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Why don’t people here like Rosetta Stone? | ||
Tags: Rosetta Stone | Usefulness | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| TerryW Senior Member United States Joined 6385 days ago 370 posts - 783 votes  Speaks: English* | Message 25 of 93 26 June 2010 at 7:29pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Maybe you RS bashers have been a little too hard on "The Stone." This guy certainly got miraculous results from it - - -
This is the first review that comes up in Amazon for this product: Rosetta Stone Spanish (Latin America) Level 1,2,3,4 & 5 Set with Audio Companion That's because: 217 of 221 people found the following review helpful: 5.0 out of 5 stars Amazing, August 23, 2009 By Jerold (Washington State University) (If you click on "See all my reviews" for Jerold, there are not any other reviews.) Here are some interesting excerpts from the lengthy review: "For example level 1 covers the exact same material you will learn in 2 semester of university level language.' "After three or four days of using this I went from nervously giving directions to taxi drivers and store clerks to having full-on conversations." "In addition to Spanish, I have used German, Mandarin Chinese and Arabic. .. I was so surprised when within an hour or two or was WRITING simple sentences in Arabic and Mandarin, two languages I had zero previous experience with, and have been told are quite difficult." "Though my wife looked at me a little funny when I was saying into the mic "The women are drinking coffee" in Arabic after an hour, I was grinning ear-to-ear." "If you are afraid of the price - don't be. The cost is so low in comparison to taking college classes and is quite honestly so much more effective... Compared to taking a standard university class (boring, ineffective and WAY too slow) RS is a miracle. You can learn a semester of foreign language in as little as a week or two and have a much better grasp on the language." "PS: No I don't work for Rosetta Stone or know anybody who does. Buen suerte!" Here's the link to the Amazon page with the review: Rosetta Spanish 1-5 on Amazon 2 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| joebelt Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6361 days ago 51 posts - 68 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 26 of 93 26 June 2010 at 7:55pm | IP Logged | |||||
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Look for the "Rockman et al" evalution report on Rosetta. It's on their website. It basically tested 84 people at Novice Low on the ACTFL scale and 5 at Novice Mid. After 64 hours with the software and 6 hours with a live tutor, 47% went up one step (in the majority of cases from Novice Low to Novice Mid), 23% did not make any measurable progress, and 25% went up two scales to Novice High. Not exactly what I would call a resounding success after 70 hours and spending over $1,000 on the software plus TOTALe for the live tutors.
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| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6261 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 27 of 93 26 June 2010 at 8:49pm | IP Logged | |||||
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"In fact, based on the ACTFL OPI-C results, we can state that after completing at least two levels of training and an average of 64 hours of study with the Rosetta Stone software, the majority of the participants successfully advanced 1-2 levels of proficiency. They went from Novice-Low to Novice-Mid and in 22 cases from Novice-Low to Novice-High (2 levels up), meaning that they went from having non functional language ability to being able to answer short (2-3 words) questions." http://resources.rosettastone.com/CDN/us/pdfs/Rockman-Evalua tion-Report.pdf
Here is link to the scale: http://languagetesting.com/scale.htm You can do better at 64 hours with Assimil or Linguaphone or Pimlseur or Linkword or Transparent Language. The report's wording makes it sound good. However, it is very costly and much time to reach this level. Novice Mid in 64 hours is not very good. I would not have released this report if I had been RT. 3 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| joebelt Diglot Groupie United States Joined 6361 days ago 51 posts - 68 votes Speaks: English*, French | Message 28 of 93 26 June 2010 at 9:03pm | IP Logged | |||||
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hobbitofny,
Notice that they say 64 hours on their site but if you read (god forbid any of their customers would actually read), it says that they all did 64 hours with the software AND 6 hours with a live instructor through Rosetta Studio (the live tutoring component in TOTALe). It's mind-boggling that they brag about this. 1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| RedBeard Senior Member United States atariage.com Joined 6130 days ago 126 posts - 182 votes Speaks: Ancient Greek* Studies: French, German | Message 29 of 93 26 June 2010 at 10:39pm | IP Logged | |||||
Maybe they now include a coupon for 6 hours instruction from a tutor. Thereby allowing you the same opportunity as the test subjects. :-) Just a bit of quick math: in 64 hours there are 192 "20 minute study sessions". That would be all 100 Assimil Passive Wave lessons and 92 Active Wave lessons. Or thereabouts... Heck, it would be 128 "half hour study sessions" in any language course you want. I would think that someone could advance more than just one level. Even me. As and aside: please note that I am not a Rosetta Stone hater. I tried their software demo. It was engaging and interesting. I hope overall that the company does well. But I don't see their products being a good bargain. A lot of money for glorified flashcards. I don't wish them ill or anything-I just won't buy it. I don't buy Organic Broccoli either, but I don't wish Organic Broccoli Farmers death or bad fortune or anything. If you like Orgainc Broccoli and are a funtioning adult, go ahead and have it. Just not my "cuppa". 4 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| hobbitofny Senior Member United States Joined 6261 days ago 280 posts - 408 votes Speaks: English* Studies: Russian | Message 30 of 93 26 June 2010 at 10:56pm | IP Logged | |||||
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If you get time, you might read the fill report. I found the selection process interesting.
1 person has voted this message useful | ||||||
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6039 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 31 of 93 26 June 2010 at 11:10pm | IP Logged | |||||
I didn't say it was the biggest hurdle to fluency, and I'm not sure how I would interpret that anyway. Learning vocabulary and phraseology takes a lot longer than learning grammar, because there's a lot more of it. But though it takes more time, vocabulary takes less conscious effort to learn than grammar. As to Spanish grammar being "not difficult in the least" for English speakers... ser vs estar, preterite vs perfect, subjunctive.... These are things that many English speakers never get right. 5 persons have voted this message useful | ||||||
| AlexL Diglot Senior Member United States Joined 7112 days ago 197 posts - 277 votes Speaks: English*, Spanish Studies: Italian | Message 32 of 93 26 June 2010 at 11:41pm | IP Logged | |||||
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I can't imagine that most people on this website have actually used the latest version of the software. I think
Version 2 has gotten deservedly bad press, but Version 3 is significantly improved. I've used it for Hebrew and Italian, and I believe it's not bad. For some languages, like Mandarin, it is NOT good -- the order in which things are taught is simply not appropriate for languages like that, without conjugation, plurals, definite articles, etc. But for Romance languages (and for Hebrew), I've found it to be great. Grammar IS taught--usually a topic or two per lesson. I've honestly never wondered what the pictures meant. 3 persons have voted this message useful |
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