Viva la variety

Digital foreign language course instruction might be on the horizon at CSC, said Joel Hyer, dean of curriculum and academic advancement.

A representative from Rosetta Stone Inc., Anessa Alderman, travelled to the CSC campus Aug. 31 to give a 90-minute demonstration to Hyer and Charles Snare, dean of Liberal Arts.

The presentation highlighted the features of Rosetta Stone’s proprietary language-learning software.

Chadron State offers only one foreign language course, Spanish, offered in the spring as WLAN 100: Conversational Spanish.

Due to budget constraints, the college has been considering offering foreign language options via a blend of computer software and digital interaction with a native speaker, rather than traditional classroom instruction, Hyer said.

“What resounded with me was that with this [software], 17 or 18 languages could be learned in an online environment,” Hyer said.

A criticism of the software is that it is useful for learning vocabulary, but that it is more difficult to learn grammar and syntax than through traditional conversation methods. The online component of the course instruction, under the brand name of TOTALe™, seeks to resolve this issue by offering students the opportunity to interact with a native speaker, which Rosetta Stone purports aids in the grammar/syntax area of language learning.

Another beneficial feature that resounded with Hyer during the presentation was how the program’s structure mimicked the patterns of how one learns a foreign language during the formative years of childhood. This structure focuses on picture sets, which show pictures and then have the user learn their names in the foreign language.

The software uses one of four picture sets based on the language being learned – Western, Asian, Latin, and Swahili languages. A weakness of the program is that because the software is grouped into only four sets, some of the images being used aren’t culturally relevant to the native country, which Hyer agreed was a valid criticism.

“Foreign languages are something that we need to have. We don’t have the money to hire someone. I think Rosetta Stone would meet our needs,” Hyer said.

Several challenges remain before any software implementation can take place. The first is taking a product and creating classroom credit based on that software, Hyer said. The second is that, with the recent announcement of the retirement of the academic vice president, the college administration wants to wait until the new vice president joins the college, so that he or she could be involved in the decision.

“We’re in a bit of a holding pattern because we are waiting on the new vice president [who is supposed to be on campus by Jan. 2012],” Hyer said.

Hyer said that he doesn’t want to wait too long to make a decision, as an extended waiting time could be detrimental to the students.

Students need to be bi-lingual in some future occupations as well as if they attend graduate school, depending on their major, Hyer said.

“The cost was quite doable,” Hyer said. “It was pretty cost-effective.”

Hyer described the classroom setting as being fairly intimate. Perhaps “three to four other students besides the teacher,” Hyer recollected from what he viewed in the demonstration.

In addition to cost, intimacy, and the diversity of languages offered, Hyer also appreciated the software’s microphone-input feature, which measures the users inflections against a native speaker’s in order to ensure proper pronunciation.

“I think Rosetta Stone would meet our needs. Under the circumstances, it seems like the right alternative.”