Language learning applications: analysis of the learners’ opinions

The field of education has greatly benefited from the contribution of technology since the development of the first CALL systems in the 1960s. The recent spread of language learning mobile applications confirms that learners are particularly keen upon technology-mediated solutions. Indeed, such applications focus upon the users and their needs, and provide them with fast, affordable and efficient tools to learn a new language at their own pace. In this study, we aim to provide preliminary insight into the learners' opinions concerning five amongst the most popular language learning applications available on the market. In order to do so, we have created a corpus of reviews scraped from the Google Play Store between June 2019 and January 2021 that we have analysed with Natural Language Processing tools. The results show that users are generally satisfied with language learning applications and thoroughly enjoy the learning experience. Furthermore, rather than being passive recipients, app users seem to be active agents in the construction of knowledge.