Globalization has presented a wealth of new career opportunities and learning a foreign language is nothing less than icing on the cake. With billions now learning a foreign language, it has become an integral part of the 21st century. The importance of foreign language proficiency cannot be underestimated as a report from the Economist Intelligence Unit stated, “even when recruiting for jobs in their home market, almost one-half of all companies say that prospective candidates need to be fluent in a foreign language”.

Languages in Demand

It is estimated that around 7,000 languages are spoken in the world. And many European countries have made this a national requirement for students to learn multiple foreign languages. Some of the popular foreign languages in demand (ranked in order of preference) are:

Language Learning Shifted Online

Owing to a number of factors that include internet penetration, convenience, flexibility, and surge in demand, a huge user base has shifted from traditional language learning to online platforms. These factors are anticipated to offer higher momentum to market growth in the near future. The market is expected to grow at a CAGR of 18.7% from 2020 to 2027 to reach $21.2 billion by 2027.

This unprecedented growth in the online language learning market has created ideal opportunities for entrepreneurs planning to build marketplaces like Duolingo and Babbel.

But since these marketplaces already ace in their service offerings, it’s not a good idea to build platforms exactly like them. What aspiring entrepreneurs should plan on doing is create a platform and fill the gaps that are still uncovered and untapped.

Let’s enumerate the main challenges being faced by online language learning platforms and how to overcome them.

High Rate of Attrition

A number of learners sign up on a language learning platform just to fail to attend sessions and eventually dropping out. Online courses suffer from a high attrition rate and language learning courses are no exception.

Solution: Engagement and interactivity with the learners is a well-established and powerful technique that helps to keep the learners glued to the platform. Several interactive tools like audio/video interaction, online whiteboard, text chat, screen sharing, etc allow the learners to work together as an integral part of the learning process.

Learners get much more engaged while they watch and become much more active participants in the learning experience. Hence, the attrition rate drops to a huge extent.

Learning a New Language is Difficult

Learners do not tend to spend time doing things that are difficult and not entertaining. Language learning platforms do have videos and study material starting from beginners to intermediate and reaching advanced level, however, watching videos and reading from notes becomes tedious after a point.

Solution: Having live interaction with the instructor on the platform avoids distractions and over stimulation helping learners to focus all of their attention on the instructor and the lesson being taught. 

Live interaction also empowers the learners to confidently communicate what they need and receive personalized attention enabling them to succeed.

Learning Through Videos and Study Material Lacks Credibility/is Inefficient

The grammatical rules in languages are difficult to understand via pre-recorded videos and uploaded study material. Learners do not always catch what is being played in a video or written in notes and therefore, becomes an overwhelming issue for beginners.

Solution: Learning from native speakers makes sense in this case. Sessions with native speakers will be a sort of immersion that will help you learn more about abbreviations, idioms, etc. At the same time, live sessions with a native speaker will help you correct your pronunciation and form phrases and sentences correctly.

Knowledge Retention is Difficult

Language learning platforms introduce its learners to thousands of new words in the course of their learning. However, if not repeated at regular intervals, the new information acquired can be easily forgotten.

Solution: Digital flashcards can be a useful addition to the language learning platforms. They are an ideal way of stimulating learners and making them interested in vocabulary in an engaging way.

Assessments at regular periods are highly recommended to track the progress of the learners. These assessments also give an insight into the training needs of a learner and required action to address the weak points of the learners.

Communication Problem With Users Located in Different Time Zones

Taking online classes in a different time zone is a pretty big challenge. It is a major disruption for the learners as well as the tutors attending live sessions. ruption for the learners as well as the tutors attending live sessions. Learners and tutors in some countries have classes until late at night while other countries report having sessions too early in the morning leading to unattended sessions and low productivity.

Solution: Time Zone specific reminders for the upcoming scheduled sessions simplifies this problem for the tutors and learners residing at different time zones. Time Zone friendly platform helps tutors to mark their availability as per their time zone which is reflected to the learners in their local time zone nullifying the barrier between the users from different time zones.

Building Your Own Language Learning Platform

Having examined the language learning market, possible challenges, and their solutions, let’s have an overview of one such software — Yo!Coach, that is capable to build a feature-rich and robust language learning platform.

With a plethora of features, this software empowers entrepreneurs to launch and run a successful language learning business.

Yo!Coach has already empowered many language learning businesses in the past which includes WeYakYak, Learnege, Languagexplorer, and many more, and strives to become even more useful for the budding entrepreneurs in this industry.