Langoly’s Methodology and Sources: How We Test Everything We Review

Since Langoly started, detailed and consistent testing has been at the core of what we do. Our published reviews, product comparisons, and roundups are a rigorous, comprehensive, and trustworthy reference for language learners and enthusiasts. This page provides you with information about our methodology and editorial process. We also include a selection of our most important sources.

Langoly’s core mission has always been to help you make the best buying decisions and get the most from the language learning products and services available in today’s market. To do this, we research, test, and write independent reviews of a wide variety of language resources. Our in-depth, rigorous testing and unbiased approach to the review of over 600 language learning products is what gives us a unique perspective and a comprehensive knowledge of the language learning market that sets us apart from our competitors.

Chad Emery originally founded Langoly out of frustration. An avid language learner, he often faced extreme difficulty in finding genuinely useful resources to improve his skills. He wanted to remove this difficulty for other language learners by helping them quickly and easily determine which language apps would help them most.

Today, Langoly has grown into a team of language learning experts and language teachers who continue to work towards making the language learning journey a streamlined and rewarding experience. We constantly scour the market for new product launches, updates to existing products, and the latest teaching methodologies to ensure Langoly’s readers can quickly and easily find the best products and services available.

As the language learning market evolves, so does our testing. In addition to reviewing language learning apps, the Langoly team covers language learning books, courses, tutoring services, YouTube channels, and podcasts. Our testing expertise comes from around the globe and is spread across a team of analysts, editors, and contributors from the United States and abroad.

Combined, Langoly’s writers, editors, and contributors can claim (conservatively) over 50 years of language teaching experience and 100+ years of language learning experience!

Our Mission

Since 2020, Langoly’s mission has been to make the complicated process of learning a language more accessible and simple. We strive to provide the best information and insight to consumers, and we pride ourselves on being:

Educational: Langoly publishes product reviews, comparison guides, product roundups, industry analyses, reference articles, and data visualizations to help readers gain a deeper understanding of language in today’s society.
Authoritative: Langoly content is written by language learning practitioners and teachers with provable experience in language acquisition methodologies, and it’s constantly reviewed and updated by industry experts.
Unbiased: Langoly is a vendor-independent resource. We do not accept sponsorships or paid placements on our site.

Our Methodology

When we evaluate products, benchmarking and experiential testing are quintessential. Wherever possible, these processes are based on step-by-step standard operating procedures that emphasize meaningful, consistent, and decisive outcomes.

Benchmarking and test results only take you so far in finding the best products and services though. It’s important to evaluate overall value, features, and what it’s like to actually use the language skills learned from a resource and apply them to real-world situations.

Luckily, our reviewers rate more products than anyone else and over half of the Langoly team lives outside of their native country. This makes them uniquely positioned to constantly test their language skills and tell you just how effective the language learning resources they review actually are.

How We Write Our Articles

All of our reviews are 100% independent. We don’t receive money to write our articles or give them a higher rating. We share our own opinions because we want to offer the most truthful and correct information possible.

We thoroughly test each product before including it in an article. As language learners ourselves, we use our own experience with other apps to give a comprehensive picture.

In each article, you’ll find a detailed description of the product that looks at the pros and cons. We know that learning a language is difficult, so we also include who can benefit from using it and what it’s best for.

All the information in each article is thoroughly checked to verify its accuracy. We only use trustworthy sources to provide reliable information.

Not everyone learns the same way, we always offer alternatives and competitors so you can find the app that best fits your language goals.

Our Editorial Process

Langoly employs a team of qualified and specialized language practitioners who must successfully complete a rigorous selection process. This process requires them to prove not only their experience and accomplishments in language acquisition and teaching, but also their research and writing skills. Most have several years of experience as professional teachers and tutors, and they reference a wide variety of recognized industry resources that are listed below.

Once a piece of content has been submitted for editing, Langoly’s editors review it for consistency, proofread for grammar and typographical errors, and verify and ensure price and factual information are correct and consistent across the website. They also ensure the content is genuinely helpful to language learners and provides all the necessary information they need to make the best decisions.

All published content is reviewed annually to ensure facts, pricing, features, and product availability is accurate and up-to-date.

Langoly’s Editorial Team

Kelsey Wetherbee

Meet the Team

Sources

The information provided in our articles comes from a variety of sources, including vendor websites, industry books and websites, published case studies, peer-reviewed journals and studies, governmental and international governance bodies, and literature reviews of product/service and related websites. The editorial team at Langoly ensures that all sources used on the Langoly website contain factual and evidence-based information produced by individuals or organizations with credentials and/or verifiable and relevant experience. Here is an abbreviated list of Langoly’s sources:

Associations and Foundations

Government and International Governance Websites

University Websites

News Organizations

Feedback and Questions

If you need to know something that is not included in any of our articles or would like to suggest an update, please contact us here and let us know. We will update the article as soon as we have independently verified the requested update. Thank you for your continued support.