Duolingo vs. Babbel: Which is better for kids

It is worth mentioning that nearly 65% of the parents claimed that they prefer most of the gamified applications for children’s education. If you also fall into this parenting category and wish your children learned different languages better. Then, you are on the right page. We’ll discuss about two amazing language-learning applications, such as Duolingo and Babbel.

This guide will also compare Babbel vs Duolingo, helping you decide between both options regarding your child’s language learning. So, keep reading!

What is Duolingo?

Duolingo is a language learning mobile application that allows users to be proficient in language learning. It allows users of all ages to learn any language. Well, let’s discuss the features that make it quite different from others.

• Crowns system: This feature was recently introduced in the Duolingo app and enables you to master skills in each language. Each skill has five levels, and difficulty increases as the level increases.
• Adapting lessons: Lessons can be adaptive depending on your performance. Thus giving you a chance to improve your weak areas.
• Duolingo incubator: You can use this function to increase the number of language courses provided in the application.
• Leaderboard: It also allows you to compete with your friends and other members of the Duolingo community.
• Live hearts: This feature indicates the number of errors you committed in a particular lesson. The more errors one commits, the more you will lose. Hence, it makes you repeat the same lesson so that the hearts may be gained once more.

Languages offered

You can learn as many as 40 languages in Duolingo. These may include Spanish, French, and Chinese or even rare ones like Hawaiian, Navajo, and Esperanto.

Pricing plan

Free version

• Library of all the language courses
• Elementary level of progress tracking.
• Content contains ads.
• Classes were only made available to you if you were online.

Duolingo Plus

$7/month In addition to features available in the free version, it offers;

• Availability of offline content
• Provides you ads ads-free content.
• More exhaustive tracking of progress
• You can unlock unlimited lives’ hearts
• You can get the streak rehabilitation tool monthly

Learning methodology

Duolingo, for learning a foreign language, includes activities such as task repetition, reward systems, and game-like levels. Moreover, this app’s plus point is that it teaches using images and audio for deeper understanding.

User experience

The Duolingo application’s interface is attractive due to the extensive use of graphics and illustrations. Moreover, it’s very user-friendly, allowing you to easily navigate your lessons.

Progress tracking

It provides many aspects for evaluating how well you have learned the language so far. These features may include dynamic streaks, levels, and other achievements scattered within the application.

Quality of content

The content in Duolingo is good for start-up learners but not appreciable for advanced learners. The reason is that lessons focus on basic useful vocabulary and phrases. Thus these enable you to exchange at least simple or basic words with others.

Additional resources

Besides its core features, it also contains short stories, which could improve your reading and listening skills. It also offers podcasts as light listening material for the b2 level of language proficiency.

This application also has a forum where you can post questions on various issues related to the content..

Pros and cons of Duolingo

Let us analyse the Doukingo app’s advantages and disadvantages, enabling you to decide whether it suits your needs or not.

Pros

• It also has a basic free mode to learn different languages.
• It is quite interesting and entertaining since you earn a lot of points after reaching different levels, just like games.
• It’s well-designed and easy to operate.
• It focuses more on practising to strengthen your weak areas.

Cons

• If you already know some of the language, it might not be that challenging.
• If you go for a free version, in-app advertising may be an issue.

What is Babbel?

Babbel is also a language learning application that enables you to learn new languages by giving you particularly detailed lessons. It is suitable for those wishing to master the language for business or self-improvement.

Unique features of Babbel

• Cultural Notes: TThis helps you learn the language effectively in conjunction with its culture.
• No Advertisements: Since it’s a paid app, advertisements are not seen while learning.
• Easy accessibility: This app is available as software. Thus, you can easily take lessons anywhere, anytime, on phones and computers.
• Speaking feedback features: The application incorporates communication features that record and analyse what is said. This helps you improve your pronunciation and fluency.
• Interactive grammar lessons: This application covers grammar issues with practical examples. Thus, enabling you to adjust sentence structures.

Languages offered

It enables you to learn up to fourteen target languages, including Spanish, French, German, Italian, and many more.

Pricing plan

• 6 months ( 40% discount ): $8.45 per month, $50.70 total cost.
• 12 months ( 50% discount): $6.95 per month, $83.40 total cost.
• Lifetime: &299.5

Learning methodology

The Babbel application follows a simple learning strategy that includes lesson repetition, grammar explanation, etc. Moreover, its lessons are 10 to 15 minutes long and aim to cover maximum information in the lesson.

User experience

The application’s interface is user-friendly, and you can easily take the classes. Moreover, it provides interactive lessons, including quizzes, multiple-choice questions, and fill-in-the-blanks.

Progress tracking

The Babbel app informs you about the number of lessons completed. This helps you remember what you have learned and also enables you to remember what you need to improve.

Content quality

Babbels app targets older teenagers and adults. It teaches appropriate language usage, grammar, and other factors, but the emphasis is on spoken language training. The app is suitable for any skill level, from simple words and phrases to fluent speaking.

