Accessibility matters, it’s a matter of fact. Due to the fast-paced environment and the critical need to stay flexible, people expect services to be fast and seamless. Today time is rightly one of the most valuable assets.
The world is getting tightly interconnected so having a good command of at least one foreign language is a must-have for everyone. While some people are looking for simple but effective ways to master new languages, others come up with optimal solutions and create web platforms or mobile apps.
The concept of eLearning lies in bringing education to users’ phones and PCs. All the materials are right at their fingertips so the learning process becomes as simple as ever before. You can study whenever you want and literally from anywhere in the world. It just takes to install an app and follow some guides on how to use it.
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The Language Learning Market: Trends and Opportunities
The global online learning sector is currently expanding massively and this is backed by numerous research and facts.
According to the report, The Online Language Learning Market is projected to grow at a CAGR of 20.8% during the period from 2023 to 2030. The demand for employees with strong language skills is increasing steadily due to rapid globalization. Foreign language knowledge opens up a myriad of opportunities for specialists across industries.
Despite the intense competition, more investments are expected to enter the field in the upcoming years.
There are a few key drivers pushing the development of the language learning market:
- Massive globalization
- The need for multilingualism
- Growing popularity of eLearning
- Integration of AR and VR into language learning platforms
- Educational institutions starting to leverage learning platforms
However, there are certain factors still challenging the evolution of online learning. The lack of personalized instructions is the most significant as of now. Here’s what it means. Users often require direct feedback, personal interaction, and guidance from a teacher. This is impossible with learning apps. This factor complicates the learning process and for some users, it is a serious obstacle. But as technology, especially artificial intelligence and natural language processing, is evolving at a crazy tempo, we believe this issue might be addressed somehow in the future.
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Developing an app from scratch
Developing a language learning app is a complex and quite resource-consuming process. As already mentioned, the market is highly competitive and alternatives are multiple. On one hand, you cannot reinvent the wheel here – you have to fill your app with some typical features that every language learning app must include. On the other hand, you need to make it unique, fun, and captivating. In other words, it will take you a lot of effort to build an app that stands out and attracts users.
Main Features
The typical features of a language learning app are as follows:
- Grammar and vocabulary blocks
- Listening and reading comprehension practicing
- Speech recognition and pronunciation
- Flashcards and quizzes
- Progress tracking
This is rather a starter pack that allows you to enter the market and get users. But as your app gains traction, you can start improving it by adding more advanced features. Just make sure to make it interactive enough.
We urge you to integrate gamification elements to make the learning process fun and captivating. And make it cross-platform (either by developing two separate native versions, or by developing on a single cross-platform solution) if possible so that you can reach a much wider audience. It is cost-effective too because you develop the app once and deploy it across a variety of platforms thus eliminating the need for further porting.
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Language Learning App: step-by-step guide
So where do you start? How many steps do you need to complete to create an app? What challenges are ahead? Find it out now!
Identify your target audience and their problems
Are you targeting children, adults, or maybe professionals in some specific area? This is important to fully understand the needs that must be addressed. You should provide users with a solution that first encourages them to study and gives them valuable information.
Conduct market research
When embarking on the development of a language learning app, it’s essential to cast a keen eye on the competitive landscape. Your competitors, whether they are well-established giants or agile startups, can offer valuable insights into what methods and approaches are currently resonating with language learners.
In the course of your research, pay close attention not only to your direct competitors but also to indirect ones – offline language schools, universities, etc. Think about your strongest advantages over them to formulate an attractive offer.
Make up the concept and define the feature set
Plan what your future app will be like. Together with the development team, think about the required features that might be useful to users. It’s recommended to get started with an MVP – a minimum viable product. Fill it with the key features only without overwhelming the app. This way you can see how first users interact with the app and gather their feedback. Then you can confidently move on with advancements.
Choose the right technology stack
Deciding on the purposeful tech stack depends on the platform you’re developing an app for. Opt for hybrid development to reach as many users as possible. Keep in mind that building an app that runs seamlessly across multiple platforms is the most efficient solution.
Create content
Learning content is rightly the most important part of a learning language app. Perfect coding and beautiful UI cannot save the app with low-quality content. Make sure it is correct, up-to-date, interesting, and engaging. Fill it with multimedia and prioritize teaching through practice rather than theory.
You must have heard about Duolingo. The app is known for light and entertaining yet very effective lessons. They collaborated with professional teachers in order to prepare lessons that work out indeed.
Work with the app design
This phase involves working with visual design, layout, and user flow so that the UI is intuitive and user-friendly. It’s important to consider both functional and external consistency.
Functional consistency ensures that every element works typically within the app.
External consistency ensures stable access to the learning materials across multiple devices without the necessity to adapt to each platform’s design individually.
Don’t let a promising idea fail because of poor design.
Develop the app
And here’s the main part comes – developing an app through coding. The design layout is passed to the development team. Unlike an MVP that contains a small set of obligatory features only, a full-scale release is supposed to have an extensive range of features. Of course, you will have to go with iterative development to get first results with MVP. Only after ensuring the product MVP relevance, you may expand it further with high-level features.
