Robust Program But NOT For World Language Class

How I Use It

Several years ago our district replaced all our world language teachers at the K-5 level with Rosetta Stone. It has been nothing but troubles ever since. The program is extremely robust and used with the proper population, it would be a terrific learning tool. However, young learners need interaction with a teacher not a computer when learning about world language. One of the most difficult hurdles in the program is the set-up of the headsets. On the desktop computers, USB headsets were required. Due to this requirement, the process to allow the computer to listen to the students' voice via the headset microphone could take anywhere from 3 to 30 minutes. Some students would continually have issues with the program hearing their voices which frustrated them. The other difficulty is the immersion aspect of the program. It is not directly instructing learners in a language. Rather it speaks in the language and the user has to either speak in response or click on appropriate images on-screen. This confuses and frustrates young learners who are typically given direct instruction. No student who has worked in this program has learned much about the language they have chosen. It is a huge waste of money and while it is less expensive than a full-time teacher it is far less effective.