Overview

Designed interactive grammar exercises for Duolingo's Japanese course, enabling learners to intuitively master sentence structure and grammar through detailed explanations and practical applications.

Problem

Duolingo's Japanese course has been a popular tool for vocabulary learning, but users have consistently struggled with mastering grammar. Reviews and feedback pointed to a significant gap: learners found it challenging to form sentences correctly due to insufficient grammar exercises. This project was initiated to address this critical issue and provide a more balanced language learning experience.

Objective

To enhance Duolingo's Japanese course by integrating comprehensive grammar exercises, thereby improving users' understanding of sentence structure and usage.

Research and Design Process

To enhance Duolingo's Japanese course by integrating comprehensive grammar exercises, thereby improving users' understanding of sentence structure and usage.

User Feedback Analysis: Analysed over 30 user reviews, community pages, and video reviews, in an affinity map, which indicates that 90% of users highlighted the lack of grammar instruction as a major issue.
Academic Research: According to a 2019 study, mobile apps can significantly improve vocabulary and grammar test scores, especially when used alongside traditional teaching methods. However, many Duolingo users still struggle with grammar, highlighting that the effectiveness of the app depends more on their design and user experience than the mode of teaching itself.
Prototype Development: Based on these insights, I created prototypes with detailed grammar explanations and exercises.
Usability Testing: Conducted usability tests with 10 Duolingo Japanese learners, leading to a 50% increase in successful grammar exercise completions.

Current exercises offered by Duolingo

By showcasing the limitations of these exercises, we can clearly demonstrate why current methods fall short in teaching grammar. This highlights the need for integrating grammar-focused exercises and provides a strong rationale for proposed UX changes.

Flashcards

Description: Match characters with sounds or words.
Limitation: Focuses on character recognition, not grammar.

Translate Sentences

Description: Translate sentences from English to Japanese or vice versa.
Limitation: Fixed sentences limit practice with sentence variation and grammar flexibility.

Tap the Matching Pairs

Description: Match words with their equivalents or pictures.
Limitation: Focuses on vocabulary, not grammatical context or sentence structure.

Select the Correct Translation

Description: Choose the correct translation from multiple choices.
Limitation: Recognises correct translations without deeper understanding of grammar.

Listening Exercises

Description: Listen to audio and select what you hear.
Limitation: Enhances listening skills but doesn’t teach grammatical structure.

Tap What You Hear

Description: Listen to a sentence and tap out what you hear.
Limitation: Reinforces listening and sentence structure without explaining grammar.

Pain Points

Lack of Creative Input in Translation Exercises:
Users’ goal is to translate fixed sentences between Japanese and English, limiting their ability to form original sentences.
Example: Translating "This is a pen." to Japanese ("これはペンです。") does not teach users what is "This is not a pen." ("これはペンではありません。") due to a lack of practice with sentence variations and negations.
Limited Opportunities to Practice Grammar:
Few exercises allow users to apply grammar rules in varied contexts.
Example: The verb "to eat" (食べる) changes based on formality and tense:
Informal present: 食べる (taberu)
Informal past: 食べた (tabeta)
Formal present: 食べます (tabemasu)
Formal past: 食べました (tabemashita)
Situational Context of Words:
Users lack understanding of when and how to use words in different situations.
Example: What form of The verb "to do" would be appropriate: する (suru) in plain form, します (shimasu) in polite form, and なさる (nasaru) in honorific form.
Example: Different verbs for "to wear" – 着る (kiru) for upper body, 履く (haku) for lower body, and かぶる (kaburu) for hats.

Key Features

Grammar Explanations: Detailed explanations and examples for grammar points.
Interactive Exercises: Dialogue-based and grammar-oriented exercises for practical application.
Grammar Oriented Word Choice - Activities focused on choosing the correct word based on grammatical context.

Proposed Design

1. Grammar Explanations: Detailed explanations and examples for grammar points.

2. Dialogue Exercises: Situation-oriented exercises for practical application.

3. Fill-in-the-blank: Users complete sentences by filling in the blanks with the correct grammatical forms.

Prototype testing

Objective: To validate the effectiveness of the new grammar exercises in enhancing users' understanding of Japanese grammar.

Participant Recruitment:
Recruited 10 existing Duolingo Japanese learners
Testing Phases:
Pre-Testing: Conducted a Japanese Proficiency Test to measure baseline grammar knowledge.
The test covered particles, verbs, and colours. *Marked questions required users to generate their own answers, assessing independent application of grammar rules.
Prototype Testing:
Participants used a paper cutout of the prototypes. As the facilitator, I would indicate to users if their answers were correct or wrong.
Provided English translations of the words in the exercises, mimicking the Duolingo app feature where users can click on a word for translation.
Post-testing:
Conducted a Japanese Proficiency Test to measure improvement.
Collected feedback through interviews.

Outcome and Learnings

The new grammar exercises led to a 50% average improvement in participants' scores, enhancing their understanding of particles, context and verb conjugations. While participants excelled in provided examples, they struggled when encountering unfamiliar verbs, indicating a need for more exposure to varied exercises. The mock study provided valuable insights into the importance of user feedback and iterative design in creating effective educational tools.