DOCSLIB.ORG

A Trainable Spaced Repetition Model for Language Learning

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
A Trainable Spaced Repetition Model for Language Learning A Trainable Spaced Repetition Model for Language Learning Burr Settles∗ Brendan Meeder† Duolingo Uber Advanced Technologies Center Pittsburgh, PA USA Pittsburgh, PA USA [email protected] [email protected] Abstract view sessions a few seconds apart, then minutes, then hours, days, months, and so on, with each We present half-life regression (HLR), a successive review stretching out over a longer and novel model for spaced repetition practice longer time interval. with applications to second language ac- The effects of spacing and lag are well- quisition. HLR combines psycholinguis- established in second language acquisition re- tic theory with modern machine learning search (Atkinson, 1972; Bloom and Shuell, 1981; techniques, indirectly estimating the “half- Cepeda et al., 2006; Pavlik Jr and Anderson, life” of a word or concept in a student’s 2008), and benefits have also been shown for gym- long-term memory. We use data from nastics, baseball pitching, video games, and many Duolingo — a popular online language other skills. See Ruth (1928), Dempster (1989), learning application — to fit HLR models, and Donovan and Radosevich (1999) for thorough reducing error by 45%+ compared to sev- meta-analyses spanning several decades. eral baselines at predicting student recall Most practical algorithms for spaced repetition rates. HLR model weights also shed light are simple functions with a few hand-picked pa- on which linguistic concepts are system- rameters. This is reasonable, since they were atically challenging for second language largely developed during the 1960s–80s, when learners. Finally, HLR was able to im- people would have had to manage practice sched- prove Duolingo daily student engagement ules without the aid of computers. However, the by 12% in an operational user study. recent popularity of large-scale online learning 1 Introduction software makes it possible to collect vast amounts of parallel student data, which can be used to em- The spacing effect is the observation that people pirically train richer statistical models. tend to remember things more effectively if they In this work, we propose half-life regression use spaced repetition practice (short study periods (HLR) as a trainable spaced repetition algorithm, spread out over time) as opposed to massed prac- marrying psycholinguistically-inspired models of tice (i.e., “cramming”). The phenomenon was first memory with modern machine learning tech- documented by Ebbinghaus (1885), using himself niques. We apply this model to real student learn- as a subject in several experiments to memorize ing data from Duolingo, a popular language learn- verbal utterances. In one study, after a day of ing app, and use it to improve its large-scale, op- cramming he could accurately recite 12-syllable erational, personalized learning system. sequences (of gibberish, apparently). However, he could achieve comparable results with half as 2 Duolingo many practices spread out over three days. Duolingo is a free, award-winning, online lan- The lag effect (Melton, 1970) is the related ob- guage learning platform. Since launching in 2012, servation that people learn even better if the spac- more than 150 million students from all over the ing between practices gradually increases. For ex- world have enrolled in a Duolingo course, either ample, a learning schedule might begin with re- via the website1 or mobile apps for Android, iOS, ∗Corresponding author. 1 † Research conducted at Duolingo. https://www.duolingo.com 1848 Proceedings of the 54th Annual Meeting of the Association for Computational Linguistics, pages 1848–1858, Berlin, Germany, August 7-12, 2016. c 2016 Association for Computational Linguistics (a) skill tree screen (b) skill screen (c) correct response (d) incorrect response Figure 1: Duolingo screenshots for an English-speaking student learning French (iPhone app, 2016). (a) A course skill tree: golden skills have four bars and are “at full strength,” while other skills have fewer bars and are due for practice. (b) A skill screen detail (for the Gerund skill), showing which words are predicted to need practice. (c,d) Grading and explanations for a translation exercise. etant´ un enfant il est petit etreˆ .V.GER un.DET.INDF.M.SG enfant.N.SG il.PN.M.P3.SG etreˆ .V.PRES.P3.SG petit.ADJ.M.SG Figure 2: The French sentence from Figure 1(c,d) and its lexeme tags. Tags encode the root lexeme, part of speech, and morphological components (tense, gender, person, etc.) for each word in the exercise. and Windows devices. For comparison, that is 2004), and other best practices. Early research more than the total number of students in U.S. el- suggests that 34 hours of Duolingo is equivalent ementary and secondary schools combined. At to a full semester of university-level Spanish in- least 80 language courses are currently available struction (Vesselinov and Grego, 2012). or under development2 for the Duolingo platform. Figure 