Rosetta Stone in the Classroom

            Online tools for language learning is starting to grow in and outside the classroom. Rosetta Stone is one of the first companies people think about when they are learning language online. This company started in 1992 and since then has grown into the cooperation we know today. When I started this blog, I never thought Rosetta Stone would be used in a classroom, but I was very wrong. There are many schools that are incorporating this program as a supplementary tool as well as home school parents teaching their children through Rosetta Stone.

      Rosetta stone can be used on 

       computer, tablet or smartphones 

            Rosetta stone is most commonly used a supplementary tool in the public school system like Druid Hills Middle School in Georgia or Bennett Elementary School in New York. For both of these schools the link to Rosetta Stone and their username and password is on the website. This allows the parents to be actively involved with their child’s foreign language learning. However, they are also being taught the foreign language by licensed teacher, so this is seen as support work for the students.

            Rosetta Stone has many benefits because not only does it include reading and writing practice, but there is also a voice recognition that also picks up on accents. This makes this device very advanced because it can be used for dialect as well. Jessica McFadden from weareteachers.com listed six different ways Rosetta Stone can be used successfully in a classroom. The first way is to encourage students who are in an ELL program and speak and write if they are shy to do so in front of others. Her second point is that it personalizes learning because the students only go as fast as they are learning and grasping a concept. She also believes it encourages real bilingualism because the voice recordings are all recorded by natives. I do not necessarily agree with this statement because the speaking component is not the same as being fully emerged in a language and being able to speak freely with no hesitation. However, she states it allows for schools to offer more language learning opportunities than just the standard Spanish and French. It also makes learning available everywhere and helps the students review and work later. Rosetta Stone is filled with fun language learning games for students including the one pictured below. 

Arcade Academy is a gaming system used for 

language learning for students 

            With all this being said Rosetta Stone is not perfect. Rosetta Stone is expensive and costed a Chicago area school $55,000 in 2013 according to Wes Venteicher from the Chicago Tribune. In 2014 this school started to review the use of Rosetta Stone in their school and if it was worth the cost. Multiple schools in the area decided to stop using Rosetta Stone due to the cost and how often it was being used. However, there were some schools in the area that decided to keep the program due to TAG students and ELL student use. Ian Quillen from edweek.org told the story about a school district in Colorado that had to do a lot of budget cutting, and they decided on foreign language and Rosetta Stone would replace the teachers. The teachers from this school were very upset, and gave a good argument that Rosetta Stone cannot offer the rich and meaning cultural and grammar instruction that a teacher can give . This is another area where Rosetta Stone falls short, the cultural aspect of the language is not as highly valued as it is in a normal foreign language classroom.

               Overall, I believe Rosetta Stone would be a good source for supplementary work in a classroom, but it falls short because of the cost and cultural aspect of the language. The grammar and speaking bring in a unique aspect of language, but cannot fully provide the cultural experience a student will get in a classroom.