Top 5 Language Learning Apps: Achieve Mastery Over a New Language

Learning new languages isn’t only a hobby or an interest these days, it’s a necessity. Language learning apps have become popular with our growing desire to travel to different places, work in multinational companies, or make friends beyond borders…learning a new language is now common and cool. Even studies show that multilingualism has several benefits. Living in a digital age has made life easier in so many ways, learning anything new doesn’t require physically attending a class by joining a course. Users can learn anytime at their own pace and select from several different language learning websites and language learning apps (paid or unpaid). The top 5 language learning apps that I’ve found are-

Duolingo

It is one of the most popular language-learning apps right now. Their lessons span from 5-10 mins. The lessons contain quick drills and exercises that include listening, reading, writing and speaking. These drills include fill-in-the-blanks, matching pairs, sentence puzzles, translating sentences and completing mock conversations. The exercises vary in difficulty level. Their premium subscription is called Super Plan, which costs around $7 per month or $84 per year. A free version is available too, which of course comes with limitations.

Duolingo offers several different resources, including podcasts, translation dictionaries, and short stories to improve your reading and listening skills.

Memrise

Memrise has quietly grown to become a major player in the language learning industry. The lessons typically start with short videos featuring locals speaking in the language who introduce you to new words and phrases.

You can adjust your preferences to control how long you want each learning session to be. The Pro Plan unlocks all content. This costs around $8 if you want to proceed month-to-month, $60 if you want to pay up for an entire year, or $120 if you’re seeking a lifetime pass. They use adaptive technology to personalize your sessions and re-adjust your lessons as you learn.

Babbel

 They make grammar content and instruction a priority when it comes to practising your conversational skills. They offer live classes but you do have to pay extra.

Each class is typically around an hour long and covers all sorts of different topics. They offer different plans, ranging from around $7 to $14 per month. You can purchase a lifetime pass, which includes access to all languages for around $200-300.

Rocket Language

They focus their efforts on guided audio lessons. There are two different types of lessons: (1) interactive audio lessons and (2) language & culture lessons. Following these audio lessons, the learner practices several short exercises.

These include variations of flashcards, speaking drills, writing drills, and quizzes, among other exercise types. Additionally, Rocket also offers certification tests. Rocket Languages offers only lifetime plans. These lifetime packages range from around $100 to $450, depending on how many levels you want to purchase.

Pimsleur

 Pimsleur’s lessons are very similar to Rocket’s. Their lessons are also audio-based and center around mock conversations. Then following each audio lesson, you review what you just learned through a variety exercises, including reading drills, flashcards, quizzes, pronunciation training, and speed games.

Pimsleur has more visuals and a better interface, Pimsleur is a better option for visual learners. Their Pimsleur Premium plan costs $20 per month and includes access to one language, or the Pimsleur All Access plan includes access to all Pimsleur languages and costs just $1 more per month.

Rosetta Stone

Rosetta Stone is one of the earliest language learning apps. The lessons are a combination of images and recorded audio. You have to rely on visual cues, intuition and inference as you gradually acquire the language content necessary to move on to the next lesson or unit. During lessons, Rosetta Stone employs their own voice recognition technology ‘TruAccent’, which is very accurate. The Rosetta Stone subscription comes with a ton of resources. Among these tools, you get on-demand videos, short stories so that can you improve your reading and listening skills, as well as phrasebooks, where you can perfect your pronunciation.

The 3-month plan costs around $36 total, the 12-month plan is $96 and the lifetime subscription costs around $144. The first two plans only include access to one language, whereas the lifetime plan grants you access to all Rosetta Stone languages.

Also read: Top 5 Reading Apps: Transforming the Way We Consume Content