Questions?

What is Rosetta Stone?

Now available to all Sawyer Free Library patrons: Rosetta Stone!

The Original Way to Learn a Language

Rosetta Stone - Do you want to speak a foreign language like a native? The Rosetta Stone's award-winning method uses thousands of real-life images, written text, and voices of native speakers to teach you any of 24 languages like a native learner.

Rosetta Stone is the #1 language-learning software in the world, used successfully by millions of people in 150 countries.

Rosetta Stone’s award-winning Dynamic Immersion™ method taps the same skills people used to learn their first language, making language learning easy and efficient.

Rosetta Stone is the ideal choice for English as a Second Language, helping patrons move directly without translation toward proficiency in the four essential language skills.

Rosetta Stone’s special online database edition for libraries can help you polish their skills in a new language. Rosetta Stone can meet a number of pressing needs—for ESL, for literacy training, and for self-paced, individual language instruction. That makes it an exceptionally versatile tool for library patrons.

It’s Research-Based
Rosetta Stone addresses key factors that researchers believe must be present in order for successful language learning to take place. By merging interactive technology with listening comprehension, structure and sequence, deduction and problem solving, and readiness to talk, Rosetta Stone provides a sound framework for students acquiring a new language.
How it Works
  • Rosetta Stone is an online, Web-based language-learning program that can be used remotely with a personal computer. Any Internet connection will work, but since the program is multimedia-based, the faster the connection, the better.
  • Only holders of Sawyer Free Library cards may access Rosetta Stone using the link below. You will need to have your card number handy when you access it. Your library card number will be authenticated before proceeding to the language-learning software.
  • Five language modules are currently available to Sawyer Free Library users: French, German, Spanish, Italian, and English as a Second Language. Additional modules may be added later--let us know what languages you are interested in!
  • The first time you use Rosetta Stone, you must register and create a personal account in order to customize your use of the software, and to track your progress. After this initial registration you only need to log in using your password.
  • You can learn a language and refresh your existing language skills any time of the day or night when you add Rosetta Stone’s Library Edition to your online database.
  • Now you are ready to go--just click on the Rosetta Stone image below!

Rscom
Four Key Areas of Language Learning

Listening
Rosetta Stone uses native speakers and everyday language to develop your listening comprehension skills easily and naturally.

Speaking
Improve your pronunciation by using dynamic speech recognition to compare your speech with a native speaker.

Reading
Develop your reading skills by linking written language to real-life objects, actions, and ideas.

Writing
Practice writing the language you are learning with the program to guide you. Simply write what you hear, then the program carefully checks your work and lets you correct any mistakes.

Dynamic Immersion™
Rosetta Stone’s Dynamic Immersion™ method reconnects people to the language skills they used successfully to master their first language. With Rosetta Stone, you start from a position of strength—your own strength.

Learn through Context
Rosetta Stone presents a carefully chosen selection of four images and asks you to select the image that matches the written text and the voices of native speakers. Building on the knowledge you’ve already gained and your intuitive grasp of the meaning of each picture, you make a choice. There’s absolutely no translation or memorization to hold you back, so you start making progress immediately.

Immediate Reinforcement
The very second you complete a task, Rosetta Stone provides feedback. Speak a word and our unique voiceprint technology automatically rates your pronunciation. Connect an image with a phrase and you’ll immediately learn if your choice was correct. Complete a set of exercises and you’ll instantly know how well you did. With Rosetta Stone, you always know where you stand.

Systematic Sequence
Dynamic Immersion™ is a continuous process. The Rosetta Stone curriculum is carefully sequenced, gradually incorporating new words, phrases, and more complex grammar as it reinforces existing learning. Your understanding of your new language grows naturally.

Libraries are not simply a place to store information. They are a community of learners. And there’s no better way to strengthen connections within our community and with the world at large than in learning a foreign language.

The Way We Learned Our First Language
Rosetta Stone stands apart because it focuses on the ESL learners’ innate strengths, rather than their deficiencies. We all rely on our visual sense to understand the world, and that’s precisely where Rosetta Stone starts. It moves students through a carefully structured sequence of pictures, encouraging them to associate images they understand with words that they don’t. It works because that’s exactly the way we learned our first language.

It’s Immersive
Another advantage of Rosetta Stone for students learning English—they are immersed in English from the moment they start using the program. There’s no translation or memorization. As a result, their success doesn’t depend on their literacy in their first language. Anyone can learn a language with Rosetta Stone.

It’s Flexible
Students move through Rosetta Stone at their own pace. They can repeat a lesson as many times as they like and can test themselves on their mastery before moving on. Rosetta Stone covers all four language skills—comprehension, speaking, writing, and reading. Students can devote additional time to the skills they would like to master.