Core Fluency vs. Rosetta Stone?

If repeating words in your car or in front of your computer sounds artificial, that’s because it is. Language is interactive, personal, and in a context. Language must be taught in that way in order for you to truly acquire language. 

Now… how, exactly, do Core Fluency and Rosetta Stone differ?

3 simple, but hugely important, ways: 

comprehensible, compelling, & constructivist (student-centered) teaching 

Did you know that children and adults acquire a second language in the same way?  Yes, every brain acquires language in the same way.  

1) Language acquisition theorist Dr. Stephen Krashen states that in order for fluency to happen, the input (the aural or written exposure to the new language) needs to be 100% COMPREHENSIBLE and COMPELLING.

2)  In addition, the student needs to be involved in the construction of knowledge. According to The Theory of Constructivism, learning takes place when the classroom and the learning are student-centered and the student is directly involved in the learning process.

Rosetta Stone is flashy, well marketed, and promises a lot, but simply cannot deliver the incredible results it promises, as it is not teaching second language through the best practices nor based on language acquisition research.

In contrast, CORE FLUENCY is does both: promises high level results and deliver the results, as its teaching methods are based on the researched and proven ways for both children and adults to learn any subject, acquire languages, and retain what they learn. 

Let’s look at each of these points in detail:

COMPREHENSIBLE?

CORE FLUENCY consistently makes the input comprehensible through limiting vocabulary and immediately clarifying the meaning of words through pictures, gestures, and translation.  If students do not understand a word or phrase or if the instructor is speaking too quickly for comprehension, students gesture for the instructor to translate, show meaning, or slow down.  The classes are always made 100% comprehensible.

Although Rosetta Stone does use photos combined with the written target language or with aural input, Rosetta Stone does not provide any translation.  And, if you are not 100% sure of the meaning, you may guess the meaning, and may never guess correctly.  This may be okay if you have many years to figure out the meaning of what is being said or gestured.  A quick translation of a word can save hours of wondering time and facilitates a faster route to fluency.

Secondly, although Rosetta Stone makes language comprehensible though pictures, words, and voice, Rosetta Stone fails to provide comprehension of the target language through many additional forms of understanding, including body movement to deeply connect meaning (Total Physical Response Theory) and a whole variety of learning activities which teach to the other Multiple Intelligences (spatial, bodily-kinesthetic, interpersonal, intra-personal), which are essential for learning, according to Gardner’s Theory of Multiple Intelligences.

CORE FLUENCY not only makes the input comprehensible through pictures, writing in the target language, and aural input (like Rosetta Stone), but it ALSO makes input comprehensible through the mind-body connection (Total Physical Response), hand and body gestures, acting out stories, retelling stories, drawing stories, and Story-Asking (all of which address additional Multiple Intelligences, learning styles, and language acquisition theories).

COMPELLING?

CORE FLUENCY is always compelling because it is personalized to the class and the students.  Students provide ideas, answers, story material, requests, and questions which feed the student-built stories, personalized classroom conversations, and learning opportunities.  Students act out stories, answer questions, ask questions, and even dress up in costumes, if they wish.   Rosetta Stone is NOT PERSONALIZED to the class, and therefore, not compelling.  The stories are not about the learners nor created by the learners, and therefore, learners lose interest quickly in the formal, predetermined sentences in Rosetta Stone.  Rosetta Stone provides no personal connection to the student.

STUDENT-CENTERED?  CONSTRUCTIVIST?

In addition to Dr. Stephen Krashen’s theory that fluency happens when the target language is taught in a COMPELLING and COMPREHENSIBLE way, educational theorists also know that learning in general cannot happen if the learning environment is not centered around or based on the student.  In both The Passionate Teacher (Robert Fried) and Women’s Ways of Knowing (Mary Field Belenky, Blythe McVicker Clinchy, Nancy Rule Goldberger, and Jill Mattuck Tarule), the research supports the belief that students truly learn and remain engaged if they take what they learn from a teacher, mix it with their own knowledge based on past experience and knowledge, and create a new, higher level of knowledge.  But, if the teacher simply “fills” a student with lectures or information, like filling a bank (The Bank Theory), the student will not truly learn, retain, or advance to the higher level of learning in any field. Actually, the student will not have a personal connection to the new material, and will easily forget it.

In CORE FLUENCY’s Language Immersions, the students construct their knowledge by a high level of involvement in the class.  Rosetta Stone fills students with knowledge, and those sitting in front of their computer, anxious to learn a new language, cannot be involved in their knowledge to a high-enough level to acquire or retain it in long-term memory.  Rosetta Stone students cannot ask questions, cannot create personal connection, cannot have conversations, and they are not involved with the determination of the subject matter, the verb structures to practice, nor any specific details to create personalized, connected, and constructed knowledge.

Conclusion:

Although the very popular, and extremely well marketed, Rosetta Stone does incorporate some of the correct learning theories in its presentation and software, it clearly misses a few of most important elements for language acquisition.  In contrast, CORE FLUENCY  was mindfully built upon the foundation of the most important language acquisition and educational theories. Everything CORE FLUENCY does in class is intentional and in alignment with educational theories.

See a VIDEO answer:

“Can’t I just learn a language through Rosetta Stone, CDs in my car, or DVDs?“

Check out all the other FAQ VIDEOS on language acquisition and Core Fluency.

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