How to Learn Languages Online with Rosetta Stone
Disclosure: I received access to Rosetta Stone languages for the purpose of writing a review. I was compensated for my time and I was not required to write a positive review. All opinions are my own.
The foreign language requirement.
Most colleges require at least a year of foreign language.
Many require two.
And some schools require three credits-
of the same language.
As a high school student, I took
Spanish,
French,
and Latin.
Then I took two semesters of Spanish at university.
Sadly, I’m not fluent in any of them.
Did you ever notice in your foreign language classes,
that the students who spoke flawlessly were called on the most?
The rest of us languished in sub par pronunciation.
When it was time to teach foreign language in our homeschool,
I looked for something that would help my students to go beyond learning grammar,
so they could learn to speak the language proficiently.
After all, why do we learn a foreign language?
By most standards, the reason is about cultural awareness
not language acquisition.
This is why most universities don’t accept ancient languages.
But, if you are going to meet a requirement,
why not expand your goal to acquiring language skills?
Then choose the curriculum that helps your student to reach this goal.
Learning Languages Online at Home with Rosetta Stone Homeschool
Teaching a foreign language at home
can be an opportunity
and an obstacle.
It can open up worlds.
It can also make a homeschooling parent
feel inadequate.
Fortunately, there are tools to help us!
Rosetta Stone Homeschool allows parents to successfully teach a foreign language home.
Rosetta Stone Homeschool is designed to help homeschooling parents navigate language instruction by providing vocabulary and conversation practice through pictures.
The key to learning with Rosetta Stone is the immersion in the language.
- Language Immersion– If you talk to anyone who has visited a foreign country and lived there for any length of time, they often come home speaking somewhat fluently. Why is it that students who study a foreign language for years in a classroom may never speak that language fluently? Immersion. When you are forced to use only the new language, you get good at it quickly! Rosetta Stone uses the way baby’s learn their first language to teach a new one and that is a form of immersion. From the comfort of your own home.
- Self-Paced & Self-Guided Lessons– Once you sit down to begin a lesson, you’ll hear the narrator say words and you must match them to the pictures based on the cues. Your student’s job is to repeat words for pronunciation and identify others with the pictures they go with.
- Reports for Tracking– Parents can use the reporting and monitoring system embedded in Rosetta Stone Homeschool for tracking student progress. Having used Rosetta Stone for many years using their CDs, this is an attractive tool.
- Accessible Learning– The lessons can be done on or offline and across all your student’s devices. Getting up and running has never been easier! Sign on with your email and starting hearing and identifying a new foreign language!
Benefits of Using Rosetta Stone for Online Language Learning
Rosetta Stone has some features I love.
- Self-Paced Lessons for All– Each student can reach milestones during each level at their own pace.
- Access Multiple Languages from One Program with a Family Subscription– We have both Arabic and Spanish on our computer and when you open Rosetta Stone students can choose their language and level. Once a profile is made for them, they can access any of the languages you’ve purchased.
- Use Parent Administrative Tools – to track student progress and make tweaks in lesson plans. This is a nice perk if you have more than one student using the same language at a time. It helps you to know how they are doing and what they need to work on. Often I am around while they are doing a lesson, so I can hear how things are going.
- Speak the Language Consistently during Every Lesson– The core of the lesson is speaking and listening so you will have repeated practice at pronunciation and fluency. Many times in traditional language teaching programs students engage in little speaking during class time or, in my experience teachers always call on the students they love to hear! Your student is prompted to speak and has to do it well for the voice recognition. That’s a win!
- Hear the Language Spoken as You Learn– Helps to avoid pronunciation blunders as you learn. You’ll hear whole sentences in addition to words regularly.
- Engage in Conversation– Lessons provide a repeating segment and a conversation segment giving you the chance to practice speaking conversationally. If more than one student is taking the lessons, they can talk to each other and this is a great way for me to see they are learning.
- Access Lessons on Any Device– And pick up where you left off. No waiting for one computer to do language lessons for the day!
- Complete Lessons on the Go– What homeschooler doesn’t practice carschooling now and then? You can even work a lesson on your phone.
- Foreign Language for All Ages– If you have a student who wants to begin early, Rosetta Stone is a wonderful way to introduce new languages.
- Choose Any Language– from the 24 they offer. This is a perk for kids who want to dabble in new languages before choosing one to earn a credit in.
Pro Tip: We have had to find an alternative to the speech recognition foundation of this program. If you have a student who has a history of speech articulation issues, it can be a frustrating experience.
Win a 12 Month Subscription to Rosetta Stone
The winner can choose from any of the 24 languages offered by Rosetta Stone.
We’ve enjoyed French, Arabic, Spanish, Hebrew, and German with this program.
Which one would your family choose?
a Rafflecopter giveaway
In my search for the foreign language credit for high schoolers
and reconciling that with the requirements of colleges and universities,
We’ve found Rosetta Stone to be a useful tool.
It is a simple concept.
It’s easy to get started.
And it’s easily accessible.
