7 Major Disadvantages of Language Apps

Mobile apps often promise to help you study one of several foreign tongues by spending a few minutes a day on them.

But can you really learn a language through an app?

Are they useful or a total waste of time? Let’s consider some of the disadvantages of language apps.

Nowadays, smartphones are ubiquitous, and you can do a lot with one.

You can contact friends and family, check out the latest news, listen to music, order food, play games, book a taxi, and more.

You can also use your cell phone to learn a foreign language.

Yes, mobile apps can be a fantastic addition to the quest to learn a new language successfully.

Various language apps and software help millions of language enthusiasts worldwide study different tongues in a more personalized, relaxed, and accessible way.

Several language apps have gotten pretty popular over the last few years.

Indeed, there are distinct advantages to online language learning: it is convenient and easy to use, affordable, and provides much-needed foreign language practice.

7 Drawbacks of Language Learning Apps

The pros of language apps are apparent.

However, language learning apps are not a magical ‘cure-all’ that will allow you to learn a language quickly and effortlessly with just a few taps on your mobile screen.

As with everything, nothing is perfect.

Before using apps to study, you must consider a few negative aspects of online language learning.

This article will look at the common disadvantages of language apps.

1. The functionality is limited, often very much so

You can be pretty flexible online or offline when learning with a foreign language tutor.

You can incorporate multiple activities into the lesson, pay equal attention to all required abilities, or focus on one if it needs more work. You can also cover a wide variety of topics.

You cannot do that with an app.

No matter how good they are, language learning apps are relatively limited in the content they cover.

Some apps focus on one area of the language, such as vocabulary, grammar, survival skills, or conversation skills.

Others feature fundamental courses that only touch upon the creators’ topics as the most essential.

Sometimes, it’s a bit complicated because you miss many grammar and sentence structure rules.

There are even mobile apps and desktop software that target a narrower segment, for example, focusing on verb conjugations or prepositions.

Language apps are not inherently of quality. It may even come in handy.

It would be best to brush up on many tenses—you can probably find an app for tenses only without anything else distracting you.

However, in general, this means that to acquire a language comprehensively and develop all the necessary skills to a similar degree, you will need quite a few apps.

The more apps you have to install, the more confusing it can get, and the harder it is to manage your learning process.

2. Mobile Apps offer very little to no feedback

One perk of learning with an instructor or enrolling in a language program at any traditional educational institution is getting feedback on practically everything.

Whether you spelled a word correctly, how well you translated a sentence, whether your intonation was appropriate for the situation, and so on.

Apps can do only a fraction of it.

It can be frustrating when you feel your progress is stagnating due to the shortcomings of language apps.

Language learning apps do reasonably well at providing basic suggestions for relatively simple tasks.

For example, apps focused on vocabulary learning can help you understand the orthography of words.

They can check if you matched a term with an accurate translation or inserted the right word into a sentence.

However, there are many types of responses that apps cannot address.

When you translate a sentence correctly, you cannot discuss other possible ways of answering with an app.

Or it cannot explain to you that the translation and interpretation are correct, but it is too informal or formal for the situation.

Most have no choice but to report errors to prevent their recurrence.

Apps are not beneficial for improving pronunciation, listening, or speaking practice.

Some apps can help you connect with online teachers who can check your accent and elocution, or with native speakers with whom you can converse.

Still, it is not something one can do exclusively with an Android or iOS language-learning app.

3. It can create an inadequate sense of success

Feeling a sense of achievement and success while learning a foreign language is excellent.

Great excitement reinforces your positive associations with the language and keeps you motivated to learn more and move forward.

However, the perception of accomplishment that language learning apps create can be insufficient, if not entirely false.

The tools deployed to measure language proficiency are not similar to the tests conducted by various organizations to award official certification to successful candidates.

The primary purpose of language learning apps is to get things right, which is relatively easy.

They divided the information into small, easy-to-digest portions and provided a spaced-repetition system.

The tasks you get are not overly complicated.

Of course, you still need to make some effort and pay attention to what you are learning.

But it usually feels like you mostly get things right and are moving forward.

After a while, you’ll become overconfident in your capabilities to speak, listen, write, and read.

Nonetheless, it is crucial to remember that doing well in a language learning app does not equal mastery of the language of your choice.

You can get a perfect score with a flash-card app, but still cannot utter even a single phrase or give a 2-minute talk in a real-life situation.

You should view mobile language apps and laptop software as secondary resources and combine them with other resources, such as classes, books, audio lessons, speaking with a fluent speaker, or more comprehensive and immersive approaches.

4. Apps are very impersonal and don’t explain

Language learning apps are much more impersonal than face-to-face training and communication. It manifests in unconventional ways.

For instance, they impart a language through gamification.

