22Florida+State+University+%28degree+granting+institution%29%22">Florida State University (degree granting institution)</searchLink>; <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22College+of+Education+%28degree+granting+college%29%22">College of Education (degree granting college)</searchLink>; <searchLink fieldCode="CO" term="%22School+of+Teacher+Education+%28degree+granting+department%29%22">School of Teacher Education (degree granting department)</searchLink> – Name: Abstract Label: Summary Group: Ab Data: Some second language acquisition (SLA) scholars have characterized the astronomic rise in usership of language learning applications as a “revolution” of language learning (p. 25). Alongside this rise in usership is also a small but steady stream of research that has investigated the effects of these applications on user motivation (Isbell et al., 2017; Loewen et al., 2019), learning gains on collegiate foreign language tests (Krashen, 2014; Vesselinov & Grego, 2012) , and oral communicative ability (Loewen et al., 2020). This thesis investigated the role of meaningful input in the form of two new features of the language learning application Duolingo. The two under-researched features (Savvani, 2019) are the Stories feature, which is performed by voice actors and provides the learner with short stories intermittent with comprehension check and translation activities, and the Podcast feature, which are 20- to 30-minute podcast episodes told primarily in the L2 with no user interaction involved (Jiang et al., 2020). These two features offer users more meaningful input, which Duolingo has been frequently criticized for excluding in its curriculum (e.g., Crowther et al., 2017; Teske, 2017). To investigate the effect these new features have on users, this study utilized a quasi-experimental case study design, looking at two Spanish-L2 participants’ performance on a battery of implicit and explicit knowledge tests over the course of a four-week treatment period. The results indicated a steady increase in both implicit and explicit knowledge for the Stories participant over time, but that the Podcast participant was too advanced to make meaningful gains on the test battery as a result of Duolingo Podcast use. Despite this, the Podcast participant still made meager gains in implicit but not explicit knowledge. The battery of tests also accessed different language domains such as receptive (e.g., reading and listening) and productive (e.g., speaking and writing) skills. These findings add nuance to previous critiques of Duolingo and Mobile-Assisted Language Learning (MALL) in general that posited that the primary outcome of MALL app usage is receptive explicit knowledge (e.g., Krashen, 2014; Loewen et al., 2020). First, it was found that the Podcast participant showed meager gains in the measure of productive implicit knowledge (the Oral Narrative Task) but decreased in performance on the measure of receptive explicit knowledge (the Untimed Grammaticality Judgement Task). Interestingly, the Stories participant showed a large jump of 22% in receptive implicit knowledge of Spanish (as measured by the Timed Grammaticality Judgement Task). Neither participant showed meaningful gains in the measure of productive explicit knowledge (the Metalinguistic Knowledge Task). Although there was a slight effect found for receptive explicit knowledge for the Stories participant, the data from both participants in tandem discount the idea that app-based MALL prioritizes receptive explicit knowledge, at least when considering these novel input-based features of Duolingo. |
| PLink | https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&site=eds-live&db=ddu&AN=ddu.oai.diginole.lib.fsu.edu.fsu_776815 |
| RecordInfo | BibRecord: BibEntity: Languages: – Code: eng Text: English Subjects: – SubjectFull: Linguistics Type: general Titles: – TitleFull: The Effects of Duolingo's Stories and Podcast Features on the Development of Explicit and Implicit Knowledge Type: main BibRelationships: HasContributorRelationships: – PersonEntity: Name: NameFull: N/A IsPartOfRelationships: – BibEntity: Dates: – D: 01 M: 01 Type: published Y: 2021 |
| ResultId | 1 |
