Indeed, early childhood language education is often limited to numbers and the phrases for “hello” and “goodbye,” if they even get that. “We, as a country, do not tend to value the early instruction of language,” says Lord. For example, one could look up the Spanish words for “how much does it cost” and end up saying, “cuanto es lo costo.” Yet the appropriate phrase is, “¿cuánto vale?” Of course, Rosetta Stone helps second-language learners with the major hurdle of memorizing a large amount of vocabulary that native speakers pick up as children, when their sponge-like brains pick up the words they hear every day. They’ve certainly fallen for Rosetta Stone’s multimillion-dollar advertising campaign: Rosetta Stone promises to be the “fastest way to learn a language - guaranteed.” Yet anyone who’s traveled to a foreign country after learning a handful of words and phrases can attest to how limiting vocabulary-based learning is. “And even some universities are tempted to try to reach the same outcomes with a computer program as they would get with teaching classes.” “K-12 school districts are literally disbanding their language departments and purchasing licenses,” says Lord. Yet the appeal of a computer program to replace human teaching of languages is very strong for some decision-makers. Try entering a Shakespearean sonnet into it.
Of course, anyone who’s played with Google Translate has seen how ill-equipped computer algorithms are to render comprehensible speech - or art. Unfortunately, there is little evidence that any standalone language program can meaningfully contribute to second language acquisition - or, people argue, there’s no need to learn other languages if it can be instantly translated. So, to continue the question that Lord says she gets a lot, “Does Rosetta Stone work?”īetween Rosetta Stone - named after an ancient Egyptian artifact that delivered a decree from Ptolemy V in three languages - and the recent release of Waverly Labs’ The Pilot, a “real life Babelfish in your ear,” instant gratification for communicating between languages is clearly desirable.
Rosetta Stone launched in 1992, but until UF Professor of Spanish and Portuguese Studies Gillian Lord conducted a study of the effectiveness of Rosetta Stone comparing it to in-classroom experience in 2013, no such evaluation had been carried out.
#How effective is rosetta stone spanish software#
However, even in an increasingly global society, enrollment in college language courses is declining nationwide, while the marketing of the popular language software Rosetta Stone, and others like it, is increasing. If you want to learn a foreign language, high school and college can provide an excellent opportunity to do so. UF’s Gillian Lord conducts the first study comparing learning Spanish in the classroom and from the popular language program.
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