As a middle school ESL teacher, I am constantly searching for the best ways to reach all of my students, each coming from a diverse background. In the Houston Independent School District alone, there are approximately 66,000 Limited English Proficient students. That number is larger than the total enrollment of most school districts in the U.S. In our very diverse part of Houston, Texas, the LEP population at my school is about two-thirds Hispanic and one-third African refugee students. 
In the face of budget cuts, campus LEP Coordinators are tasked with individually deciding how to spend their Title III funds to best serve their English Language Learners. One suggestion I received from the district was to invest in the Rosetta Stone American English Levels 1-5 software.
Check out how much Rosetta Stone loves teachers.
Did any other teachers jump up and down like I did?
Rosetta Stone advertises that their educational solutions are:
- intuitive
- interactive
- visually engaging
Isn't that what we all want as educators when it comes to integrating technology for our ELLs?
What we DON'T want is to waste time.
An article examining the value of "edutainment" software suggests the following list of questions and rubric to help teachers, administrators, and curriculum specialists select educational software (Kanzanci & Okan, 2009):
• What is the point of having this subject/activity/exercise on computer?
• Is the content of the software complying with what is intended to be taught?
• Do the activities in the software really provide gains to the learner? Or they are just robotic?
• Do the activities support learners to ask questions or create new insight?
• Does the software fit the level of the learner?
• Do the activities include so much fun elements which cover the learning?
• Are the activities drowning in flashy animations and effects with noises?
• Do the learners waste time with the program?
(click image to enlarge)
Rosetta Stone has some case studies from the classroom available on the website. In the coming months, I will be putting Rosetta Stone to the test. I'll be sure to keep readers informed of my progress. In the meantime, do any educators out there have experience incorporating Rosetta Stone or a similar software into the language development of their ELLs?
Bentzman, J. (2008, November 18). Texas - english - k-12. Retrieved from http://www.rosettastone.com/schools/solutions/standards
Kazanci, Z. & Okan, Z. (2009). Evaluating english language teaching software for kids: education or entertainment or both?. The Turkish Online Journal of Educational Technology, 8(3), 30-38. Retrieved from http://eric.ed.gov/ERICWebPortal/contentdelivery/servlet/ERICServlet?accno=EJ859490
