When teaching your students a foreign language, how often do you emphasize practicing outside the classroom? Probably pretty often! It makes sense, even to non-educators, that the single hour of in-class instruction is not enough. It also seems reasonable to think “the more the better” when it comes to practicing a new language. While quantity matters, so does the quality of what is being practiced.

Experts seem to agree that incorporating everyday activities such as reading a book or practicing weather terms in the language you are learning can be helpful to cement vocabulary and understanding. They also agree that daily practice is key – some think there is a number of minutes each day that is appropriate and others feel that it varies. What many agree on is that using technology can really level up students’ daily practice.

A recent study published by Science Daily showed significant improvement by those using a language app.

Among the report’s findings, 59% of participants improved oral proficiency by at least one sublevel on the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages proficiency scale. The proportion of learners who improved rose even higher among those who spent more time using the app. For those who studied at least six hours, 69% increased at least one sublevel, improving to 75% for those who studied for at least 15 hours.

For language educators, it then becomes a research project to find out what app will best fit not only the language you teach but the curriculum that will support the lesson for that particular week. This can be like finding a needle in a haystack for educators – taking up time and effort to match your curriculum to the app.

We developed KidsLipi with the intention to solve this pain point for language educators. With KidsLipi, you can create personalized supplemental learning that exactly matches the curriculum you are teaching in class. It’s like developing an app specifically for your students, but without all the backend steps.

The customized, confidence-boosting games and activities provide additional practice to your students. Knowing that it’s aligned with what they are learning in class saves time and gives the continuity that you need for a solid lesson plan.

In addition to matching your in-class curriculum, the KidsLipi app is easy to access for students. They can study at home or on the go using a phone or a tablet. The interface and navigation have been designed with simplicity in mind, so students aren’t struggling with the app and can get straight to practicing.

Some language learning apps are more difficult to use when first learning a new language. Because KidsLipi allows you to create practice that is the precise material you are teaching in class, it provides exactly what your students need at the right time.

Educators and students alike tend to focus on “how many hours are enough?” but the more important question is what’s the caliber of the material your students are practicing? Combining fun, engaging practice with curriculum that aligns to what’s being taught in class, your students have a very high probability of not only enjoying the practice but retaining more of what they’ve been studying.

KidsLipi and Duolingo are learning platforms that offer an online curriculum to support practicing a new language. But these platforms differ in a few ways. 

#1 – Curriculum Alignment

KidsLipi allows language educators to create and deliver content that aligns with the curriculum students are learning in the classroom. All activities, quizzes, and games are customizable to match the book content and lessons that students are learning, giving teachers complete control over what they are practicing at home. 

While it’s possible to find matching content in Duolingo, it requires searching through multiple units. Educators can manually search lessons and also see sample lessons. However, this is time-consuming, and there is a high likelihood that lessons won’t match the in-class curriculum.

#2 – Relevant Progress Tracking

Both platforms have reporting functions that track student progress, including completed activities. However, the similarities end there. Because Duolingo’s lessons do not match a teacher’s in-class curriculum, any progress tracked beyond assignments completed and time spent has little value. Because KidsLipi content is created by the educator, it aligns with the content that students are currently learning, making progress data highly relevant. Teachers can then provide the proper support to any student who needs it.

#3 – Designed for K-5 kids

Duolingo is mainly designed for high school students and adults, whereas KidsLipi is designed with K-5 kids in mind. It allows kids to click and explore words and sentences, listen, and read words, and receive golden stars when an activity is completed. The more they learn, the more golden stars they receive. They can also practice words and reinforce learning in the app, collecting points as they play more games. Finally, quizzes allow kids to evaluate their competency in the language they are learning. Overall, the app helps speed up the language learning process.

Bonus Point – More Offerings for Indian Languages

This last point is a bonus one, but we think it’s an important one. Currently, the only Indian language offered in Duolingo is Hindi. KidsLipi on the other hand gives educators the ability to use their content, whether that is Hindi, Gujarati or Tamil. Because educators can use their own curriculum to develop activities and quizzes, it’s possible to use KidsLipi language learning platform to deliver assignments with any foreign language. KidsLipi founder SamirPatel created the platform with this adaptability in mind. While teaching his son Gujarati, Samir noticed a lack of at-home language learning platforms that modeled what is taught in the classroom. He decided to design a platform that reinforces student learning at home while allowing teachers to be more efficient by using their own lessons. 

When researching the best app for language learning, it’s easy to fall for the ones that might seem the most popular. What’s more important is looking at specific needs and how these apps apply to those needs, including how the lessons line up to your curriculum, what progress you hope to measure (and how you’d like to measure it). If you are a general user, Duolingo might work for you. But for a lesson-aligned supplemental platform that maximizes efficiency and concentrates on a specific curriculum, KidsLipi is a perfect fit.

With so many choices out there for Learning Management Systems, it’s imperative to know the differences between them all and how they’d best fit with your classroom or school.

What exactly is an LMS? Learning Management Systems are online platforms that can deliver, track and provide reporting for education-based programs. An LMS can be used to support blended learning and in-person learning. Educators can plan lessons, provide instruction, and monitor student activity through these platforms. Administrators can oversee whole-school growth and areas for improvement at the school level.

An LMS can be a central location for educators that helps them stay organized and keep students on track. In some cases, they can even communicate with parents through whatever system they use.

So what are the differences between LMS platforms like Schoology and Canvas, and KidsLipi?

Larger platforms like Schoology and Canvas were developed with only organization in mind and not designed for a particular curriculum. While there are ways to customize these platforms to be subject or class-specific, they were not created with language learning in mind. KidsLipi is designed specifically for language learning, with the foremost priority being alignment to in-class curriculum. This allows teachers to personalize lessons and gives them a timely assessment of student progress. There isn’t a need to “settle” for features that don’t work well with their courses because KidsLipi is designed around the same coursework you are using.

Most LMS platforms keep everything in one place. But on the student end of the experience, it can be overwhelming. With multiple subjects in the same LMS, it’s easy for students to navigate away from where individual teachers would like them to focus. Because KidsLipi concentrates only on language learning, it provides an environment where students can give their attention only to their language learning. It also gives them a seamless experience from in-class learning to supplemental practice at home.

In terms of progress tracking, Schoology and Canvas might show what successful completion of tasks, but in terms of meaningful data, they cannot provide scoring data. For example, KidsLipi reports provide:

• Activities completed
• Stars (given each time a student finishes all words or sentences)
• Scores for each type of game provided on the platform

For language educators looking for a platform that helps them stay efficient, tracks progress, and keeps students focused, KidsLipi is the best option over a broad, cookie-cutter LMS.