Pros and cons of Babbel

Pros

• It helps you to seek out practical aspects of the language.
• It also focuses on fluency and pronunciation of words.
• Its language lessons are also accompanied by cultural aspects to make them interesting and engaging.
• The content has depth to cater for anyone wanting to start or improve their abilities.
• It provides a free experience of learning.

Cons

• Babbel only offers about 14 languages, whereas other applications offer even more than that.
• Babbel is entirely premium and has no free version.
• There are no motivating features like points, streaks, or leaderboards to encourage continued application use.

Are Duolingo and Babbel safe for kids?

As parents, it’s your foremost duty to check whether apps or games are safer for kids. Otherwise, you may suffer irreparable loss. However, Duolingo and Babbel are both generally considered safe for kids. Let’s discuss the factors that make them safer choices for parents.

Duolingo does not have serious social interaction problems, and it is more about the fun aspect than anything. Additionally, if you want to use this application, you must provide minimal personal information, which is also encrypted by this app. However, there are no specific parental control features incorporated in this app. That’s why strong parental guidance is needed to use this app.

The Babbel app also has no social interaction components. It is also compliant with privacy regarding GDPR regulation. However, its primary audience is teens and adults, so young children might not enjoy using this app.

Duolingo vs. Babbel

Now, we’ll discuss Babbel vs. Duolingo; this will help you determine which app is best for your kids.

Similarities between Duolingo and Babbel

• Subscription model: Both apps offer many subscription packages to fully optimise your learning experience.
• Interactive learning: These apps use different modern components for learning language, such as interactive exercises, quizzes, and more.
• Podcasts and stories: Duolingo and Babbel feature podcasts and short stories, which enable you to listen to words while learning. These help you attain fluency and also improve your vocabulary.
• Progress tracking: Both apps allow users to see how far along they are in language learning. Thus helping them focus on their weak points.
• Availability on mobile phones and computers: These apps are easily accessed by either mobile phones or computers.

Babbl vs Duolingo: Key Differences

• Cost: Duolingo has both free and paid versions. However, Babbel has no free version. You have to pay to use this app, and the amount depends on the duration of your subscription package.
• Target audience: Duolingo targets users of almost all ages, even kids and older people. Babbel mostly targets older teens and adults.
• Learning Style: Duolingo is designed to offer fun learning with rewards, levels and points systems. Babbel provides lessons that are very structured and detailed.
• Content approach: Duolingo focuses on basic language learning with little and no focus on grammar. Babbel is a more systematic language-learning app that provides orderly explanations of grammar and dialogues.
• Social Interaction: Duolingo offers social interaction elements, including leaderboards. But not allow private communication among users. However, Babbel lacks social interaction components.

Conclusions

Thus, all age group users especially kids below 13, can use Duolingo to learn new languages, providing an enjoyable and motivating learning experience. However, the major barrier would be the lack of thorough explanation of grammar work, as most casual users really wish to learn the language in depth.

In particular, Babbel is more suitable for older teens and adults who study languages only to use them in conversation. Thus, both have advantages and disadvantages. Now, you must select the one that meets your requirements.

Babbel vs. Duolingo: Which is better for kids?

When it comes to children, Douligo’s name may come first when learning languages. The reason is that it adopts a gamified style that consists of short lessons using rewards, points, and levels. This makes it fun for kids to learn a foreign language. In addition, it does not include social networking options, thus ensuring kids are safe from internet toxicity.

In contrast, the Babbel app does not have any game-like features but has much more comprehensive, down-to-earth lessons, so it is considered better for late teenagers and adults, not kids.

How to know what kind of apps your kids are using?

In this digital era, monitoring your kids’ digital activities is crucial to protect them from potential dangers like cyberbullying and online threats. If you also want to know what type of apps your kids are using and how much time they spend on specific apps, then you need to seek out parental control app. One such tool, FlashGet Kids, provides a comprehensive solution to provide a healthier digital environment for kids.

“FlashGet Kids is third-party software that acts as a virtual assistant for parents to ensure kids’ safety from internet toxicity.

• Screen time: FlashGet Kids can also limit the allocated time usage on an application. It helps to prevent the children from excessively using several applications.
• App blocker: This function enables the user to compile a list of mobile applications your children are allowed to use. And also those they are neither allowed to use nor able to assess. Thus, if kids try to download these apps, no results will appear on their screens.
• Usage reports: FlashGet Kids provides comprehensive reports on kids’ phone usage. For instance, how much time your kids spend on their phones and on what specific apps.
• Real-time screen mirroring: FlashGet Kids also enables you to monitor kids’ screens in real-time. This helps you see what type of content or apps your kids are using by sitting at one place.

Closing thoughts

In conclusion, we must say that Duolingo is the most child-friendly application. It enables your kids to learn 40 foreign languages in a fun and interactive way. On the contrary, Babbel is for older teens because it lacks a gamified learning style and focuses on improving vocabulary and fluency. Hopefully, it is now possible to choose the app based on your child’s age and requirements.

In addition to this, you must be familiar with what types of apps are used by your kids to prevent them from any incident. So, you can go for FlashGet Kids, which keeps you updated about your kid’s online and offline activities in real-time.

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