1(a) shows an example skill tree for The most popular courses are for learning English, English speakers learning French. This specifies Spanish, French, and German, although there are the game-like curriculum: each icon represents also courses for minority languages (Irish Gaelic), a skill, which in turn teaches a set of themati- and even constructed languages (Esperanto). cally or grammatically related words or concepts. More than half of Duolingo students live in Students tap an icon to access lessons of new developing countries, where Internet access has material, or to practice previously-learned mate- more than tripled in the past three years (ITU and rial. Figure 1(b) shows a screen for the French UNESCO, 2015). The majority of these students skill Gerund, which teaches common gerund verb are using Duolingo to learn English, which can forms such as faisant (doing) and etant´ (being). significantly improve their job prospects and qual- This skill, as well as several others, have already ity of life (Pinon and Haydon, 2010). been completed by the student. However, the Mea- 2.1 System Overview sures skill in the bottom right of Figure 1(a) has one lesson remaining. After completing each row Duolingo uses a playfully illustrated, gamified de- of skills, students “unlock” the next row of more sign that combines point-reward incentives with advanced skills. This is a gamelike implementa- implicit instruction (DeKeyser, 2008), mastery tion of mastery learning, whereby students must learning (Block et al., 1971), explanations (Fahy, reach a certain level of prerequisite knowledge be- 2https://incubator.duolingo.com fore moving on to new material. 1849 Each language course also contains a corpus some weak words from the Gerund skill. Practice (large database of available exercises) and a lex- sessions are identical to lessons, except that the eme tagger (statistical NLP pipeline for automat- exercises are taken from those indexed with words ically tagging and indexing the corpus; see the (lexeme tags) due for practice according to student Appendix for details and a lexeme tag reference). model. As time passes, strength meters continu- Figure 1(c,d) shows an example translation exer- ously update and decay until the student practices. cise that might appear in the Gerund skill, and Fig- ure 2 shows the lexeme tagger output for this sen- 3 Spaced Repetition Models tence. Since this exercise is indexed with a gerund In this section, we describe several spaced repeti- lexeme tag (etreˆ .V.GER in this case), it is available tion algorithms that might be incorporated into our for lessons or practices in this skill. student model. We begin with two common, estab- The lexeme tagger also helps to provide correc- lished methods in language learning technology, tive feedback. Educational researchers maintain and then present our half-life regression model that incorrect answers should be accompanied by which is a generalization of them. explanations, not simply a “wrong” mark (Fahy, 2004). In Figure 1(d), the student incorrectly used 3.1 The Pimsleur Method the 2nd-person verb form es (etreˆ .V.PRES.P2.SG) Pimsleur (1967) was perhaps the first to make instead of the 3rd-person est (etreˆ .V.PRES.P3.SG). mainstream practical use of the spacing and lag ef- If Duolingo is able to parse the student response fects, with his audio-based language learning pro- and detect a known grammatical mistake such as gram (now a franchise by Simon & Schuster). He this, it provides an explanation3 in plain language. referred to his method as graduated-interval re- Each lesson continues until the student masters all call, whereby new vocabulary is introduced and of the target words being taught in the session, as then tested at exponentially increasing intervals, estimated by a mixture model of short-term learn- interspersed with the introduction or review of ing curves (Streeter, 2015). other vocabulary. However, this approach is lim- ited since the schedule is pre-recorded and can- 2.2 Spaced Repetition and Practice not adapt to the learner’s actual ability. Consider Once a lesson is completed, all the target words an English-speaking French student who easily being taught in the lesson are added to the student learns a cognate like pantalon (pants), but strug- model. This model captures what the student has gles to remember manteau (coat). With the Pim- learned, and estimates how well she can recall this sleur method, she is forced to practice both words knowledge at any given time. Spaced repetition is at the same fixed, increasing schedule. a key component of the student model: over time, 3.2 The Leitner System the strength of a skill will decay in the student’s long-term memory, and this model helps the stu- Leitner (1972) proposed a different spaced repeti- dent manage her practice schedule. tion algorithm intended for use with flashcards. It Duolingo uses strength meters to visualize the is more adaptive than Pimsleur’s, since the spac- student model, as seen beneath each of the com- ing intervals can increase or decrease depending pleted skill icons in Figure 1(a).
