Case study · Babbel

Designing for a level Babbel didn't teach yet

Babbel's own users kept outgrowing it — the platform's course levels stopped well short of advanced. I designed a course concept to test what advanced content could look like: monolingual, immersive, and built around genuinely adult topics like discussing politics.

Company

Babbel

Role

Content Design Lead

Stage

Course concept

Based in

Berlin, Germany

9 steps

in a single unit, no translation used in any of them

distinct exercise types combined in one concept

English-to-native-language translations shown to the learner

The situation

Babbel's structured courses are genuinely good at getting someone from zero to conversational — but at the time, its levels stopped short of true advanced content, which meant Babbel's own success story was also its churn risk: the learners who improved fastest eventually outgrew the product entirely. I set out to design a course concept that explored what advanced content could actually look like on Babbel, rather than assuming the existing lesson format would simply scale up with harder vocabulary.

Advanced means monolingual

Most Babbel lessons lean on the learner's native language to explain new material. That's exactly the crutch an advanced learner needs to lose. So the concept dropped translation entirely: instructions, explanations, and feedback all stayed in English, and the unit said so upfront — setting expectation rather than letting learners discover the harder format mid-exercise and assume something was broken.

Babbel unit introduction screen titled Discussing Politics, reading: Love talking about politics? Then you'll enjoy this unit! Don't worry about not understanding every single word – just concentrate on the general meaning! Ready? — **Setting expectations, in English —** the unit tells learners up front that full comprehension isn't the goal on every line, which does real work reducing anxiety before the harder exercises start.

A genuinely adult topic

The concept picked "Discussing Politics" deliberately. Advanced learners aren't beginners who need bigger vocabulary lists — they're adults who want to talk about the things adults actually talk about. That meant writing vocabulary and dialogue around real political concepts, not sanitised classroom small talk.

Babbel vocabulary exercise showing an image of boxing gloves in the colours of two political parties, the term two-party system, and the definition: a political system in which two parties dominate. — **Vocabulary, defined in English —** "two-party system" taught through definition and image rather than a translated equivalent, which doesn't exist cleanly in every learner's first language anyway.

Layering comprehension without translation as a safety net

Without translation to fall back on, every other exercise had to do more work to build and check comprehension. The unit layered several distinct formats across its nine steps: audio dictation on target vocabulary, listening comprehension against short conversations, and inline contextual notes that explained idioms in English rather than defining them word-for-word.

Babbel listen and fill in the words exercise, with an audio button and a partially completed answer field reading two-par (blank) system. — **Production, not just recognition —** learners type the word from audio alone, closing the gap between recognising vocabulary and actually producing it.

An inline contextual note reading: Not like the result was close anyway – missing one vote wouldn't have made a difference, as there was an obvious winner, so the result was clear. — **Idiom, explained in idiom —** "not like the result was close anyway" unpacked entirely in English, teaching tone and inference alongside vocabulary.

Babbel listening comprehension exercise: Listen to the short conversations and choose the answer that fits best. The result of the general election was (blank), with options clear, close, and tired. — **Comprehension under pressure —** three plausible answers, only one of which actually fits the conversation's tone, not just its literal words.

Worth notingEvery wrong answer option in this unit was written to be genuinely plausible — "close" and "tired" both parse grammatically in that sentence. Advanced learners can already rule out the obviously wrong choice; the exercise has to work harder to be useful to them.

Bringing it together in dialogue

The unit closed with a longer dialogue exercise, styled as a news segment, that asked learners to read for gist first — the same instruction from the intro screen, now actually being tested — before filling gaps that required genuine comprehension of the surrounding sentence, not just pattern-matching to a vocabulary list.

Babbel dialogue exercise titled Politics Today, reading a news-style passage about a general election with gaps to fill, and multiple choice word options including to regulate and to cast a vote. — **The payoff exercise —** everything taught earlier in the unit — vocabulary, idiom, tone — gets used together in one longer, realistic piece of text.

"An advanced learner doesn't need easier content made harder. They need content that assumes they're already capable — and stops translating for them."

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