Japan Educational Press Eng for web - Rosetta Stone

Japan Educational Press (issued on October 8, 2012)
■Headline (horizontal)
With this learning material, you can learn English in the same way native speakers do
Rosetta Stone TOTALe PRO, adopted by growing numbers of Japanese schools
■Headline (vertical)
Integrated enhancement of the four key language skills
■Headline (middle)
Assisting ALTs
The new Course of Study guidelines for Japanese high schools are scheduled to be put
into effect next year, marking the beginning of a new phase of English education that
will emphasize communication as a priority. In response, schools and Japanese local
governments are now faced with numerous tasks, including improving the English and
teaching skills of teachers and employing appropriate ALTs (assistant language
teachers; young native speakers of English hired to assist with English education at
Japanese schools) and teaching materials.
The use of ICT in education is attracting growing attention in the above circumstances.
In fact, increasing numbers of schools are adopting e-learning to take advantage of its
ability to facilitate the efficient revision by students of what they have learned in the
classroom.
Rosetta Stone Japan Inc., which sells the eponymous language learning software in that
country, has released “Rosetta Stone TOTALe PRO,” which has a multi-user learning
environment. The aim is to support schools with their goal to develop practical English
skills, in addition to meeting the ever-expanding demand from companies in Japan.
Rosetta Stone is language training software available in 30 languages and used by more
than five million people worldwide. The software was first released five years ago in
Japan and to date has been adopted by about 600 corporations, including companies
and public offices. It has also been introduced in about 200 educational institutions,
including not only universities and private high schools that place special emphasis on
English education but also public high schools.

■Picture (left upper)
Judy Verses, President, Global Institutional Business, Rosetta Stone Inc.
“The development of international personnel who are equipped with practical English
skills is vital for Japan. As our educational solutions can enhance all four key language
skills at the same time, I believe that they can provide effective support for English
education reform in Japan,” says Judy Verses, President, Global Institutional Business,
Rosetta Stone Inc.
Learning pronunciation that can be easily understood
The main component of TOTALe PRO is Rosetta Course, for self-study, and Rosetta
Studio, which allows users to participate in online sessions tutored by native speakers
of English.
It is very easy for students to learn using Rosetta Course, which features short,
10-minute lessons. Images, words and sentences on a specific theme appear on the
screen while the student first listens to the words being spoken by a native speaker of
English. The student then speaks into a microphone, and Rosetta Course's special
speech analysis functionality determines whether the student’s pronunciation is easily
understandable to native speakers. The student can move on to the next problem only
when his or her pronunciation is judged to be easy to understand.
If the student fails, he/she can keep trying to achieve pronunciation that is easy to
understand; for example by accenting different syllables through using the
pronunciation waveform display. This system is designed to allow students to gain a
sense of accomplishment by overcoming their weaknesses in pronunciation, as well as
having a sense of how much progress has been actually made.
“The essence of this program is fun. The higher your level of concentration, the more
effectively you can learn a language. Therefore, educational software that users can
enjoy like a game is bound to be effective.” (Judy Verses)
■Picture (right middle)
Tak Shiohama, President, Rosetta Stone Japan Inc.

■Picture (right bottom)
Waveforms are displayed in the upper right on the screen to show the differences
between the user's English pronunciation and that of a native speaker to allow the user
to keep practicing in order to achieve the correct pronunciation.
Boosting learning motivation
Another feature of Rosetta Stone is that no Japanese translation is ever displayed on
the screen. Consequently, only words (sounds and letters) and their images will be seen
and heard by students, without their translating English into Japanese in order to
understand it.
“Such an immersive environment helps you become able to directly understand the
English that you hear and to think and express yourself in English. In other words, you
can learn a foreign language in the same way that children naturally acquire a mother
tongue through everyday communication.” (Tak Shiohama, President, Rosetta Stone
Japan Inc.)
Actually, schools that have introduced Rosetta Stone have achieved great results by
incorporating it in their classroom teaching.
Chukyo High School (Mizunami City, Gifu Prefecture) introduced Rosetta Stone when it
was designated a Super English Language High School (SELHi) by the Ministry of
Education, Culture, Sports, Science and Technology in 2006, and has been using it to
this day. Kenichi Akutsu, an English teacher at the school, says, “It is an effective way
to familiarize students with English and to increase their motivation to learn it. I feel
that 60% to 70% of students who did not like to learn English now show improved
learning motivation.”
Some students who did not like English when they were in junior high school have even
gone to study outside Japan as the result of their developing an interest in different
languages and cultures through learning English with Rosetta Stone.
The teacher points out that “conventional classroom teaching has never brought about
such a dramatic change in students” and speaks highly of Rosetta Stone, saying, “The
biggest advantage of this education software is that it allows students to acquire
real-life English skills, which are difficult to learn through blackboard-based teaching.

As such, this software is very useful in school education.”
TOTALe PRO, designed for allowing multi-user learning environments, now has new
administrative functionality. It offers a rich variety of support functionality to
maximize the effectiveness of the classroom usage of TOTALe PRO, such as allowing
teachers to monitor the progress and average scores of individual students and of
groups of students, customize the curriculum according to each student's levels of
proficiency and goals.
In addition to being used by students in class, this software can also help improve the
teaching skills of English teachers, at the individual, school and regional level, as they
can use it effectively for their self-learning and training.
“All that is required to immediately introduce Rosetta Stone are PCs and an Internet
connection. In particular, TOTALe PRO is capable of serving as an optimal learning
solution in areas of Japan where ALT recruitment is difficult,” says Tak Shiohama. His
company is planning to intensify its commitment to providing ICT-based language
education into the future.
■Picture (left bottom)
Increasing the motivation of students reluctant to learn English (Chukyo High School)
Source: Japan Educational Press (issued on October 8, 2012)
http://www.rosettastone.co.jp/organizations/doc/20121008_10.pdf