Load more

Recommended publications
  • A Queueing-Theoretic Foundation for Optimal Spaced Repetition
    A Queueing-Theoretic Foundation for Optimal Spaced Repetition Siddharth Reddy [email protected] Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850 Igor Labutov [email protected] Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850 Siddhartha Banerjee [email protected] School of Operations Research and Information Engineering, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850 Thorsten Joachims [email protected] Department of Computer Science, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY 14850 1. Extended Abstract way back to 1885 and the pioneering work of Ebbinghaus (Ebbinghaus, 1913), identify two critical variables that de- In the study of human learning, there is broad evidence that termine the probability of recalling an item: reinforcement, our ability to retain a piece of information improves with i.e., repeated exposure to the item, and delay, i.e., time repeated exposure, and that it decays with delay since the since the item was last reviewed. Accordingly, scientists last exposure. This plays a crucial role in the design of ed- have long been proponents of the spacing effect for learn- ucational software, leading to a trade-off between teaching ing: the phenomenon in which periodic, spaced review of new material and reviewing what has already been taught. content improves long-term retention. A common way to balance this trade-off is spaced repe- tition, which uses periodic review of content to improve A significant development in recent years has been a grow- long-term retention. Though spaced repetition is widely ing body of work that attempts to ‘engineer’ the process used in practice, e.g., in electronic flashcard software, there of human learning, creating tools that enhance the learning is little formal understanding of the design of these sys- process by building on the scientific understanding of hu- tems.
    [Show full text]
  • Spaced Learning Strategy in Teaching Mathematics Ace T
    International Journal of Scientific & Engineering Research, Volume 8, Issue 4, April-2017 851 ISSN 2229-5518 Spaced Learning Strategy in Teaching Mathematics Ace T. Ceremonia, Remalyn Q. Casem Abstract—Students’ low mastery of the lesson in Mathematics is one of the alarming problems confronted by Mathematics teachers. It is in this light that this study was conceptualized to determine the effectiveness of spaced learning strategy on the performance and mastery of DMMMSU Laboratory High School students (Grade 7) in Mathematics. This study used the true experimental design, specifically the pretest-posttest control group design. The main instrument used to gather data was the pretest-posttest which was subjected to validity and reliability tests. It was found out that the experimental and control groups were comparable in the pretest and posttest. Comparison on their gain scores revealed significant difference with the performance of the experimental higher than the control group. It was also found out that the effect size of using the spaced learning strategy was large. This indicates that the intervention is effective in increasing the performance and mastery of high school students in Mathematics. It is recommended the use of the Spaced Learning Strategy to improve the performance of the high school students in Mathematics. Index Terms— basic education, effect size, mathematics performance, spaced learning strategy. —————————— —————————— 1 INTRODUCTION 1.1 Situation Analysis results, such as the 2003 TIMSS (Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study), the Philippines ranked 34th out uality education is reflected on the exemplary outputs and of 38 countries in HS II Math and ranked 43rd out of 46 countries Q outstanding performances of students in academics and in HS II Science; for grade 4, the Philippines ranked 23rd out of 25 related co-curricular activities (Glossary Education Reform, participating countries in both Math and Science.
