Expectations. General observations. Respondents' opinion. Conclusions. Discussion. Differences from expectations

4.2.2. Expectations

 

Based on information obtained from the analysis of secondary sources, and my own considerations, the following expectations were formed from the results of the survey:

· the share of users of mobile applications for language learning should be somewhere between 20% (based on the number of users in Russia) and 50% (the number of students using such applications who learn languages ​​remotely);

· the most popular language to learn is English;

· according to statistics, the most widely used app should be Duolingo, despite the fact that Roskachestvo puts it far from the first place in the ranking of the best apps for learning a language from scratch; other popular apps should be EWA, Busuu and Mondly;

· users are likely to speak positively about the elements of application gamification; prefer freemium monetization model; they will also be attracted to content focused on their interests (personalization); definitely a positive aspect will be that users will feel progress in learning the language in general, as well as in the development of specific skills, for example, in increasing vocabulary or practicing conversational speech; other advantages of such applications will be the correspondence of tasks to the level of language proficiency, the presence of feedback and the competitive element; the presence of notifications - reminders in the application should also please the respondents;

· a negative reaction from them should be caused by an abundance of advertising and an unacceptable price of a subscription or paid functions of the application;

· it is likely that the majority of respondents found applications directly on the platforms, some downloaded them after relevant advertising, and also used the recommendations of their friends.

 

4.2.3. General observations

 

Next, I will list the general observations that were received during the survey. Some of them contradict initial expectations, however, in view of the provisions mentioned earlier, it is impossible to extend these conclusions to the entire general population due to the unrepresentativeness of the sample.

However, with the help of the received data, I can evaluate the opinion of specific users, what they like and what repels them in language learning applications, that is, I can answer the questions posed in this paper.

So the general observations are:

· the majority of respondents (59%) have ever used such applications, which is quite unexpected, although due to the spontaneity of the sample, such a scenario is possible;

· of these, the vast majority (67%) used the Duolingo app (which was expected, but not to the such extent) and learned English (74%); among other applications, Lingualeo, Tandem, Hello Talk, Quizlet, were also mentioned a number of times; neither Mondly, nor Busuu, nor EWA received any significant number of mentions, contrary to expectations;

· when asked by all survey participants about the names of which applications they are familiar with, the majority again answered that it was Duolingo (70%), and also Lingualeo (45%), Quizlet (25%), Hello Talk (16%), Memrise (12%) and Busuu (9%); these applications have been detailed above; only 23% had not heard of any applications.

· the ways surveyed by which respondents learned about such applications (advertising, friends, "accidentally" - that is, on the platform itself) received a roughly equal percentage, although word of mouth was not expected to play such a significant role; several people have also mentioned YouTube as a source of information.

 

4.2.4. Respondents' opinion

 

Let us now dwell in more detail on the questions concerning the positive and negative features of the applications that were mentioned by the respondents. Respondents' answers can be found in Appendix 4.

The main advantages of the applications, noted by users, were the following:

· easy start in language learning (69%): learning a language is a long and laborious process, but it is often difficult to get started; these applications make it easy to overcome this barrier, as the complexity of tasks in them increases gradually;

· subscription terms / free app (68%): as expected, most users will prefer the freemium model, where the main features of the app are available at no charge;

· multi-skill development (65%): respondents appreciate that the application develops their language skills in many ways, this was also expected;

· application design (58%): this seemingly far from the main aspect of applications also plays a role in attracting the attention of the consumer, however, regarding this aspect and some others, there are some comments that will be discussed further;

· method of language learning (49%): certainly expected positive reaction of users associated with the gamification of the learning process; as discussed above, it has a number of advantages over classical learning, especially in the form of mobile applications.

Without due attention of users, contrary to expectations, there were such moments as user-oriented content, the result achieved and other characteristics mentioned above.

