Lingua.ly was an

EdTech Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning and teaching. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech", ...

startup that took a digital

language immersion Language immersion, or simply immersion, is a technique used in Bilingual education, bilingual language education in which two languages are used for instruction in a variety of topics, including maths, science, or social studies. The languages ...

approach to teaching languages. The company was founded by Jan Ihmels and Orly Furhman, two academics from

Cambridge Cambridge ( ) is a List of cities in the United Kingdom, city and non-metropolitan district in the county of Cambridgeshire, England. It is the county town of Cambridgeshire and is located on the River Cam, north of London. As of the 2021 Unit ...

and

Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...

respectively. Lingua.ly operated under the

freemium Freemium, a portmanteau of the words "free" and "premium", is a pricing strategy by which a basic product or service is provided free of charge, but money (a premium) is charged for additional features, services, or virtual (online) or physical ( ...

business model and existed as a

Cloud In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may ...

-based

web app A web application (or web app) is application software that is created with World Wide Web, web technologies and runs via a web browser. Web applications emerged during the late 1990s and allowed for the server to Dynamic web page, dynamically ...

and

mobile app A mobile application or app is a computer program or software application designed to run on a mobile device such as a smartphone, phone, tablet computer, tablet, or smartwatch, watch. Mobile applications often stand in contrast to desktop appli ...

available for

Android Android most commonly refers to: *Android (robot), a humanoid robot or synthetic organism designed to imitate a human * Android (operating system), a mobile operating system primarily developed by Google * Android TV, a operating system developed ...

and

iOS Ios, Io or Nio (, ; ; locally Nios, Νιός) is a Greek island in the Cyclades group in the Aegean Sea. Ios is a hilly island with cliffs down to the sea on most sides. It is situated halfway between Naxos and Santorini. It is about long an ...

Launch

After its beta launch in August 2013, the company's

extension Extension, extend or extended may refer to: Mathematics Logic or set theory * Axiom of extensionality * Extensible cardinal * Extension (model theory) * Extension (proof theory) * Extension (predicate logic), the set of tuples of values that ...

for

Google Chrome Google Chrome is a web browser developed by Google. It was first released in 2008 for Microsoft Windows, built with free software components from Apple WebKit and Mozilla Firefox. Versions were later released for Linux, macOS, iOS, iPadOS, an ...

saw widespread early adoption in the US, Spain, and Latin America as a

spaced repetition ''Spaced'' is a British television sitcom created, written by and starring Simon Pegg and Jessica Stevenson, and directed by Edgar Wright, about the comedic, and sometimes surreal and action-packed, misadventures of Daisy Steiner and Tim Bis ...

vocabulary acquisition tool. Several publications have recommended Lingua.ly as a free platform for language learning. In April 2014 Lingua.ly launched its mobile app for Android, achieving 100K downloads in its first month on the

Google Play Store Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store, Play Store, or sometimes the Android Store (and was formerly Android Market), is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certifie ...

. Lingua.ly released a stand-alone web app in June 2014, which was met with largely positive reviews, including coverage in the

New York Times ''The New York Times'' (''NYT'') is an American daily newspaper based in New York City. ''The New York Times'' covers domestic, national, and international news, and publishes opinion pieces, investigative reports, and reviews. As one of ...

. Most recently, Lingua.ly released an iOS mobile app in July 2014, which was quickly listed as one of the top iPhone apps of the week. In February 2014 the company won the regional 1776 Challenge Cup's Innovation in Education Award for its patent pending algorithm and language learning platform. In May 2014 Lingua.ly was selected as one of eight global finalists for the Challenge Cup.

Approach

While traditional

entails a target language rich environment where the user is exposed to ample linguistic input from various sources, Lingua.ly utilizes digital language immersion, a method of employing a

virtual learning environment Virtual may refer to: * Virtual image, an apparent image of an object (as opposed to a real object), in the study of optics * Virtual (horse), a thoroughbred racehorse * Virtual channel, a channel designation which differs from that of the actual ...

to simulate the language learning environment. Users are exposed to authentic input in their target language through their computer, tablet, or mobile device as opposed to lesson-based instruction.

Duolingo Duolingo, Inc. is an American educational technology company that produces learning Mobile app, apps and provides Language assessment, language certification. Duolingo offers courses on 43 languages, ranging from English language, English, Fre ...

is another example of language education tech startups that also partially relies on a digital language immersion approach. In classroom learning, language immersion is often used to teach children in

bilingual Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. When the languages are just two, it is usually called bilingualism. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolin ...

content and language integrated learning Content and language integrated learning (CLIL) is an approach for learning content through an additional language (foreign or second), thus teaching both the subject and the language. CLIL origin The term CLIL was created in 1994 bDavid Marsha ...

programs. Digital language immersion is the

E-learning Educational technology (commonly abbreviated as edutech, or edtech) is the combined use of computer hardware, software, and educational theory and practice to facilitate learning and teaching. When referred to with its abbreviation, "EdTech" ...

extension of these trends. Lingua.ly relies on a number of applied linguistics principles, including the

Natural Approach The natural approach is a method of language teaching developed by Stephen Krashen and Tracy Terrell in the late 1970s and early 1980s. The Natural Approach has been used in ESL classes as well as foreign language classes for people of all ages ...

and Krashen's

Input Hypothesis The input hypothesis, also known as the monitor model, is a group of five hypotheses of second-language acquisition developed by the linguist Stephen Krashen in the 1970s and 1980s. Krashen originally formulated the input hypothesis as just on ...

, which argues that fluent language learners benefit most from language they acquire through exposure rather than direct instruction.

Technology and platform

Lingua.ly's platform contains an online and mobile dictionary powered by

Babylon Babylon ( ) was an ancient city located on the lower Euphrates river in southern Mesopotamia, within modern-day Hillah, Iraq, about south of modern-day Baghdad. Babylon functioned as the main cultural and political centre of the Akkadian-s ...

that learners can use to look up words from the web in their target language. Through a learner's collected words and click-patterns, the technology maps an individual's vocabulary in the target language. It then rates the suitability of online content suggestions in the target language in order to create an environment for language acquisition based on a 90:10 percentage of known to unknown words. Users customize vocabulary flashcards with images, audio, and example sentences and practice them at spaced repetition intervals to enhance acquisition and transfer into

long-term memory Long-term memory (LTM) is the stage of the Atkinson–Shiffrin memory model in which informative knowledge is held indefinitely. It is defined in contrast to sensory memory, the initial stage, and short-term or working memory, the second stage ...

EdTech for languages

Lingua.ly is part of a growing trend of digital language education startups including,

Memrise Memrise is a British language platform that uses spaced repetition of flashcards to increase the rate of learning. It is based in London, UK. Memrise offers user-generated content on a wide range of other subjects. The Memrise app has courses i ...

Busuu Busuu is a second-language acquisition, language learning platform on web, iOS and Android that allows users to interact with native speakers. In 2021, Chegg acquired Busuu for $436 million. History Busuu was founded in May 2008 by Bernhard N ...

Babbel Babbel GmbH, operating as Babbel, is a German company operating a subscription-based language learning software and e-learning platform. With 1000 employees, Babbel is headquartered in Berlin (Babbel GmbH) and has an office in New York City, ...

and

that are attracting significant investment funding and unseating former industry leader Rosetta Stone.

Shutdown

In October 2016, the Linugua.ly Facebook account posted a message announcing that they were shifting their business focus and would "no longer be able to maintain our current line of products."

References

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External links

Lingua.ly
Android (operating system) software Language immersion Virtual learning environments Spaced repetition software Language learning software