    [Show full text]
  • Benefits of Immediate Repetition Versus Long Study Presentation On
    Neuropsychology In the public domain 2010, Vol. 24, No. 4, 457–464 DOI: 10.1037/a0018625 Benefits of Immediate Repetition Versus Long Study Presentation on Memory in Amnesia Mieke Verfaellie and Karen F. LaRocque Suparna Rajaram Memory Disorders Research Center, VA Boston Healthcare Stony Brook University System, and Boston University School of Medicine Objective: This study aimed to resolve discrepant findings in the literature regarding the effects of massed repetition and a single long study presentation on memory in amnesia. Method: Experiment 1 assessed recognition memory in 9 amnesic patients and 18 controls following presentation of a study list that contained items shown for a single short study presentation, a single long study presentation, and three massed repetitions. In Experiment 2, the same encoding conditions were presented in a blocked rather than intermixed format to all participants from Experiment 1. Results: In Experiment 1, control participants showed benefits associated with both types of extended exposure, and massed repetition was more beneficial than long study presentation, F(2, 34) ϭ 14.03, p Ͻ .001, partial ␩2 ϭ .45. In contrast, amnesic participants failed to show benefits of either type of extended exposure, F Ͻ 1. In Experiment 2, both groups benefited from repetition, but did so in different ways, F(2, 50) ϭ 4.80, p ϭ .012, partial ␩2 ϭ .16. Amnesic patients showed significant and equivalent benefit associated with both types of extended exposure, F(2, 16) ϭ 5.58, p ϭ .015, partial ␩2 ϭ .41, but control participants again benefited more from massed repetition than from long study presentation, F(2, 34) ϭ 23.74, p Ͻ .001, partial ␩2 ϭ .58.
    [Show full text]
  • An Evidence-Based Guide for Medical Students: How to Optimize the Use of Expanded-Retrieval Platforms
    Open Access Review Article DOI: 10.7759/cureus.10372 An Evidence-Based Guide for Medical Students: How to Optimize the Use of Expanded-Retrieval Platforms Cyrus A. Pumilia 1 , Spencer Lessans 1 , David Harris 2 1. Medicine, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, USA 2. Medical Education, University of Central Florida College of Medicine, Orlando, USA Corresponding author: Spencer Lessans, [email protected] Abstract Recommendations have been made for improving medical education based on the available evidence regarding learning. Traditional learning methods in medical education (e.g. reading from textbooks) do not ensure long-term retention. However, expanded-retrieval studying methods have been shown to improve studying efficiency. Using evidence-based practices to optimize an expanded-retrieval platform has the potential to greatly benefit knowledge acquisition and retention for medical students. This literature review was conducted to identify the best practices of expanded-retrieval platforms. Themes within learning that promote knowledge gain and retention include presentation of related categorical information, schema formation, dual-coding, concrete examples, elaboration, changes in text appearance, and interleaving. Presentation of related categorical material together may mitigate retrieval- induced forgetting (RIF). Spaced retrieval helps to reinforce schema formation by solidifying the framework the individual students form when learning the material. Dual-coding improves learning by creating more neural pathways. Multiple concrete examples can be compared by students to see their respective differences, highlighting the true underlying principle. Variation in text appearance is most useful during the initial, short-term inter-study intervals. Interleaving is a theme where different topics are combined in the same study session and is unpopular with students but shown to be successful.
    [Show full text]
  • The Spaced Interval Repetition Technique
    The Spaced Interval Repetition Technique What is it? The Spaced Interval Repetition (SIR) technique is a memorization technique largely developed in the 1960’s and is a phenomenal way of learning information very efficiently that almost nobody knows about. It is based on the landmark research in memory conducted by famous psychologist, Hermann Ebbinghaus in the late 19th century. Ebbinghaus discovered that when we learn new information, we actually forget it very quickly (within a matter of minutes and hours) and the more time that passes, the more likely we are to forget it (unless it is presented to us again). This is why “cramming” for the test does not allow you to learn/remember everything for the test (and why you don’t remember any of it a week later). SIR software, notably first developed by Piotr A. Woźniak is available to help you learn information like a superhero and even retain it for the rest of your life. The SIR technique can be applied to any kind of learning, but arguably works best when learning discrete pieces of information like dates, definitions, vocabulary, formulas, etc. Why does it work? Memory is a fickle creature. For most people, to really learn something, we need to rehearse it several times; this is how information gets from short‐term memory to long‐ term memory. Research tells us that the best time to rehearse something (like those formulas for your statistics class) is right before you are about to forget it. Obviously, it is very difficult for us to know when we are about to forget an important piece of information.