The main disadvantages complained about by users are as follows:

· frequent notifications (42%): respondents were expected to like having class-reminders, but this turned out to be the biggest drawback that annoys app users;

· no progress in language learning (25%): it is worth noting that this is the subjective opinion of only a quarter of the respondents; perhaps they expected much faster results, although learning the language takes quite a long time, even if it is done with the help of an application; at the same time, there was probably progress, but users did not feel it, and these are already flaws in the application;

· not exciting, not motivating (25%): perhaps personal reasons for motivating users played a role here, or just the lack of user-oriented thematic content;

· a lot of ads (23%): extra ads are always annoying; this is a quite expected reason for user dissatisfaction;

· tasks do not correspond to the level of language proficiency (20%): every fifth user faced this problem; these were probably those respondents who already have some knowledge of the language at a fairly high level, while most of the applications mentioned are aimed rather at beginners.

The unacceptable price of the subscription did not cause any negative reaction from users, probably because the majority are users of the Duolingo application, which gives access to all of its content for free, but with some restrictions.

From the free answers of the respondents, among other things, it follows:

· some of the users are simply too lazy to complete new tasks - however, this is probably also the fault of the mobile application itself, which failed to sufficiently motivate the consumer;

· lack of development of all aspects of the language using the application;

· there are many tasks per session – users could use the application more often if the training session consisted of fewer tasks, because, as noted above, sometimes applications are used literally “on the go”, in a short break between their business;

· many tasks of the same type - most likely, this is the method of learning in the application, but for some it is annoying.

It should be noted right away that the respondents generally found more positive aspects in learning a language using mobile applications. A total of 82 users noted 306 positive and only 115 negative characteristics of applications. Some of the users did not name a single drawback at all. It can be concluded that users are generally satisfied with the use of such applications.

Some trends deserve special attention, which can be observed by referring the answers to these questions to different groups that differ in age, sex and type of employment. A summary table describing the results of this review can be found in Appendix 3.

Let's look at some interesting things that can be observed by analyzing this data. We note right away that there are few people who used such applications among respondents under the age of 18 and over 40, so we should not draw unambiguous conclusions regarding their use of such applications. Let's start with positive reviews.

· language learning method: with increasing age, sympathy for the gamification of the learning process grows; it is likely that those who previously learned languages ​​only in classical ways feel a tangible difference, while younger users take it for granted; this moment is also more interesting for women (57%) than for men (29%);

· application design: this component, on the contrary, is more valued by younger users, in contrast to older respondents, and also by more men than women;

· surprisingly, the older the respondents, the more the terms of subscription are important for them, and there were no significant differences among students and workers; it is more interesting for women than for men;

· despite the fact that the main positive point for the sample is an easy start in learning the language, most users over 40 do not find this so; apparently, for them, the use of a new mobile application, especially for such a difficult task as learning a language, is much more stressful than for young people;

· the achieved result, although a relatively small number of people, is much more pleasing to users of the 25-40 years old category, perhaps due to the specificity of the goals set and the corresponding motivation.

The trends in negative reviews are as follows:

· with regard to gamification and motivation, however, not everything is clear, because for (60%) people of the 40+ category, the learning process with the help of such applications is not exciting, or they are not sufficiently motivated;

· expensive subscription is more of a concern for men than women, although in a small absolute number of responses, as well as more students than employed, which is to be expected, but again, only a small percentage of respondents noted this;

· the abundance of advertising repels to a greater extent groups of 25-40 years old and men; perhaps this is the category that is more than others ready to buy a subscription to solve this problem;

· regarding frequent notifications - this is a much more annoying factor for younger users.

If we consider individual segments of the sample by age and sex, then for them the most selectable positive and negative moments, respectively, turned out to be the following:

· under 18: multi-skill development and frequent notifications;

· 18 - 24: easy start, development of several skills, subscription terms, design and frequent notifications;

· 25 - 40: easy start, development of several skills, subscription terms, language learning method and a lot of advertising;

· over 40: development of several skills, subscription conditions and lack of motivation;

· men: application design, easy start and a lot of ads, frequent notifications;

· women: multi-skill development, subscription terms and frequent notifications.

