Language app in new partnership for Welsh learning
LANGUAGE-LEARNING website and mobile app Duolingo has transferred responsibility for its Welsh course to the National Centre for Learning Welsh.
From this month the National Centre’s language team will take up the baton from a group of volunteers, led by Welsh tutor Richard Morse, who have been running the Duolingo course since it launched in January 2016.
The development is the first of its kind and part of a wider initiative within Duolingo to move from a volunteer-based model to having some courses managed in-house and others developed in partnership with external bodies such as the National Centre.
The centre and Duolingo said learners would not notice much difference in how and what they learn.
In the 2020 Duolingo Language Report Welsh was found to be the fastest-growing language in the UK, up 44% on 2019 – ahead of Hindi, Japanese and French.
Welsh learners were also found to be some of the hardest working and most committed in the world, ranking third for the most lessons completed.
The success for Welsh on Duolingo continued this year, with the language overtaking Russian, Chinese and Portuguese to become the UK’s seventh most learned language behind Spanish, French, German, English, Italian and Japanese. There are currently 476,000 active learners of Welsh on ths site.
More than 58% of recent learners are in the UK, 15% in the US, with 2% in Australia and Canada.
The remainder are split between pretty much every country on Earth, with single learners as far afield as the Cook Islands, Greenland and Burkina Faso, Duolingo said.
The National Centre has already worked with the Duolingo volunteers to align the course to its curriculum. It also signposts its learners to Duolingo so they can revise what they have learned in class.
Colin Watkins, UK country manager, Duolingo, said: “Welsh has been hugely successful on Duolingo, which is thanks to the stellar work from Richard and the team.
“Volunteers, including our cofounder Luis von Ahn, wrote many of the early courses, but as our popularity has grown, along with the number of language courses, now over 100 and counting, we wanted to formalise the way courses are created.
“It’s important for us to find the right partners and the fit with the National Centre for Learning Welsh is perfect. We’re confident their team will be able to continue the fantastic work started by Richard and the team.”
Dona Lewis, the National Centre’s deputy chief executive, who led the discussions with Duolingo, said: “The Duolingo Welsh course is a brilliant learning resource and our learners love using it to practise and improve their Welsh.
“This new partnership will enable us to further align the Duolingo course to our courses, which are available at five different learning levels.
“We’ll also be able to promote further learning opportunities to the Duolingo Welsh community, including virtual courses, online self-study modules and social events for Welsh learners.
“The National Centre would also like to pay tribute to the volunteers who’ve worked on the Duolingo Welsh course – we’re looking forward to continuing their good work and to welcoming and supporting even more Welsh learners.”
The Welsh course is available free on Duolingo’s mobile phone app and at duolingo.com