TLDR Tech / Design
Designed for a Dead Language
Modern language-learning apps like Duolingo and Anki inherited their grammar-drill structure from the Prussian Grammar-Translation method, originally designed in 1788 to teach Latin at scale. That method conflated literacy with fluency, prioritizing gradable metrics over actual communication, a flaw later articulated by linguist Stephen Krashen's distinction between acquisition and learning. Newer tools like Praktika, Langua, and Rosetta Stone instead remove access barriers to immersive, conversation-based learning, which research suggests produces stronger speaking results.
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