The division of respondents' opinions depending on their type of employment turned out to be insignificant, and therefore was not considered here.

We also note some differences that are more valuable from the point of view of the purposes of this paper. We are talking about the advantages and disadvantages that users of different applications have identified. Due to the limited sample size, only two applications that were indicated by the largest number of users were included in the comparison - Duolingo (55 people) and LinguaLeo (6 people). As can be seen, relying on a small number of users of the latter, again, one cannot draw unambiguous conclusions. However, these applications have some differences, despite all their similarities, and it would be interesting to know the opinion of consumers. We have such an opportunity.

· Duolingo users most appreciate the freeness of this application (76%) and the easy start in the process of learning languages ​​(78%). The only significant drawback according to users is frequent notifications (40%). More about it will be said later.

· Interviewed LinguaLeo users highlighted multi-skill development (100%) and app design (83%) as its main strengths. Two votes each (33%) scored such shortcomings as the lack of progress in learning the language and frequent notifications.

4.2.5. Conclusions

 

Despite the lack of a sufficiently representative sample, I believe that the results of the survey can be justified in view of the provisions indicated above.

After analyzing the amount of data collected, I identified the traits of success and failure of mobile applications that I was looking for in the course of this research, which should determine their popularity and, accordingly, profitability. But is it so? Let's consider this issue in the Discussion part.

In addition, some trends were found that distinguish certain groups of people in their attitude to the positive and negative aspects of mobile applications, which can be used in the development or marketing campaign aimed at a specific target audience.

Not all of my expectations based on the collection of secondary information were confirmed by the results of the survey. Why this is so, I will also suggest in the Discussion part.

 

5. Discussion

 

Although some picture of a mobile language learning application that the consumer should like has already been obtained, some controversial points remain. Let's consider in this part the discrepancies between the results of the survey and my expectations based on the collected secondary information. Some considerations in this regard have already been outlined above, but there are those points that require more attention. In addition, summing up all of the above, I will make a description of my model of the "ideal application".

 

 

In this chapter, I will only consider the discrepancies between the information I received and the information previously collected. To the question "why is this so?" I will not be able to answer in full, this is a topic for further research, however, some assumptions can be made.

As mentioned above, neither Mondly, nor Busuu, nor EWA have received any significant number of mentions, although the mentioned study [Statista (2), 2022] gave them market shares of 7%, 12% and 34% respectively. These are the most installed applications in the Russian market according to this source. Perhaps the key point here is that even if they are installed with such frequency, due to an extensive advertising campaign or for other reasons, they do not stay on users' phones for a long time? No other data was found.

According to the same source, Duolingo should have been the most popular app with 47% of downloads. However, the results of this application in my survey exceeded expectations: it gained 67% of the total number of users. What is the reason for such a mega-popularity of this service?

Probably the main advantage of Duolingo is not just a freemium model, but the fact that all of its materials are free. There are only some minor restrictions in the form of advertising and the speed of completion of the course. Let me remind you that this was confirmed by the results of the survey. The same popular response among users was an easy start in learning. Many similar applications have a staggered flow of material, and students appreciate this.

It is worth noting that I formulated the question about the use of the application both at the moment and in the past, that is, the number of regular users can be significantly less. However, it is a fact that most people use this particular application, including me. I have been using it for more than a year and a half continuously and I am quite satisfied. In this paper, I try not to distort the material with my subjective opinion regarding this application.

On the other hand, according to the mentioned study [Roskatchestvo, 2019], Duolingo is far from the best language learning app. In my opinion, being the most popular app doesn't mean to be the objectively best language learning app. As my survey revealed, users are also attracted to other positive things that were listed earlier.

