It’s been some time since we were ushered into the age of AI – the all-powerful, all-invasive artificial intelligence. Today, we can’t even think about our busy, daily life without it. From the moment we wake up to the moment we get back to sleep, most of our actions have become AI-assisted.
No wonder there’s a growing demand for artificial intelligence, even in the field of language learning. The online language school Lingoda conducted a survey on this topic and found that 39% of learners would like guidance from both a human teacher and AI combined. That’s why, in this article, we’ll be looking at some of the best AI language-learning apps available out there to make our learning journey as easy and smooth as possible.
Best AI Language Learning Apps
Quick Summary:
Best For
App
Ling
- Customized learning path
- Build up vocabulary with games
- ‘How to’ articles as an extr resource
Duolingo
- Gamified approach
- Core lessons are free
- Voice recognition technology
Babbel
- Interactive lessons
- Easy to use
- Speaking practice
#1 Ling: Best App For A Gamified Experience
Ling is one of the fastest-growing language apps today. Why? The first and foremost reason is its giant selection of language courses on offer. The Ling app offers speakers of 34 different languages over 60 language courses – including less popular options like Khmer, Lao, Urdu, Malayalam, and Kannada – to learn in their own native tongue!
The second reason for its massive success is its second-to-none gamified user experience. Armed with the latest innovative techniques, Ling offers you a one-stop shop for all your learning needs in an engaging and motivating approach. And who wouldn’t want to keep their streaks unbroken in exchange for scrumptious bananas?
Languages offered: Afrikaans, Croatian, Greek, Korean, Persian, Swahili, Albanian, Czech, Hebrew, Lao, Polish, Swedish, Arabic (MSA), Danish, Hindi, Latvian, Portuguese, Tagalog, Armenian, Dutch, Hungarian, Lithuanian, Punjabi, Tamil, Bengali, Estonian, Indonesian, Malayalam, Romanian, Telugu, Bosnian, English, Irish, Malaysian, Russian, Thai, Bulgarian, Finnish, Italian, Marathi, Serbian, Turkish, Burmese, French, Japanese, Mongolian, Slovak, Ukrainian, Cantonese, Georgian, Kannada, Nepali, Slovenian, Urdu, Chinese/Mandarin, German, Khmer, Norwegian, Spanish, and Vietnamese.
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Stand Out Features
- The app uses the spaced repetition technique to reinforce learning. It shows previously learned vocabulary and grammar concepts at regular intervals to optimize your long-term retention. In short, it acts well as a vocabulary trainer.
- Audio exercises recorded in native speakers’ voices and a powerful AI chatbot are quite engaging and work well to keep you hooked for more.
- The Roman transcription of languages with non-Latin scripts is an added bonus. It really smoothens your journey as you navigate through learning the sounds of a completely foreign language with unrecognizable writing.
Pricing
- Monthly: $14.99
- Yearly: $79.99 (7-day free trial available)
- Lifetime: $149.99
Devices: Android, iOS, web.
#2 Duolingo: Best App For A Beginner
Duolingo rules the roost when it comes to learning a foreign language course at a beginner level. It’s the most popular language-learning app across the globe today. The biggest reason for its popularity is its interactive mascots – various characters on the app – who converse with language learners in native-speaker voices. Each character is given a unique personality trait, and the voices reflect that very trait in story lessons that feature everyday conversations.
Duolingo’s progressive lesson plans are totally customizable, which means that you can opt to jump to further grammar lessons if you feel that your proficiency level has increased. The app’s interface is also very intuitive and good-looking.
Languages offered: Arabic, Catalan, Chinese (Cantonese), Chinese (Mandarin), Czech, Danish, Dutch, English, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Guaraní, Haitian Creole, Hawaiian, Hebrew, High Valyrian, Hindi, Hungarian, Indonesian, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Klingon, Korean, Latin, Navajo, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Romanian, Russian, Scottish Gaelic, Spanish, Swahili, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Vietnamese, Welsh, Yiddish, and Zulu.
Stand Out Features
- The gamified approach, with its rewards and embellishments, is a big motivational tool for users to keep coming back for more and more lessons to learn a new language.
- The app is absolutely free to use! Yes, it does have in-app purchase options like many other gaming apps, but the core lessons are offered free of cost. Though the paid subscriptions do allow you access to additional features like role-play and ‘explain my answers.’
- Its voice recognition technology allows the user to record their answer when engaging in interactive dialogues.
Pricing
- Free version
- Super Duolingo: $9.99/month
Devices: Android, iOS, Web.
#3 Babbel: Best App For Real-Life Situations
Babbel is one of the most popular AI-powered apps pertaining to interactive dialogues that imitate real conversations. The user listens to native speakers, practices speaking, and learns the nuances of pronunciation, intonation, and natural language flow – all of this in one app!
Babbel, along with Duolingo, is regarded as the industry giant in the EdTech field. And rightly so. The app offers a plethora of engaging and interactive features to its users by keeping it light and real. And the biggest draws are the popular European languages, especially Spanish.
Languages offered: Spanish, French, German, Italian, Portuguese (Brazilian), Polish, Russian, Dutch, Turkish, Danish, Norwegian, Swedish, Indonesian, and English.
Stand Out Features
- When you start using the app, you can specify why you’re learning a language – for travel, work, or personal enrichment – and Babbel will offer you a customized learning path using AI.
- Games like ‘Phrase Maze’ and ‘Word Trax’ work beautifully to keep the user hooked to the platform while building upon their vocabulary.
- The platform offers a free-access language blog with pop-listicles and ‘how to’ articles related to language learning and phrasebook-building.
Pricing
- 1 month (one language): $9.60
- 3 months (one language): $24.45
- 12 months (one language): $57.60
- Lifetime (all languages): $190.99
Devices: Android, iOS, web.