Once you start playing, you become addicted, and your primary focus shifts to winning the game rather than learning it efficiently.

Foreign language demands people around to talk with and learn from.

You need solutions, including examples, to deepen your understanding of the language concerned.

If you are stuck anywhere, you must figure it out on your own through intuition and guesswork.

You cannot ‘communicate’ with an app as you can interact with a person.

Some apps have chatbots that let you practice elementary-level conversations without the anxiety of actually talking to someone.

However, the number of topics and phrases you can use leaves much to be desired.

Apps also do not adapt to individual students.

They may be designed to accommodate as many learners as possible, but they cannot meet everyone’s needs.

Even the best online language program on an app will not fit everyone.

When you work with a tutor, there is a program and specific topics you have to cover to understand your target language.

But if a question looks challenging, you can ask to concentrate on it more, using additional study materials – and, of course, the teacher’s advice.

5. It requires lots of self-discipline and self-control

Freedom and flexibility are substantial reasons to learn a language through an app, but it also has a well-known drawback: a lack of discipline.

Without self-control, proper time management, and responsibility, even a simple language can become one of the hardest languages to learn.

Humans are inherently lazy when there is no stringent timeline to follow.

You will have ample excuses and justifications to skip your sessions if there is no compulsion.

The absence of self-discipline is probably the number one cause of language learning failure.

First, you must build learning with apps into your schedule and use them consistently.

No one will monitor your practice, remind you to use the apps, or push you. You are your trainer, and you must do it all by yourself.

It may sound beneficial to some, but complete independence only works up to a point.

Returning to the app and studying during the first few days will be straightforward because it is new and exciting, which increases your motivation and makes learning more comfortable.

But as the initial excitement fades, you must pull your socks up and develop more self-discipline.

6. Language learning apps is a big distraction

Do you easily get distracted while learning a language through an app?

Don’t worry; you are not alone.

Let’s face it: the internet is a whole lot of distractions.

When you use your smartphone to learn a new language, it is amazingly easy to switch to Facebook or Instagram, check your email, start chatting on WhatsApp, watch YouTube, and completely forget what you were doing earlier.

Sometimes, going on social media instead of genuinely learning is very tempting.

Moreover, notifications during assignments and exercises can divert you from them.

Mobile learning is a significant challenge because it merely increases a student’s screen time.

Instead of wasting time, one can use precious time to perform a meaningful task.

Language learning takes time, and cell phones are the biggest hindrance.

You can use some blockers to reduce distractions and help you focus, but how many people do that? I guess there are very few!

If you’re determined, you will try to make it as far as possible.

However, you cannot entirely reject the possibility of distractions unless you have developed the art of self-control.

With so many diversions, learning a language with apps is tricky. That’s one more disadvantage of language apps.

7. Smartphone Apps cannot make you fluent

Most apps frequently promise to make you proficient in your target language if you spend just 10 to 30 minutes daily on it.

Don’t believe everything you read on the internet. If something seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Many start the fascinating journey because they like the culture of a country where the language originated.

For some, the intention may be CLB7 in TEF to earn additional PR points for Canadian immigration.

What if you aim to get one of the highest-paying jobs involving languages?

Everyone wants to communicate and connect with people efficiently, so they are interested in learning.

A vast majority of apps are geared more toward beginner learners.

These apps can be brilliant assistants for teaching basic conversational phrases if you plan to travel abroad or just wish to pursue it as a hobby.

The practical use is valuable for many, but you won’t even be halfway through the CEFR model.

It would be a pipe dream to get you to level C1 or C2, HSK V or VI, JLPT N2 or N1, TOPIK 5 or 6, or anywhere close to that.

In short, they lack the language’s sophistication and are unsuitable for high-intermediate, advanced, or near-native students to fine-tune their skills.

For that reason alone, foreign language apps should be a starting point, not the end.

Once you cross the initial hurdle and move further, you can search for a teacher, take the support of other resources like books, or join any language school or university.

Should You Choose Apps to Learn a Language?

I’m not saying that language apps waste time; you should avoid them.

Language learning apps do have some obvious perks.

Mobility is one of the biggest: you can learn practically anywhere at any time; even if you have a few minutes while waiting in line, you can take out your smartphone and study.

There are other incentives, as well.

Apps are inexpensive or free and fun, engaging, and colorful, so learning feels more like playing a game.

You can also choose from a wide range of foreign languages and courses that are not available elsewhere.

As alluring as the benefits sound, learning languages with mobile apps also has limitations compared to other language-learning methods, particularly teacher-led instruction.

As a learner, remember these obstacles and do not rely too much on language apps.

The best solution would be to make the most of the gains these apps offer and counter the disadvantages of language apps with other resources and techniques.

This way, you will ensure you cover all essential aspects of language to achieve your language goal.