There is a paradox, isn't it? On the one hand, you strive to create the best language learning app, but on the other hand, the leadership goes to the one who was able to hear more of the users' needs and put their solution into practice, as evidenced by the huge number of Duolingo users.

The paradox around this app doesn't end there: despite being the most popular language learning app in the world, Duolingo has been a net loss for several years now. I mentioned above that a significant increase in the loss last year was due to the IPO. At the same time, following the popularity, the company's revenue continues to grow.

Thus, I believe that Duolingo and its product are still far from the peak of their well-deserved popularity. As mentioned above, this market is estimated to be worth billions (!) of people in the future [Duolingo (2), 2022], and Duolingo has every chance to maintain its position in it. When forming the characteristics of the “ideal application”, much will be borrowed from this particular product.

In terms of how users find apps, it's worth noting that Duolingo's millions of users are said to provide a strong word-of-mouth effect, among other things. Word of mouth at the same time is an influential phenomenon in itself, and reputation is certainly important here, because if they talk badly about you, then popularity will fall, and if it’s good, then vice versa.

It turns out that users, by disseminating information, attract new users. The significance of this phenomenon is confirmed by the data presented above and the results of the survey.

It is likely that other sources of information also play a significant role, such as YouTube, TikTok or social networks, which is somewhat confirmed by the results of the survey.

Thus, traditional advertising is far from the only way for a mobile application to gain popularity, and it is likely that in the future the focus will be even more shifted away from classic banner ads and commercials.

During the survey, several interesting points regarding the subscription were revealed. However, it should be noted right away that the majority of those who completed the survey are users of the Duolingo application, which provides free access to all of its materials with minor restrictions and advertising, so the survey data regarding this question could be heavily distorted.

If we look at the positive answers of respondents regarding the subscription, then there is a trend: the older the age category, the more users, in percentage terms, are satisfied with the terms of the subscription. Probably, with age, the consumer develops a more conscious attitude towards money, and he or she is happy with every opportunity to save. No significant differences were found among students and workers (63% and 67%, respectively, are satisfied).

Let's now turn to the downside regarding the subscription price, because it is expected to be a more objective picture here due to the smaller presence of Duolingo users. Indeed, out of 8 people who noted the “expensive subscription”, only two used only this application.

So, five people consider themselves to be students, and only one - to workers. Thus, even if the indicators are small, in order to draw unambiguous conclusions, the expensive subscription price is more of a concern for the former than for the latter, which is quite expected due to the difference in income.

By analyzing these findings, application developers can think of some kind of preferential subscription terms for students to attract their attention. At the same time, for applications using the freemium monetization model, this may be redundant.

As mentioned above, the most annoying factor, according to the respondents, was the large number of notifications. Considering that the majority of respondents used Duolingo and that this app is famous for its persistent reminders of the passage of a new lesson (which formed the basis of many memes, as well as funny videos from the app's developers), it is worth concluding that users of this particular application are most dissatisfied situation. It is difficult to speculate how much this affects such indicators as the number of daily or monthly active users and the number of application deletions, however, despite this approach, the popularity of Duolingo is steadily growing.

It was expected that notifications would be positively perceived by the consumer, however, this may only apply to those who are more motivated than others to learn the language. At the same time, if notifications are extremely annoying (as it turned out for younger users, according to the results of the survey), they can simply be turned off.

It's also worth noting that the notifications may not be as annoying in reality as the survey results suggest. Probably, the decision of the respondents to mark this item was influenced by the well-known memes with a green owl - the symbol of Duolingo, which almost threatens to remind you of the need to take a new lesson. This issue requires a separate study, but the fact that the character from the application has got into mass youth culture speaks of another way for the popularity of applications to grow. Duolingo notifications have become more than just a tool to increase active user metrics.

I listed the controversial points and inconsistencies in the information received, identified in the course of my research. Some of them may be a topic for new research. However, I now come to the culmination of my paper.