the babbel application: merits versus demerits

Successful second language learning has two important aspects: what happens within classrooms, and what happens beyond classrooms. one important way of learning a second language is using mobile applications. many language learners use various mobile language learning applications such as babbel. this application was designed by markus witte, lorenz heine, and toine diepstraten in 2007, and has different parts such as “ai-enhanced speech recognition” and “everyday conversations”. this study examined the use of babble for language learning and its merits and demerits. to investigate the areas of strength and areas which need improvement, previous research findings were analyzed. in addition to that, a semi-structured interview was designed and conducted among some users of this application via both online and face-to-face modes. the participants were selected from among m.a students of tefl in bu-ali sina university. then, the results of the conducted interview and previous research findings were compared. the results of this study proved that this application has numerous merits such as being user-friendly and having different sections which are related to real world situations. however, one of the demerits which has been mentioned by majority of the participants is that babbel needs payment for full access to the lessons. despite its demerits, which are discussed in this paper, it has important implications for different stakeholders in the l2 teaching-learning process.