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No doubt about it: apps have taken the world by storm. There isn’t an aspect of our lives they haven’t touched… and that includes language learning. I think apps for language learning can be useful and effective because they gamify the learning process, they are often free, they are easy to access anywhere anytime (all you need is your phone), and they can connect you to other people who are learning the same languages as you.

But since millions of people are using language learning apps and most of the discussion surrounding them is positive, I think it would be worth exploring the disadvantages of language learning apps. And I hope that through this blog post, you will come away with an understanding not only of how language learning apps can fall short or be harmful to us, but also of why I am so committed to my cause: producing incredible, physical language learning card games that you can hold in your hands and play with your friends around a table.

#1 – Apps Feed Our Sense Of Isolation And Ennui

I did mention above that apps can help connect people and inspire them to compare their results, their points, their badges, and even provide them with a way to communicate with each other, but this may be part of the problem: we get a false sense that we have attained true connection with other human beings. In truth, there is no substitute for being in the physical presence of another person.

On top of this, consider the necessity of actually conversing with someone in your target language. That will move you forward far more effectively than sitting in a corner of a room poking and swiping all by your lonesome.

#2 – Too Passive

If you think about it, the language learning apps typically present you with information that you need to respond or react to. If not, then you probably need to input something that is going to meet a requirement and get a correct answer. Real life is not like this. Real conversation is not like this.

You language learning practice would be much better off if it included opportunities to create what you want to say with whatever words you know, however few. To do that will make the learning experience more fun, too.

Let us not be bamboozled by the slick user interface of these apps…they are forcing us to work inside of a pattern or system along with hundreds of thousands of other users. Why not get proactive and initiate a conversation with living, breathing people instead? Or as the mission of my company brings to the fore: play a game with people that fosters authentic language exchange, questions, jokes, stories, trendy vocabulary, and so on.

#3 – Our Health Suffers More

As if our health wasn’t in enough trouble already due to all of our screen time and our hunched over postures! Your usage of language learning apps could very well exacerbate this. Personally, I prefer to regularly use study time as a time when I unplug. The screens are all turned off. My machine overlords are powered down. I digital detox when I engage with my languages.

The ideal scenario for me is I’m having tea with people I can speak deeply with, or I’m playing a game of Language Guardians. Of course, I still use technology sometimes, but if you stop for a moment and chew over how much time you already spend on screens, you may well decide against continuing to be on screens when you study your languages. I recommend setting aside a period of time each day or each week when you do not use technology for language learning and go old school.

#4 – Apps Quietly Diminish Our Intellectual Rigor

One of the disadvantages of language learning apps, together with many other aspects of modern life, is that they promise fast results for little effort. Or not promise, but rather, they make us feel as if we are getting results from what we’re doing. It’s very Pavlovian. They’ve tapped into our neural circuitry to give us a dopamine hit. All the little bells and whistles, the points, the streaks, and the animations, distract us from realizing that after 30 minutes or an hour has passed, we really haven’t done much of anything at all.

Quite to the contrary, we have been poking at a screen and NOT practicing out of quality textbooks, reading beautiful stories, attending a class, going to a language exchange, etc. I would argue that language learning apps encourage a lack of seriousness around language learning and they mislead people into believing that if you get the high score in this game and beat the others on the leader board, as you would in a game of Candy Crush or Angry Birds, you are getting significantly smarter. You are not.

#5 – Other Disadvantages Of Language Learning Apps

Besides the points I made above, there are other disadvantages, too, but maybe they don’t each warrant a full paragraph, so let me just collect a few together in one place. For some of the language learning apps, their translations can be iffy; the example sentences they give you to work on can be inane; payment might be required to fully unlock all the features; they might not give you training in a specific area you need, such as writing, or grammar, or, most notably, conversation; and they might have a time limit.

But at the end of the day, I do want to reaffirm for you that I am not against language learning apps. To be quite honest, I use them from time to time and I like them. In some ways, they can’t be beat. To give an example: I recently enjoyed incorporating a language learning app into my study sessions with a language coaching client of mine who was after Hebrew, and, in another example, freshening up my Spanish with my Grandma who loves using such apps! So you see, I’m only suggesting we intentionally assess the cons of these apps, so we can mitigate them or balance them out.

If you liked this article, I warmly welcome you to share it out to the people in your orbit! And whether you agree or disagree with what I’ve said (but especially if you disagree) I want to hear from you in the comments. Let’s start the conversation! And maybe, just maybe, we can transform our language learning into something more natural, more organic, more satisfying, and more effective, without sacrificing a bit of the fun!