Review: the Rosetta Stone Kiswahili

• Main Author: Reuster-Jahn, Uta
• Other Authors: Universität Hamburg, Asien-Afrika-Institut
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Universitätsbibliothek Leipzig 2012
• Subjects: Swahili; Rezension; Rosetta Stone; E-Learning; review; ddc:496
• Online Access: http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-91843; http://nbn-resolving.de/urn:nbn:de:bsz:15-qucosa-91843; http://www.qucosa.de/fileadmin/data/qucosa/documents/9184/7_12_reuster.pdf

`The Rosetta Stone Language Library` is a language learning software developed by the American company Fairfield Language Technologies which allows users to learn a foreign language with their computer without the aid of an instructor. The program promises its users they can learn a language faster and with more ease than ever before, without having to learn vocabulary or grammatical rules. Once having completed Levels I and II, learners should be able to make themselves understood in the new language using a basic vocabulary of roughly 3000 words. Both these levels are to be completed within a time frame of one to two years, and the results should be the equivalent of five years of conventional school instruction. Since 1993, a Swahili language course has been featured in The Rosetta Stone for which only Level I is currently available. With regard to the Swahili course, it must be asked if this design can work with a class language just as it does with an Indo-European gender language. The second question addresses the cultural adequacy of the contexts, or more specifically, of cultural knowledge, which must not be excluded from modern language instruction.