Rosetta Stone Review

Our Editor's Review

Rosetta Stone a very popular language learning software method teaches you a new language the way you learned your native language. The user is offered either text, sound or image (and later, video), to match against four possibilities. With a mark and/or sound chosen by the reader from the preferences menu, the program indicates whether the right or wrong choice was selected. A score from 0 to 100 is kept; it is visible during the exercise in practice mode but not in test mode. The first choice in a group of images nets four points for a correct answer, the second three, the third two and the last one.

Features: Rosetta Stone software includes native-speaker audio, text and the new Level 3 even focuses on video. There are a number of basic exercises that focus on a combination of skills such as reading and writing over listening and speaking or vice versa. There is also a voice recognition feature to aid in learning proper pronunciation. You can choose which units and exercises you want to study, or you can just let the software take you on its guided tour through the whole course. It's really pretty flexible. This means the student can focus more on weak points to improve them, and you can work at your own pace.

There are some languages where Rosetta Stone may be the best option to learn. Very few publishers make a language product for Pashto, Hindi, Polish, Thai, Turkish and Vietnamese. These languages are all available for Level 1. There is also a Level 1 and 2 for Farsi, Tagalog and Dutch, in which surprisingly a few commercial products are available.

The best way to know for sure if Rosetta Stone is right for you is to view the online demo. Try it for yourself so you can see if it fits your learning style.

Fundamentals: The Rosetta Stone software utilizes a combination of images, text, and sound, with difficulty levels increasing as the student progresses to learn various vocabulary terms and grammatical functions intuitively, without drills or translation. The goal is to teach languages the way first languages are learned. Because it is software, it can easily integrate audio, text and images. This allows the learner to associate the sound and look of the written language with real-life images in a natural way.

Instruction takes the form of a unit of lessons consisting of ten groups (more in some of the later units of Level I) of four images each, with an associated word or sentence both written and spoken aloud by a native speaker of the language, except for those languages that are no longer spoken natively, such as Latin. Lesson topics range from grammatical concepts such as verb tense or mood to specific topics such as colors, hot and cold and associated words or the use of money.

Within each lesson there are sets of exercises testing listening, reading, and speaking (for which the computer must have a microphone). There are also writing exercises for languages using the Latin alphabet. The writing exercises for non-Latin scripts use a substitute and on-screen keyboard. All sets except reading and speaking offer four exercises each; there are two reading exercises and one speaking exercise. They are identified by the software as A, B, C, D, and E.

In all units, the last lesson is a review of the previous lessons, with each predecessor represented by one group of images. There are no formal grammar guides or instructions in the software. The only documentation is a manual with written versions of the phrases and a word index.

In Version 3, Instruction takes the form of four units per language level. Each unit is then sudivided into four core lessons. Each core lesson is approximately 30 minutes followed by sublessons. Sublessons take the form of Pronunciation, Writing, Vocabulary, Grammar, Listening, Reading, Speaking, and Reviews. At the end of each unit is a Milestone, which reviews the material covered in that unit in an interactive activity.

There is little to actually use early on. You get a good foundation in the language, but you can't go out and use it. There isn't any conversation until level 2, but then in the new Level 3 it gets really good. Some would say this is necessary, first learn proper pronunciation, listening skills, sentence structure and word order. Then learn conversation. It's a matter of individual learning styles and goals.

Ease of Use: It was easy to pick up visual clues from not just the picture, but also from the text. This may be a good thing at times, but it is much easier to pick up visual clues from languages with Roman alphabets like Spanish, Italian, German, etc. But the same is not true for others like Chinese, Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, etc. This might make the software seem more effective for some languages, when in fact it is just easier to cheat.

Rosetta Stone Software offers online courses as well as CD-Rom versions that you just pop into your computer, install, and you are ready to go and learn. The how is much more important, and it is so simple a child could explain it, after all it was developed with a child's mind and mindset.

One aspect of the software is that even if you had no idea what a correct choice is, you could often choose the correct one by guessing, taking a visual clue from the picture or the process of elimination. The exercises can be a little repetitive or tedious. It was easy to lose focus, get lazy and just guess.

Rosetta Stone's vocabulary learning is too slow, is unclear, requires supplements, lacks on useful phrases, and tries to fit every language into a cookie cutter formula.

Teaching Tools:
Rosetta Stone uses an approach similar to the way in which you learned to speak your native language as a young child. Each lesson will voice a word or phrase while showing several pictures, one of which depicts the word or phrase being spoken. Users must then choose the appropriate picture. Once you are through the lesson, you will be graded and if you are successful, you will continue to the next level. The same method is used for understanding written words.

In time, words become phrases, then full sentences. Ideas and concepts begin to replace simple objects and actions. Through pattern recognition, more and more of the language is understandable. Slowly, but surely, you develop a foundation in your new language. This is all done without any translation into English. It's all done in the language you are studying, and this is one of the strongest advantages of Rosetta Stone.

The Rosetta Stone software functions much the same way by using thousands of real-life images to convey the meaning of not only spoken but written words and phrases the same way. In the carefully sequenced structure, employing native speakers of the individual language you are learning, and providing instant feedback, you learn the new language without the ineffective memorization, simple translation, or tedious grammar drills that other language learning programs or even modern day classrooms use.

Word Tools: There aren’t too many word tools in Rosetta Stone, other than the picture-word association method of teaching. But the method is so effective that word tools are really unnecessary because the pictures help with translation. There is no list of verbs or prepositions or anything else. The creators of this program assume that if you see and hear the words used often enough, they will become firmly lodged in your brain, and they do. You would probably benefit from having a dictionary as well.

Help/Support: Had a difficult and unpleasant working relationship with Rosetta Stone, however, this does not necessarily reduce the effectiveness of the software for the right language learner. Some increasingly negative user reviews and comments have raised questions regarding its policies, customer relations and product quality.

While many people love the software (others hate it) there does not seem to be anyone who has anything nice to say about the company. This turns you off of the company.

Summary: Rosetta Stone is for building a good foundation in your target language. For that, it is one of the best methods available. It gives you a good system, native-speaker audio, text, and it's flexible. It offers a CD or online subscription option, provides a free demo for you to try it out, and 100% money back guarantee (with CD version only, the guarantee is not available on online subscription). As a program, it deserves a big thumbs-up.

Recommend using it in conjunction with another method or other complementary learning materials. It is more expensive than some other methods, but if it works for you then it is money well spent.