Rosetta Stone is a software program designed to teach a specific language to non-speakers of that language. Students set up their own profile and can chose between a number of activities that include reading, writing, speaking, and listening components. (I have determined that the Recommended Program would work best for my students.) This is an immersion program and at no time do students hear their native language.
Each level is divided into four units and each unit has a Core Lesson and a number of additional activities. Vocabulary and grammar are introduced through a series of questions associated with images. If students answers correctly, they progress. If they answer incorrectly, they have to answer again. At the end of each unit is a Milestone. A Milestone is a staged conversation in which students have to provide the correct responses based on the images seen and what the other people, represented by pictures, say to them. This allows students to practice the language in a realistic setting.
The current question everyone asks foreign language teachers is, “Does Rosetta Stone software work?” This question has been posed to me many times this year and up until now I did not have a good answer. I did not learn how to speak Spanish in this way so I did not know. However, that excuse did not work well when my Superintendent approached me at the last Parent Teacher conferences, his son is in my Spanish II class, and asked if the district should invest in the software. After stumbling over my words, and possibly making an idiot of myself, I became determined to find out what the hoopla was all about and if it could benefit my teaching.
To figure out if it could be helpful I decided to open the one copy of Rosetta Stone purchased by my district at the beginning of the year. I started by reading the instructions and the literature provided in the package, then I posted the question on Teacher.Net (the online chat form I used this semester for Spanish teachers) but did not get any responses, I also read reviews by others online, and finally I set up a profile for myself. I started at the beginning of Level 1 and skipped around looking to see what I could use. I am still not sure if this program is all it claims, but most reviews are good and I would be curious to try a different language out for myself. Already being fluent in Spanish it is hard to know what I would learn if I were not.
I think that this software could be incredibly useful in my classroom as a supplemental activity. I would not use this on a daily basis but it would make for an excellent emergency sub plan, a great way to review information before a test, and an engaging way to introduce new vocabulary. There are examples of each of these lesson plans at this link. I would spread out the lesson plans posted throughout Spanish I and Spanish II and no two lessons would take place within the same unit.
Each level is divided into four units and each unit has a Core Lesson and a number of additional activities. Vocabulary and grammar are introduced through a series of questions associated with images. If students answers correctly, they progress. If they answer incorrectly, they have to answer again. At the end of each unit is a Milestone. A Milestone is a staged conversation in which students have to provide the correct responses based on the images seen and what the other people, represented by pictures, say to them. This allows students to practice the language in a realistic setting.
The current question everyone asks foreign language teachers is, “Does Rosetta Stone software work?” This question has been posed to me many times this year and up until now I did not have a good answer. I did not learn how to speak Spanish in this way so I did not know. However, that excuse did not work well when my Superintendent approached me at the last Parent Teacher conferences, his son is in my Spanish II class, and asked if the district should invest in the software. After stumbling over my words, and possibly making an idiot of myself, I became determined to find out what the hoopla was all about and if it could benefit my teaching.
To figure out if it could be helpful I decided to open the one copy of Rosetta Stone purchased by my district at the beginning of the year. I started by reading the instructions and the literature provided in the package, then I posted the question on Teacher.Net (the online chat form I used this semester for Spanish teachers) but did not get any responses, I also read reviews by others online, and finally I set up a profile for myself. I started at the beginning of Level 1 and skipped around looking to see what I could use. I am still not sure if this program is all it claims, but most reviews are good and I would be curious to try a different language out for myself. Already being fluent in Spanish it is hard to know what I would learn if I were not.
I think that this software could be incredibly useful in my classroom as a supplemental activity. I would not use this on a daily basis but it would make for an excellent emergency sub plan, a great way to review information before a test, and an engaging way to introduce new vocabulary. There are examples of each of these lesson plans at this link. I would spread out the lesson plans posted throughout Spanish I and Spanish II and no two lessons would take place within the same unit.
What I like best about the program in a classroom setting is that students can move through the lesson at their own pace and there are enough supplemental activities to keep the faster students busy while the slower learners progress. I also really like how it tests each student individually on pronunciation. We do numerous speaking activities in class in large and small group form, but it is difficult to catch every slip up every time and the more often students say a word the wrong way the more likely they are to remember it that way. The program also gives students feedback after every exercise and provides them with a progress report at the end of each Core Lesson and supplemental activity. I believe that when learning a language students need constant feedback and an individualized computer program can accomplish this more efficiently than I can.
Overall, I like Rosetta Stone for my classroom and I am going to discuss the program with the Superintendent in the near future
image used from Rosetta Stone at this URL.
1 comment:
R has the Spanish language version of this - unopened. I will see if I can get him to actually crack the package, and then share an opinion of how it works. I know I would love to try it too, after reading your review!
Your Sister :)
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