First things first, find the right vendor who focuses on problem analysis and can provide a clear estimate for a high-quality MVP development.
At Pecode, we have a team of seasoned experts ready to take over the development process from scratch. We cover it step by step working closely with a client. Our ultimate goal is to deliver a top-notch product as per the requirements and expectations.
Perform Quality Assurance
Do as much testing as possible – a high-quality product is worth all the effort. Apply QA as soon as possible during the development cycle in order to identify flaws timely and manage them early on. This way you can ensure delivering an outstanding product.
Ensure proper marketing and advertising
Even a well-developed app with a unique concept won’t bring you income unless it is properly promoted. In simple terms, make sure as many people as possible know about your product — create a website, leverage the power of social media, SEO, etc.
Launch the app
You did a lot of work so it’s high time the app was released. Check whether it is properly optimized for app stores and if it has a high-quality icon, screenshots, and descriptions.
Ongoing monitoring and support
Once your app is available to download, the work doesn’t stop. It’s essential to keep track of its performance, gather user feedback, and identify bugs to introduce improvements when necessary. Make sure the app remains up-to-date and satisfies users’ needs.
The post-release phase involves analyzing user engagement, retention, and conversion metrics. Enhance user experience based on the obtained data.
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Language Learning app must-haves
When it comes to eLearning app development, unique and smart solutions are appreciated. This way a product can stand out from the competition and draw users’ attention. However, by analyzing some top language learning apps, the formula for success is derived. Get a large number of downloads and reach high rates by adding the following features:
- Gamification. This will bring encouragement boost and drive competition. People like competing, progressing through levels, and getting rewards. Well-built gamification makes learning more immersive and therefore fruitful.
- Microlearning. This concept involves breaking down the course into multiple small chunks. Users rarely want to spend hours completing tasks. Short lessons mean better focus.
- Instructional scaffolding. This method means giving users proper tips in the course of learning. These are word translations or dictionary articles that a user can see by tapping on a word or in case of a mistake.
- Content diversity. Mixing activities is crucial. Otherwise, users might drop out immediately as they get bored.
- Users’ community. Encourage users to communicate and share experiences.
- Fast and easy sign-in. That’s a must. Once again, people are unwilling to waste time on too complicated and confusing apps. They expect everything to be simple and clear. It’s a good idea to simplify the sign-in by integrating user data from social networks.
- Progress tracking and rewards. Create a dashboard to allow users to monitor their performance and provide rewards to keep them motivated.
- Offline mode. Make it possible for users to learn whenever and wherever they want – even in Wi-Fi-less zones.
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Challenges in Developing a Language Learning App
Mobile app development is quite an interesting process yet it is not that smooth. It may be challenging enough. Be ready to face the following issues along the way and manage them expertly:
- High-quality content creation must require language teaching experts’ involvement to prepare an effective curriculum.
- Defining the perfect monetization model is done through analyses of the target audience, the market, and the competitors.
- Focus on continuous learning and keep users motivated. For this, ensure entertaining experiences that make people go back to learning all the time.
- Mixing different learning styles means catering to various users’ preferences and requirements. Create an app for everyone.
- The limited number of integrated languages creates problems for users willing to learn a non-mainstream language. Bringing more languages means reaching a wider audience.
- Promotion requires significant funds but all the investments will pay off with increased visibility, millions of downloads, and enhanced user engagement.
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Language Learning Apps by Pecode: Fluently
Speaking of focusing on challenges and delivering high-quality product: Pecode took over the development of Fluently — an e-learning app with a variety of options for learning Chinese.
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This app allows scanning sentences from a book and refining them to help users learn words and grammar that align with HSK or The 2021 Chinese Grading Standard.
Fluently makes the learning process diverse. Users can save words they’d like to learn and the AI engine will generate adapted exercises to help them achieve proficiency.
The app is available on both Android and iOS. Both of these versions were developed as Native apps to ensure a proper integration with platform’s requirements.
The Pecode team has covered:
- The development of key features, language learning exercises, and statistics display
- UI/UX design of the whole app
- Working with the local database
- Development and support of offline mode
- The application publishing
- Further maintenance
We went through all of the above-mentioned processes to deliver a great result. Fluently still exists and grows as an app but under another name and style.
We’re still staying in contact with the Fluently team to ensure their app smooth work.
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Endnotes
EdTech is currently on the rise and the development of language learning apps holds significant importance in today’s globalized and interconnected world. Leveraging the power of technology and adapting to individual needs are prerequisites for creating a compatible eLearning solution.
Don’t let great ideas remain unrealized. Picking a reliable partner with vast experience in the required area is half the battle. With the right team, the mobile app development process runs seamlessly.
At Pecode, we offer full-cycle mobile app creation – from conceptualization to final release and ongoing maintenance. Are you still looking for highly skilled experts? We are ready to give you a helping hand! Reach out to us via hello@pecodesoftware.com
