Language learning tools and developing my own WordPress Duolingo Quiz plugin

update

Check out the language learning plugin here.

I’ve being learning Spanish for the last year or so, and as well as attending classes, I’ve been using some of the interactive tools out there that I’ve found useful. I’ve talk about developing my own WordPress quiz plugin with app like / responsive Duolingo like features, later in this post. But first I wanted to mention the tools I’ve been using to learn Spanish and which ones I’ve found useful / fun ( it helps alot to stay engaged with the fun tools ).

Tools I’ve found useful for Learning Spanish

Apps

• Duolingo – great quiz app for learning spanish
• Memrise – another great quiz type app

Websites

• https://lyricstraining.com/ – a game that you listen to songs in Spanish and it asks you to fill in some of the words in the lyrics of a song
• https://www.spanishdict.com/
• https://lingo-quiz.com/ ( my own website with flash card type tools games for learning Spanish )

Podcasts and Youtube

• https://www.linguistica360.com/ – They do a podcasts that are available in their app that read the news in slow Spanish, transcribed with some worded translations
• https://www.youtube.com/c/WhyNotSpanish – great youtube channel for learning Spanish
• https://www.youtube.com/c/ButterflySpanish – another great youtube channel for learning Spanish

Developing my own Quiz plugin with Duolingo and Memrise style features

While using all these different tools to learn Spanish, I thought it would be great to have some of these features in a WordPress Quiz plugin. So thats what I’m currently developing and will make my Quiz plugin available in the WordPress plugins repo soon.

I really like the responsiveness and instant feedback in Duolingo ( it makes a wrong buzz if you answer incorrectly ,  or an encouraging correct ping when you answer a question correctly). So I’ve incorporated this instant sound feedback into my WordPress plugin.

It also moves on quickly/instantly to the next question when you answer a question, I’ve also tried to incorporate this into my own Duolingo style plugin.

While looking at the various tools and plugins for interactive learning of Spanish, I’ve come across some great resources for teachers too. For instance one great resource I came across is Wordwall , this is really useful for creating interactive content for teachers and also allows you to create printables of the resources. It has some of the types of features of Duolingo also like the matching pairs game.

I’m also going to try and add some of the great Wordwall type features to my WordPress Quiz plugin also.

Another great type of resource is pre-made online content for learning Spanish for example Campus Difusion, takes this approach.