He is excited about the new ideas Duolingo brought to English testing, but he is not sure whether it measures English skills as well as the traditional tests. Patrick Kennell is director of the university’s Center for Intensive English Studies. The schools included well-known universities like Georgetown, Caltech and Yale.įlorida State University in Tallahassee, Florida is one of the schools that is trying out Duolingo’s test. Since then, the number grew to almost 2,000 around the world. “For me, when I encountered the Duolingo English Test, I saw it as a real solution and as a real tool that could democratize access to education for students around the world.”ĭewar said hundreds of universities had already accepted the Duolingo test before the COVID-19 pandemic closed many testing centers.

She helps universities around the world understand how the Duolingo test can measure students’ English language skills. And the Duolingo English Test, DET, came out in 2016. With that experience, he wanted to create a test so more students could prove their English ability. The company said he had to travel to neighboring El Salvador for an English test while applying to universities in the United States. Von Ahn grew up in the Central American country of Guatemala. It now provides learning instruction for over 40 languages. The company launched its Duolingo app a year later. And IELTS is owned by the British Council and others.ĭuolingo was founded in 2011 by Luis von Ahn, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh, along with one of his students. TOEFL is an English test from the American organization Educational Testing Service.

But the company recently launched an English test that it hopes will gain more acceptance, like the long-established TOEFL and IELTS. You may know Duolingo as an app on your mobile phone to learn languages, including English.

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