The World Languages Department has been incorporating the Rosetta Stone program for the past four years within the language classes. They have recently decided not to renew the program for next year.

“We did not feel the program was supporting our curriculum,” World Language Department Chairperson Danica Attanasio said.

According to Financial Director Kathy Cullen, the annual cost of Rosetta Stone was $5,000-7,000, which was one of the deciding factors for ending the program.

Freshman Trevor Wohtkittel agrees with Attanasio’s feeling that Rosetta Stone does not fit with the curriculum. “I haven’t really learned that much from Rosetta Stone and it takes time to complete when I am already getting a lot of work from that class,” he said.

Sophomore Sydney Branch agrees. “Freshman year I thought that Rosetta Stone would be really helpful but then I found that it wasn’t helping as much as I thought it would,” she said.

Other students see many benefits in the use of Rosetta Stone. Going over 1,700 miles away from home and attending school in a new environment can be intimidating. Sophomore Stephania Ortega came from Honduras and grew up speaking Spanish. The major challenge she faced when coming to the U.S. was the language barrier.

“Rosetta Stone has been very helpful and let me practice the language by speaking it. It has helped me pronouncing words and it helps me speak English better. I am going to miss getting to use it,” Ortega said.

Although Rosetta Stone will no longer be used, the language lab will. Students will still be using the lab by participating in activities integrated with the classroom lessons. Students will be able to do listening and speaking activities along with group activities. They can pair up and have a full conversation in their foreign language and record it.

“I know the stress will be less on the students [without Rosetta Stone] and I am excited to use all of the technology that the language lab offers,” German teacher Ashleigh Stall said.

“It’s going to be a completely different experience next year. My classes will be more involved and they are going to like it a whole lot more,” Spanish teacher Susan Garcia said.

Other teachers find that the use of Rosetta Stone has advanced the students’ capabilities in the classroom and that the school should keep the program.

“My students came out using expressions and accents that I never taught them because they were using Rosetta Stone. Rosetta Stone is an internationally acclaimed program. People use it around the world and they love it,” French teacher Regina Ferry said.

The World Languages Department is now looking for new and improved ways to help the students expand their language in the lab.

“In the future, the language teachers will look for other ways to utilize the lab.  We plan to offer some training in the fall for language teachers to utilize these other lab capabilities,” Attanasio said.

Erica Kelble is a Multimedia Editor for The Patriot and jcpatriot.com.