DUOLINGO: A QUALITATIVE ANALYSIS OF THE GAMIFIED ENVIRONMENT TO STIMULATE EXECUTIVE FUNCTIONS IN ENGLISH LEARNING

Abstract

In the globalized world we live in, where digital technologies profoundly transform the way people relate to each other and to institutions, certain specific skills are necessary to build distinct worldviews. Despite being diverse, two of them stand out: the ability to plan, that is, to set goals and adopt behaviors that lead to their achievement, and the learning of a foreign language, especially English. Considering that this learning requires different cognitive skills, the article presented here investigated the possibilities of stimulating executive functions, directly linked to planning and goal-setting, through interaction with applications, opportunities offered thanks to the advancement and dissemination of digital technologies, especially mobile ones. To do so, we conducted a qualitative research with the participation of students from a public university in Salvador. The research results pointed to Duolingo (Duo) as the most used by those who seek to learn English. In view of this result, we interacted with the website version of Duo in order to analyze the tasks proposed in the English course for Portuguese speakers and, thus, describe and highlight possibilities for executive stimulation during the learning journey proposed by the platform. The results pointed to an emphasis on stimulating working memory to the detriment of other basic functions, cognitive flexibility and inhibitory control, as well as an emphasis on classic gamified strategies.