I had never heard of the Promova app until a friend turned me onto it. They raved about how cool and modern the app was, so I knew that I had to try it out. Now, after purchasing and using Promova for a few weeks, I share my thoughts on whether I think this app is worth it to learn a new language.
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In the video above, John from the Test Prep Insight team covers the pros and cons of using Promova to learn a new language. For more detail, continue reading our full, written review below.
Let’s begin this review by discussing how the Promova app works. To start, when you first sign up for the Promova app, they ask you a few questions. This includes questions about why you want to learn, what your current fluency level is, how much time per day you have to learn, and a couple of other things.
With this information, they’ll then generate a custom study plan for you. However, calling it “custom” is a bit generous. This questionnaire is mostly used to determine where you should start in the program (i.e. how far along into their lessons).
In any event, it all begins with the main tab on the dashboard called “My Plan.” This is where you’ll see your daily assignments.
Basically, the “My Plan” tab presents you with a certain number of daily lessons to work based on how much you said you have time for. If you said you have 10 minutes per day, then you get two daily lessons. If you said you have 20 minutes, you get four daily lessons. You get it.
Each lesson is bite-sized, and maybe takes 5 minutes to complete. That’s why you get assigned multiple lessons per day under “My Plan.”
Additionally, how the lessons play out is pretty simple. There are three steps in each lesson. Step 1 starts with a review of some new vocabulary—perhaps 5 or 6 new phrases. Each one is provided with a little context on how it’s typically used (called “how to use it”).
In Step 2, after you learn your new vocab, you then dive into some practice. This step generally consists of choosing the correct phrase (from a list) based on a picture. It goes really fast.
Finally, Step 3 is more practice, but with a more diverse set of drills. This includes:
That’s about it for Step 3. When the lesson is complete, you see a quick end screen, and then the program sends you back to the dashboard. That’s it. It’s honestly pretty straightforward progression through the lessons.
After you complete your daily lessons, you’re technically done for the day, but you can move on to work additional lessons under the “Course” section at the top. This tab essentially presents all of Promova’s lessons in descending order of difficulty and level, and you’re free to continue working through as many 5-minute lessons as you want.
In essence, Promova has a few hundred lessons, all sequentially stacked, and you work through them. Your daily lessons are the next two (or four) in order from the top of the stack, and then you can do extra lessons continuing down the stack if you’d like. It’s pretty simple really.
That is the main self-paced language learning program from Promova. In addition to this aspect of the app, you can opt for live lessons as an add-on. However, as of right now, those live sessions are ESL lessons for English learners only. There are no live lessons currently available for Spanish learners, Italian learners, French learners, etc. Perhaps soon they’ll add live lessons for additional languages, but not yet.
Anyway, that’s it. The Promova app is not super complicated. In fact, it’s one of the more straightforward apps that I’ve used and reviewed. Now, before we get to what I like and don’t like about Promova, let’s actually talk about the cost of the Promova app.
To begin, Promova does have a free version. Just like with Duolingo, you can sign up for free and get access to most of their content.
While that’s nice, there are two big drawbacks with the Promova free plan in my eyes. For one, you can’t access all Promova content. Some lessons are restricted to paid premium users.
Second, you get hit with ads during lessons. Promova doesn’t bombard you with ads like I’ve seen with other apps, but honestly, they’re kind of annoying. Thus, you may want to upgrade to the paid premium version of Promova.
The premium membership costs $30 per month under the month-to-month subscription. Or if you prefer to lock in your premium membership for 12 weeks (i.e. three months), that will cost you $50 total (a little over $16 per month).
As such, Promova isn’t the cheapest program that I’ve used and reviewed, but it’s not the most expensive either.
Do note, however, that those are just the full retail prices, and Promova is always running sales and special promotions where you can lock in lower rates, so make sure to check for that.
Their typical sale is usually for 50% off, making the true price of the app closer to $8 per month on the 12-week plan. From a cost perspective, that puts them right in line with Babbel, Rosetta Stone and others.
Thus far I’ve outlined how the Promova app works and what it costs. Now, let’s turn to the pros and cons of this program, starting with the pros.