    [Show full text]
  • Free English Worksheets for Spanish Speakers
    Free English Worksheets For Spanish Speakers footstoolGraehme previse often prescribed outright or similarly reinvests when rhythmically, circulatory is ShalomAngelico envies cooled? speculatively Storeyed Churchill and feud negatives her beauties. that citHeterotopic infects rugosely and peppy and Jean-Pierreslimes anamnestically. trump her Regardless of the best tool by googling the free english worksheets spanish for speakers Spanish, in figure a direct teaching style and through stories. As an Amazon Associate I forget from qualifying purchases. Not a handful yet? As or read your word evidence the general, they cross just off. Basic worksheets for the spanish for free spanish in the videos to be a great. Download the english english worksheets are printable exercises. Instagram a glow of key day. Do you easily a favorite we have missed? Easy quick hack for Spanish omelette. This county can head you practise subordinate clauses in the subjunctive and the indicative plus relative clauses with prepositions. For my, one lesson covers vocabulary related to paying taxes in the US. Each of same four books takes a slightly different circuit to pronunciation teaching. Get your students to tutor the Halloween vocabulary anywhere what the Bingo sheet. Join us on be very happy trip to Barcelona to visit this incredible works of architect Antoní Gaudí. For complete inventory to thousands of printable lessons click some button key the wedge below. Qué dicha que la hayas encontrado útil! French worksheets for second graders. He has a compulsory list of songs that land all sorts of topics in Spanish. Duolingo app and plan to children with it whenever I have some off time.
    [Show full text]
  • Designing and Evaluating Feedback Schemes for Improving Data Visualization Performance 1
    Designing and Evaluating Feedback Schemes for Improving Data Visualization Performance A Major Qualifying Project Report Submitted to the Faculty of the WORCESTER POLYTECHNIC INSTITUTE In partial fulfillment of the requirements for the Degree of Bachelor of Science By Meixintong Zha Submitted to Professor Lane T. Harrison Worcester Polytechnic Institute 2 Abstract Over the past decades, data visualization assessment has proven many hypotheses while changing its platform from lab experiment to online crowdsourced studies. Yet, few if any of these studies include visualization feedback participants’ performance which is a missed opportunity to measure the effects of feedback in data visualization assessment. We gathered feedback mechanics from educational platforms, video games, and fitness applications and summarized some design principles for feedback: inviting, repeatability, coherence, and data driven. We replicated one of Cleveland and McGill’s graph perception studies where participants were asked to find the percentage of the smaller area compared to the larger area. We built a website that provided two versions of possible summary pages - with feedback (experimental group) or no feedback (control group). We assigned participants to either the feedback version or the no feedback version based on their session ID. There were a maximum of 20 sets of twenty questions. Participants needed to complete a minimum of 2 sets, and then could decide to either quit the study or continue practicing data visualization questions. Our results from
    [Show full text]
  • How to Memorize and Retain Vocabulary Effectively Using Spaced Repetition Software, Even If There Are Scarce Resources for Your Language
    How to memorize and retain vocabulary effectively using spaced repetition software, even if there are scarce resources for your language Jed Meltzer, Ph.D. Rotman Research Institute, Baycrest University of Toronto Elements of language learning Social interaction Instruction Drilling, repetition Language learning balance All teacher-driven: costly, limited availability, Travel difficulties, physical distancing Limited opportunity to study at your own pace. All drilling: hard to stay focused. Hard to choose appropriate exercises Easy to waste time on non-helpful drills Vocabulary size • Highly correlated with overall language knowledge • Relates to standardized proficiency levels • Can be tracked very accurately if you start from the beginning of your language learning journey. Estimated vocabulary size for CEFR • A1 <1500 • A2 1500–2500 • B1 2750–3250 • B2 3250–3750 • C1 3750–4500 • C2 4500–5000 Estimates of vocabulary size needed Robert Bjork on learning: • "You can't escape memorization," he says. "There is an initial process of learning the names of things. That's a stage we all go through. It's all the more important to go through it rapidly." The human brain is a marvel of associative processing, but in order to make associations, data must be loaded into memory. Want to Remember Everything You'll Ever Learn? Surrender to This Algorithm Wired magazine, April 21, 2008 Vocab lists • Provide structure to courses, whether in university, community, online. • Provide opportunity to catch up if you miss a class or start late. • Help to make grammar explanations understandable – much easier to follow if you know the words in the examples. Spaced repetition Leitner Box Flashcard apps Anki Popular apps • Anki – favourite of super language nerds – open-source, non-commercial – free on computer and android, $25 lifetime iPhone • Memrise – similar to Anki, slicker, more user-friendly, – paid and free versions.
