The results highlight the importance of a context in which users are encouraged to take responsibility for their learning.

Tracking data reveals that students lack the time for out-of-class MALL during course weeks and are more active during holidays. Questionnaires suggest that Duolingo can encourage out-of-class learning through fun activities, but interviews reveal a lack of sustained motivation, self-monitoring and self-management reflected in the low usage of the application. Results viewed from Garrison’s dimensions of self-directed learning (motivation, self-management and self-monitoring) reveal inconsistencies between what students think about the app and what they do with it. In addition to the data collected from the Duolingo dashboard, questionnaires, as well as semi-structured interviews, were implemented. After being invited to use Duolingo, 118 higher education language students agreed to have their activity in the application tracked. Can mobile-assisted language learning (MALL) foster self-directed learning outside the classroom? This article examines informal, out-of-class engagement with a MALL tool: Duolingo.

Duolingo in schools