Rosetta Stone

[Paul B. Gallagher]

Ruby J Jones wrote:

> I have only worked with one student who turned to me for private 
> tutoring because she had purchased Rosetta Stone to learn Russian and
> was totally frustrated. As Richard Robin noted, the lack of 
> contexualization was a major hindrance. The orthography was not
> related to the individual sounds, but simply presented as words,
> which left the student with no idea of which sounds were associated
> with any individual letter. I am relying on a two-year old memory;
> but, I think the first lesson was about a woman riding a horse in a
> city park. I never saw the applicability of that vocabulary for
> everyday conversation. Although the student had been assiduously
> working with the program for months (in preparation for a year's
> study abroad in Moscow), we had to start from the basics.
> 
> I never bought the program, but only examined my student's copy. I
> was not impressed.

I probably would not be impressed either, because this teaching method 
would clash with my individual learning style.

But it may work for some students -- one of the most valuable and most 
difficult lessons I gained from my limited experience as a teacher was 
that different students have different learning styles and what works 
well for some will be useless with others. An effective human teacher 
integrates a variety of techniques and adapts to the student's needs in 
ways no computer program can -- except of course on Star Trek.

-- 
War doesn't determine who's right, just who's left.
--
Paul B. Gallagher
pbg translations, inc.
"Russian Translations That Read Like Originals"
http://pbg-translations.com

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