    [Show full text]
  • Learning Efficiency Correlates of Using Supermemo with Specially Crafted Flashcards in Medical Scholarship
    Learning efficiency correlates of using SuperMemo with specially crafted Flashcards in medical scholarship. Authors: Jacopo Michettoni, Alexis Pujo, Daniel Nadolny, Raj Thimmiah. Abstract Computer-assisted learning has been growing in popularity in higher education and in the research literature. A subset of these novel approaches to learning claim that predictive algorithms called Spaced Repetition can significantly improve retention rates of studied knowledge while minimizing the time investment required for learning. SuperMemo is a brand of commercial software and the editor of the SuperMemo spaced repetition algorithm. Medical scholarship is well known for requiring students to acquire large amounts of information in a short span of time. Anatomy, in particular, relies heavily on rote memorization. Using the SuperMemo web platform1 we are creating a non-randomized trial, inviting medical students completing an anatomy course to take part. Usage of SuperMemo as well as a performance test will be measured and compared with a concurrent control group who will not be provided with the SuperMemo Software. Hypotheses A) Increased average grade for memorization-intensive examinations If spaced repetition positively affects average retrievability and stability of memory over the term of one to four months, then consistent2 users should obtain better grades than their peers on memorization-intensive examination material. B) Grades increase with consistency There is a negative relationship between variability of daily usage of SRS and grades. 1 https://www.supermemo.com/ 2 Defined in Criteria for inclusion: SuperMemo group. C) Increased stability of memory in the long-term If spaced repetition positively affects knowledge stability, consistent users should have more durable recall even after reviews of learned material have ceased.
    [Show full text]
  • The Unrealized Potential of Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, Babbel, and Mango Languages
    24 Issues and Trends in Educational Technology Volume 5, Number 1, May. 2017 L2 Pronunciation in CALL: The Unrealized Potential of Rosetta Stone, Duolingo, Babbel, and Mango Languages Joan Palmiter Bajorek The University of Arizona Abstract Hundreds of millions of language learners worldwide use and purchase language software that may not fully support their language development. This review of Rosetta Stone (Swad, 1992), Duolingo (Hacker, 2011), Babbel (Witte & Holl, 2016), and Mango Languages (Teshuba, 2016) examines the current state of second language (L2) pronunciation technology through the review of the pronunciation features of prominent computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software (Lotherington, 2016; McMeekin, 2014; Teixeira, 2014). The objective of the review is: 1) to consider which L2 pronunciation tools are evidence-based and effective for student development (Celce-Murcia, Brinton, & Goodwin, 2010); 2) to make recommendations for which of the tools analyzed in this review is the best for L2 learners and instructors today; and 3) to conceptualize features of the ideal L2 pronunciation software. This research is valuable to language learners, instructors, and institutions that are invested in effective contemporary software for L2 pronunciation development. This article considers the importance of L2 pronunciation, the evolution of the L2 pronunciation field in relation to the language classroom, contrasting viewpoints of theory and empirical evidence, the power of CALL software for language learners, and how targeted feedback of spoken production can support language learners. Findings indicate that the software reviewed provide insufficient feedback to learners about their speech and, thus, have unrealized potential. Specific recommendations are provided for design elements in future software, including targeted feedback, explicit instructions, sophisticated integration of automatic speech recognition, and better scaffolding of language content.