My first positive is that the lessons are fast moving. As noted above, each lesson takes maybe 5 minutes. This is great for keeping you engaged, working lessons in around busy schedules, and general learning flexibility. Quick-hit lessons like this offer a lot of benefits.
My next pro is how Promova focuses on the casual, conversational form of the language you’re learning. For example, I’ve been using Promova for German, and it focuses on the “du” form of “you,” as opposed to the more formal “Sie” form of “you.”
If you’re not a German learner, don’t worry. The point I’m making is simply that Promova focuses on the more modern form of the language you’re learning, which is more practical for holding real conversations.
Other apps I’ve used, like Pimsleur, focus on the more formal, academic way of learning, which is fine. However, I like this more modern, casual, and practical approach.
My next pro is the interface. Promova is full of cool, modern graphics and font, and uses a bunch of haptic feedback, which I love. Essentially, the Promova app looks and feels very sleek, and it’s incredibly fast.
My fourth pro for this program is how the mobile app mirrors the website version of the course. Some language learning programs have completely different desktop and mobile app interfaces, and it can be a pain trading off between devices. However, Promova is seamless between the two.
In fact, I would guess that Promova actually made this program for the mobile app. The desktop version of the program is vertically oriented and looks just like a phone screen. And honestly, that’s how I prefer it. It’s just very clean and seamless between devices.
Lastly, I think Promova is a great way to quickly build out vocab. As discussed below, Promova is light on grammar, but big on vocab.
Thus, if you’re trying to build out your base of vocabulary before a move or big trip, it is the perfect app for that.
Now that we’ve touched on the pros of using Promova, let’s discuss some of the negatives I found.
So, the first drawback I noticed with Promova is that there is very limited grammar instruction. There are only a few dedicated grammar lessons, and even at that, they’re somewhat cursory.
These lessons don’t get too deep, which can be an issue for some language learning newbies. This is definitely a vocab-heavy app, and if you need in-depth grammar coverage, you will not find that here.
Another issue I noted along the way is that there is no speaking or verbal practice in the Promova app. A lot of other apps will have you speak words aloud, and then they will grade your pronunciation with software.
Promova does not do this. They don’t have any speaking exercises. I generally speak words aloud as I work drills anyway, but this could be an issue.
In the same vein, my third negative is that there is no video in the Promova program, as well as very little audio. There are some drills that speak a phrase aloud and you match it to a written phrase, but that’s it. I wish there was some video clips in the program, and definitely more audio.
Lastly, my final complaint is that the typing drills are a little annoying, especially on desktop. I understand that spelling is important, but typing out words one letter at a time from a random selection of letters is a little irritating.
All of the other exercises in the app are highly engaging, but the typing drills just slowed me down and bugged me. This is kind of a personal complaint, but thought it had to be noted.
I think the answer to the question of whether Promova is worth it is yes—assuming you don’t need extended grammar coverage. For me, Promova checks a lot of boxes.
It’s a really cool and sleek app with short and engaging lessons. And I love how Promova spoon feeds you practical, casual phrases and vocabulary that you can start using in conversations right away.
Obviously, I think it would be great if they would add in some more audio and speaking exercises to develop your ear for the language and pronunciation, as well as more dedicated grammar lessons, but overall, I think Promova is a great app for building out practical vocabulary and improving your fluency level.
Promova is a language learning company. They offer a self-paced language learning app that you can download and use to learn multiple languages, and they also have live classes for English learners.
Promova does have a free version of their app. However, we noted a couple issues with the free version when using and reviewing this program. For one, the free version had limited content, and two, you are forced to watch ads.
I really like the Promova self-paced app. With short and engaging lessons, and a focus on truly practical vocabulary, I found it very useful. I wish they offered more grammar instruction, but overall, it was effective for me.
The Promova Spanish program is good. I particularly liked how they focused on the more modern and casual way of speaking Spanish. This helped get me conversational more quickly. Some other apps focus on content that is too academic and formal.
Promova’s app costs $30 per month if you do the month-to-month subscription, or $16 per month if you sign up for the 12-week plan. Also, you can regularly find discounts for 50% off.
Promova offers programs for 11 languages. These include English, Chinese, Spanish, Arabic, German, Ukrainian, French, Turkish, Japanese, Korean, and Italian.