Rosetta Stone is proprietary computer-assisted language learning (CALL) software developed by Rosetta Stone Inc. Both its title and logo refer to the Rosetta Stone, an artifact inscribed in multiple languages that helped Jean-François Champollion to decipher Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs. The company is headquartered in Arlington County, Virginia.
The Rosetta Stone software uses a combination of images, text, and sound, with difficulty levels increasing as the student progresses, in order to teach various vocabulary terms and grammatical functions intuitively, without drills or translation. They call this the "Dynamic Immersion method." According to the company, the software is designed to teach languages the way first languages are learned.
In Version 3, languages have from three to five levels, though what they cover for each language is different; there is more of a focus on conversation and less on complex grammatical topics.
Level 1 consists of four units, each with four thirty-minute lessons and a number of five to fifteen minute activities. The level, which is supposed to "build a foundation of fundamental vocabulary and essential language structure," takes about 24 hours to complete following Rosetta Stone's recommended course. Starting from simple vocabulary such as basic greetings, "boy", "girl", "man", and "woman", moving up through numbers, comparisons, adjectives, nouns, verb conjugation, and telling time. Each unit also contains a ten-minute simulated conversation called a "Milestone".
The four units in Level 1 are
Language Basics
Greetings and Introductions
Work and School
Shopping
Level 2 offers a total of about twenty-four hours designed to teach the user to "navigate your surroundings as you build on the vocabulary and essential language structure in Level 1." More grammar is covered, including past and future tenses, and imperative forms. Topics such as giving directions, writing letters, workplace terms, apologies, discussing emotions, and criticizing art are also covered. As in Level 1, each unit is followed by a ten-minute "Milestone".
The four units in Level 2 are
Travel
Past and Future
Friends and Social Life
Dining and Vacation
Level 3 offers instruction designed to help "connect with the world around you by building on the language fundamentals and conversational skills you developed in Levels 1 and 2." In addition to expanding upon grammar learned in Levels 1 and 2, Level 3 teaches more in depth vocabulary, including botanical terms, culinary terms, how to express detailed opinions and judgments, and how to discuss politics, religion, and business. As in the first two levels, each unit contains a ten-minute "Milestone" activity in which the user participates in a simulated conversation.
The four units in Level 3 are
Home and Health
Life and World
Everyday Things
Places and Events
Levels 4 and 5 are currently available for the American English, British English, Latin American Spanish, Chinese Mandarin (Only version 4.0), French, Italian, Russian, German and Spanish (Spain) languages.[4] Levels 4 and 5 teach more complex sentence structures, higher verbal tenses, and more irregular verbs, and introduce more vocabulary.
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