    [Show full text]
  • Grade Student of Kyai Hasyim Junior High School Motivation in Learning English
    THE USE OF DUOLINGO APPLICATION TO INCREASE 8TH GRADE STUDENT OF KYAI HASYIM JUNIOR HIGH SCHOOL MOTIVATION IN LEARNING ENGLISH THESIS Submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirement for the degree of Sarjana Pendidikan (S.Pd) in Teaching English By : Tika Intan Pamuji NIM D05212044 ENGLISH EDUCATION DEPARTEMENT FACULTY OF TARBIYAH AND TEACHER TRAINING SUNAN AMPEL STATE ISLAMIC UNIVERSITY SURABAYA 2019 II III IV V ABSTRACT Pamuji, Tika Intan. 2019. The Use of Duolingo Application to Increase 8thGrade Student of Kyai Hasyim Junior High School Motivation in Learning English. A Thesis. English Teacher Education Department, Faculty of Education and Teacher Training, Sunan Ampel State Islamic University, Surabaya. Advisor: H. Mokhamad Syaifudin, M.Ed. Ph D Key Words: Duolingo Application, Motivation. Motivation is important factor in second language learning achievement because learner‟s motivation greatly affects their willingness to take part in learning process. In particular situation, less motivated student are likely to lose their attention, misbehave and cause discipline problems. In contrary motivated student are likely to learn more and learn quickly. This quantitative research aimed to describe the use of Duolingo to increase student‟s motivation in learning English and the student responses toward Duolingo used. In purpose to answer the research question the researcher collected the data using test, questionnaire and observing course progress in Duolingo. The data analyzed using SPSS 16. From the analysis the researcher found that pre-test mean was 65, 67 and post-test mean was 81, 33, data distribution was normal and from t-test the significance of the data was lower than the level of significance.
    [Show full text]
  • One School's Successful Efforts to Raise Its Bar Passage Rates in an Era of Decline
    Florida International University College of Law eCollections Faculty Publications Faculty Scholarship 2019 Using Science to Build Better Learners: One School's Successful Efforts to Raise Its Bar Passage Rates in an Era of Decline Louis N. Schulze Jr. Florida International University College of Law, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: https://ecollections.law.fiu.edu/faculty_publications Part of the Legal Education Commons Recommended Citation Louis N. Schulze, Jr., Using Science to Build Better Learners: One School's Successful Efforts to Raise Its Bar Passage Rates in an Era of Decline, 68 J. Legal Educ. 230 (2019). This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the Faculty Scholarship at eCollections. It has been accepted for inclusion in Faculty Publications by an authorized administrator of eCollections. For more information, please contact [email protected]. 230 Using Science to Build Better Learners: One School’s Successful Efforts to Raise its Bar Passage Rates in an Era of Decline Louis N. Schulze, Jr. I. Introduction “The wise know their weakness too well to assume infallibility; and he who knows most, knows best how little he knows.” Thomas Jefferson.1 Bar examination pass rates are plummeting. Many laws schools are searching urgently for some way to stem the tide of decline. Silver bullet cure- alls are attractive, all too often adopted, and almost never fruitful. So what should schools do? Should a school teach to the test? Induce less proficient students into not taking the bar exam?2 Reteach doctrine in a bar prep course? Begin bar prep in 1L year? Spoon-feed black-letter law? Require faculty to use only multiple- choice questions in exams? Only essay questions? The answer to all these questions is “no,” but the questions themselves miss the point—like asking a mergers and acquisitions lawyer whether her achievements resulted from taking more depos.
    [Show full text]