#4 Memrise: Best App For Chatbot Conversation
I discovered this app is designed for a full-blown cultural immersion the moment I logged into it! As a French learner, I was dancing in my seat to see real-life video clips of native speakers integrated into language lessons. Within two minutes, I was on the chatbot app, placing my coffee order and introducing myself to my new virtual neighbor through my newly acquired French vocabulary.
Yes, Memrise integrates real-life videos into its lessons, exposing learners to authentic conversations and real-world contexts. This immersive experience helps learners understand how language is used in practical situations.
Languages offered: Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, and Yoruba.
Stand Out Features
- Memrise offers a variety of multimedia features like audio clips, videos, images, and example sentences. This approach works well for different learning styles and makes it easier for users to quickly grasp and retain new language concepts.
- The app incorporates gamification elements such as points, streaks, and rewards to keep learners engaged and motivated. This not only encourages daily attendance and practice but also makes the learning experience more enjoyable.
- The app also allows users to create their own courses. Yes, the platform has a dedicated forum or user community that puts up self-created lessons on specific topics, dialects, or vocabulary that might not be covered in standard offered courses. However, the authenticity and credibility of that content might not always be 100%.
Pricing
- Monthly subscription: $27.99
- Yearly subscription: $130.99
- Lifetime membership: $199.99
Devices: Android, iOS, web.
#5 Rosetta Stone: Best App For Visual Learners
Rosetta Stone is the OG for big-time visual learners. It emphasizes heavily on visual media to teach users new vocabulary and phrases in the target language. The visual cue cards are definitely game changers for visual learners like me who retain new vocabulary through association, rather than memorization.
The course also emphasizes learning through context, without relying on translations. This helps learners think in the target language rather than translate from their native tongue. In my opinion, this is its biggest flex!
Languages offered: Arabic, Chinese (Mandarin), Dutch, English, Filipino (Tagalog), French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hindi, Irish, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Persian (Farsi), Polish, Portuguese (Brazilian), Russian, Spanish (Latin America), Spanish (Spain), Swedish, Turkish, and Vietnamese.
Stand Out Features
- The app’s patented TruAccent technology is designed to help learners develop an authentic accent. Its biggest advantage is that it provides instant, real-time feedback on pronunciation, which then prompts the user to try again and again till they hit the mark. This helps them sound more natural when speaking the target language.
- The app features a paid plan that allows access to live coaching sessions with native-speaking tutors. These tutors help you perfect your pronunciation and provide clarity around grammar rules. But mainly, and more importantly, they help you stay motivated to achieve your language goals!
- It also offers more flexibility to flit from lesson to lesson or course to course, depending on the language skill you want to focus on. This makes it stand apart from rigid and locked lesson plans offered by many other AI tools.
Pricing
- 3 Months: $47.97 ($15.99 per month)
- 12 Months: $126 ($10.50 per month)
- Lifetime Subscription: $199
Devices: iOS, Android, and Web.
#6 TalkPal AI: Best App For Interactive Learning
TalkPal AI is a cutting-edge language learning app that uses Natural Language Processing (NLP) to create an interactive learning experience. It’s essentially an AI-powered tutor with which you can chat to enhance your speaking skills and fluency. You’ll be able to send voice or text messages and receive replies with a realistic-sounding voice.
TalkPal AI envisions integrating virtual reality for immersive learning. It tailors its sessions to users’ objectives, allows for roleplaying different situations, and gives learners personalized feedback. What’s more, it focuses on perfecting the four primary language skills: speaking, listening, reading, and writing.
Stand Out Features
- TalkPal AI is powered by NLP Integration (Natural Language Processing), a subfield of AI that facilitates interaction between computers and human language.
- Simulated conversations provide interactive and engaging practice sessions, as well as a safe environment in which to make mistakes.
- Its Voice Recognition Technology allows for accurate and nuanced feedback, considering factors like stress, intonation, and rhythm, leading to improved speaking skills.
Pricing
- Free (limited features)
- Premium Monthly: $9.99/month
- Premium Yearly: $4.99/month
Devices: Android, iOS.
Why Use AI Tools For Gaining Language Skills?
AI has become deeply integrated with our modern lives, which are becoming increasingly ruled by innovative apps and the latest technology. And these apps do come with many benefits and an amazing user experience. Let’s take a look at some of those benefits below.
- Many apps these days are using AI-powered chatbots to enable instant interaction with the user. These chatbots can engage in realistic conversations with users while addressing their queries.
- AI-powered speech recognition technology really helps learners refine their pronunciation and intonation by comparing their speech to that of native speakers.
- AI apps are able to provide instant feedback on pronunciation, grammar, vocabulary usage, and other language skills. This even allows the app to adjust the difficulty level of the lessons based on the learner’s proficiency level.
- Such language learning apps provide amazing, entertaining, and engaging learning experiences to language learners. More so when they offer lessons through gamification.
Learn Languages With Ling!
Now you’ve gained a sneak peek into the top AI-powered apps and their features. From Ling to TalkPal AI, they all have their advantages when it comes to language learning. So, it would be a great idea to get down to business and start your language-learning journey!
The Ling app, as we mentioned, is one such AI-powered learning tool. It integrates the various aspects of language learning into an aesthetically pleasing and engaging experience. As such, learning a new language becomes an exciting game instead of a challenging and dreary task. What’s more, its AI-powered chatbot involves you in human-like conversations.
Want a lesson on how to say ‘hi’ to a new neighbor? Check. Want to learn to order a cappuccino in a café? Check. Want to know how to introduce yourself to a new colleague? Triple check!
So, what are you waiting for? Go to your Play Store or App Store and download the Ling app today!