Mondly Overview

Mondly is an average online language learning platform. It is ideal for those seeking a solid beginner-level competence, but it does not provide much beyond this to support more advanced learners. It does, however, offer a wide range of languages (33 in total) at a reasonable price, making it stand out from similar programs.

Quality: The interface is simple but underwhelming.

Effectiveness: The program promotes a strong vocabulary and essential grammar skills, but the contextual connections and explanations could be improved.

Cost: The premium membership pricing options are relatively inexpensive.

FIRST IMPRESSIONS

Also, Mondly is dependable for consistent accuracy across all the languages it provides. So, while it does not offer advanced material, it is a trustworthy resource for learning the foundational elements of language.

Getting Started With Mondly

Is Mondly Easy To Use?

In general, it’s simple to use. The interface is uncluttered, for the most part, and transitioning through the lessons is fairly straightforward. However, the design is far from perfect and may be confusing when you first start using the program.

There is a free version that grants you access to some of the content provided in the premium plans. Although limited, it is helpful for giving you a taste of what the program is like.

On the home page, each bubble (as described above) gives access to several lessons with corresponding exercises and activities. These lessons can be completed in any order, and you can redo them as many times as you choose.

You will also be “graded” on the quality of your work, with the highest score being three stars. Each mistake will reduce this score. A low score may require you to repeat the lesson, promoting incentive for higher concentration and more detailed focus.

However, the numbering of the lessons may cause confusion if you are not familiar with how it works. Each lesson is demarcated by a fraction (example: 2/8), but this has nothing to do with the score, which is represented by stars. Rather, this fraction indicates which of the eight lessons you are currently on.

Another helpful feature about this program are the abilities to combine languages. This means that you can learn Italian through English or any of the other 32 languages. There is no English-speaking bias, unlike other platforms.

However, changing languages is not as simple as it may sound. The program has bugs that affect this process. For example, the selection process can be flaky. Some users have experienced difficulty selecting a level (even though all of them provide the same content), and sometimes the program erroneously tracks progress.

Even though Mondly provides a wide range of languages and facilitates learning from your native language, the content for all languages is the same.

Therefore, not only are the vocabulary topics identical for each language, but concepts specific to each language are not covered. This is a considerable disadvantage since it treats all languages equally – a faulty basis that can lead to contextual confusion and translation errors.

Each lesson provides a set of subsections, such as “conversation” and “vocabulary.” Within these sections are different types of exercises designed to drill you on the lesson material.

For example, one exercise asks you to choose the correct translation of a given English word (or whatever language you have chosen to learn from). Another activity, reminiscent of the Scrabble game, asks you to piece together a word from a set of mixed-up letters.

Another type of exercise provides a word in the language you are learning and asks you to select the correct translation from two words in your native language. Another type of drill is a multiple choice exercise that asks you to select the correct translation of a given sentence.

Upon completing the exercises in any part of the lesson, the program notifies you of your completion and provides a summary of the vocabulary you just learned. These words are presented on the screen in your native language, and a speaker pronounces them in the language you are learning.

This is another aspect of the program that is rather sloppily designed; while you can hear the words in the foreign language, the corresponding words are in your native language. This weakens the connection between the symbol and its aural representation, which is not only confusing but ineffective.

Also, while the exercises are designed to promote drilling, memorization, and retention, they do not facilitate active application or immersion of the language. The program does provide immersion (or augmented reality) tools, but they are separate from the main content and lessons.

Regardless of your score, you can always go back and review the lessons you’ve already completed. This includes exercises. Additionally, the lesson review presented at the end of each subsection provides the vocabulary covered in addition to the applied grammar topics, such as conjugations.

Mondly also provides a progress report, tracking when and how often you use the program. In addition, it facilitates healthy competition by comparing your progress to other people near your location who are learning the same language as you. Upon completing an entire set of lessons, you have the option to share your progress on social media (but this feature is rather excessive).

When it comes to pronunciation practice, Mondly is rather limited. While it does offer a conversation module in each section, the recording function may be cumbersome until you become more familiar with it.

Next, we will look at the program’s other features and applications.

Mondly VR Learning

In addition to the regular lessons that target the main vocabulary and grammar topics, Mondly provides a “Daily Lesson” feature that drills you on a preselected set of related words. It is somewhat unique from the regular lessons in this way, but the exercise types are the same.

A similar feature is the grammar drilling module. Yet again, the exercises are presented in essentially the same style as the regular lessons. These extra features promote retention through repetition.

While this may seem effective (and it is to the extent of building memory), these features – as with the program in general – are not just repetitive but redundant.

For example, conjugations for both regular and irregular verbs are spelled out for each individual verb. This is not only unnecessary but overwhelming and possibly confusing, as it fails to consolidate the verb types into recognizable patterns.

Another feature is the chatbot, designed to help you practice speaking the language (particularly in the form of dialogue) so that you can start using it in real-life situations. This feature offers different settings and purposes, such as introducing yourself, to enhance a variety of social skills.

While the intention of this feature is great, it does not offer what it promises. The tool is full of glitches and errors (particularly a contextual or translational misunderstanding on the part of the bot) that are not only annoying but detrimental to the immersion experience.

Fortunately, the program does offer “more suggestions” of responses in case mistakes like this occur. No program is perfect, and given the many nuances and complexities of language, these errors are inevitable.

Finally, one of Mondly’s extra features that makes it stand out from other language learning platforms is the virtual reality (VR) feature. Mondly is one of the first companies to use this functionality, and while it is far from perfect, it does tap into the immersion experience that is invaluable to language application.

The VR functionality provides three different sub-features: conversation, vocabulary, and multiplayer (Beta). The conversation feature is primarily what Mondly’s VR consists of. The vocabulary feature isn’t provided for every language, and there is not a large enough database of active users to fully support the multiplayer.

However, since the VR feature is still being developed (and, to be fair, it’s still a novel invention), it may improve with time. Although it is not perfect, it is worth a try just to see what the feature is like.

The conversation feature is similar to the chatbot functionality, providing scenarios in which you communicate with an Artificial Intelligence (AI) character. However, these conversations are very limited and certainly not an improvement on the chatbot feature.

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