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New Zealand universities are now accepting English tests taken through language app Duolingo. 

Otago, Massey, Canterbury and Victoria are among the institutions accepting the online proficiency results from international students. 

Duolingo said it used computer vision, AI and “online proctors” to catch cheats, and to verify test-takers’ identities. 

It was part of a global trend – by last year, all eight Ivy League universities in the United States were using Duolingo scores. 

Several New Zealand schools were also using Duolingo tests to assess students’ English abilities. 

The company said it was the fastest-growing English test for study abroad, allowing students to get results in two days with no appointments needed. 

People from 219 countries and 148 first languages took the Duolingo English Test last year. Asia accounted for 55% of all test sessions. 

Immigration authorities still used international certifications such as IELTS to decide on language abilities for visa applications. 

Most dedicated learners 

Duolingo is the world’s most downloaded education app and has more than 50 million daily active users. 

Its statistics showed New Zealanders were more likely to learn Spanish than any other language, one of only 26 countries worldwide where English was not the top choice. Second on Aotearoa’s list was French. 

Across the Tasman, Australia had possibly unexpected bragging rights – it was second only to Japan for the number of Duolingo users learning at least three languages. It overtook polyglots in Finland, Germany and the UK to take the linguistic podium in 2025. 

An expansion to the app’s capabilities last year had also prompted more people to take up Japanese and Korean – which were now in fourth and sixth place respectively in the worldwide most learned languages, nudging German and Italian down the list. 

The languages which attracted the most serious learners – based on average time spent learning – were more eclectic than the common classroom choices, with Welsh and Norwegian coming in fourth and fifth places. A te reo Māori course was being developed in 2020, but the initiative had not yet eventuated. 

Chinese, Korean, and Portuguese were among the fastest-growing languages, with Chinese making the greatest strides in Brazil, France, Germany, Indonesia and South Korea. 

Portuguese ranked No 1 among fastest-growing languages in China and India, perhaps for economic reasons, as Brazil’s economic and cultural influence continued to expand. 

Beyond languages, Duolingo had now added chess to the maths and music courses available for free on the app, which combined gamification, league tables and spaced repetition – as well as streaks and a fearsome owl – to keep users on track and boost progress. 

- Gill Bonnett, RNZ