Rosetta Stone vs. Burlington English

[Skrej]

Hi all,

Have any of you integrated Rosetta Stone or Burlington English into your English learning programs? Do any of you have any input into pros and cons of either, or have firsthand knowledge of both programs?

Our center currently has licenses with Rosetta Stone, but that contract is about up. We recently heard about Burlington English, but aside from what's available on their website, haven't had a chance to play with it.

We've mostly used Rosetta Stone as supplemental self-guided practice for students outside of class. We haven't incorporated it into our actual classrooms, although it's my understanding it can be.

My initial 20 minute impression of Burlington is that it seems to be designed more for classroom integration.

We're undergoing some curriculum review, and while it hasn't been decided if we'll fully integrate one of these in the future, we do have to make a decision ASAP on license renewals regardless of future usage.

I'm not terribly familiar with Rosetta Stone, so I'm likely not utilizing it to it's full potential, but my initial impression of it both as a learner and an instructor, is that it's mostly about memorizing set phrases. Its strength seems to be the feedback on pronunciation with the sound-wave mapping.

Burlington however, has some built in speech correction feathers with animations on how to articulate problem sounds, which I find useful.

Burlington also seems to be more adaptable to implementing all those new WIOA regulations coming down the pipe. Of course that's not an area of concern for those of you teaching outside the US, but it's a huge concern for US instructors.

Anyway, thoughts or input is appreciated, but it's looking like we may let our Rosetta Stone licenses expire and switch to Burlington, unless I hear a wave of bad impressions about Burlington.

 

[Tdol]

I don't know about Burlington, but most people I know who have used Rosetta Stone have found that after an initial burst of enthusiasm, they lost interest and didn't carry on to the end.

 

[Cuteacher76]

I want to state very clearly first that I work for BurligntonEnglish and will not use this platform to advertise our program. I realize this forum is for teachers and don't want to overstep my boundaries. I saw your post and just wanted to make sure to let you know that you can get a one month sample account of our product if you want to review it. We can also provide you with institutions and administer/teacher contact information so that you can ask customers firsthand about the program. If you want to be connected to someone who can help you with the above, you can contact the main office number which appears on our website.

 

[Audrey Gonzales]

Hello, I work for the Sweetwater Union High School District, Division of Adult Education. We use both Rosetta and Burlington in our Distance Learning program.

What I find is that Rosetta is great for students who are illiterate when it comes to computer use. It's a smooth platform that allows them to instinctively know how to maneuver the program. I think the best feature of Rosetta is their writing activity.

Burlington is great for students who are mildly computer saavy and are not afraid to click on buttons. I usually use Burlington with my Beginning High ESL all the way to my Advanced ESL students. I also believe Burlington is better than Rosetta when it comes to a blended learning model. The program English in America has in class lessons and would be perfect to do a blended model with Burlington. But, I have many students who do it as a stand alone model and are enjoying it, especially the emphasis on pronunciation and speech training.

If I can be of any more assistance, please don't hesitate to email or call me. 619-428-7227 or audrey.gonzales@sweetwaterschools.org

 

[Andrew Stone]

Hi all,

Have any of you integrated Rosetta Stone or Burlington English into your English learning programs? Do any of you have any input into pros and cons of either, or have firsthand knowledge of both programs?

Our center currently has licenses with Rosetta Stone, but that contract is about up. We recently heard about Burlington English, but aside from what's available on their website, haven't had a chance to play with it.

We've mostly used Rosetta Stone as supplemental self-guided practice for students outside of class. We haven't incorporated it into our actual classrooms, although it's my understanding it can be.

My initial 20 minute impression of Burlington is that it seems to be designed more for classroom integration.

We're undergoing some curriculum review, and while it hasn't been decided if we'll fully integrate one of these in the future, we do have to make a decision ASAP on license renewals regardless of future usage.

I'm not terribly familiar with Rosetta Stone, so I'm likely not utilizing it to it's full potential, but my initial impression of it both as a learner and an instructor, is that it's mostly about memorizing set phrases. Its strength seems to be the feedback on pronunciation with the sound-wave mapping.

Burlington however, has some built in speech correction feathers with animations on how to articulate problem sounds, which I find useful.

Burlington also seems to be more adaptable to implementing all those new WIOA regulations coming down the pipe. Of course that's not an area of concern for those of you teaching outside the US, but it's a huge concern for US instructors.

Anyway, thoughts or input is appreciated, but it's looking like we may let our Rosetta Stone licenses expire and switch to Burlington, unless I hear a wave of bad impressions about Burlington.

I'm a native English speaker and I used Rosetta Stone to learn Polish. It is very good at quickly extending a beginners vocabulary and pronouciation. However, when it comes to understanding grammar and language structure, it is very poor. I used Michel Thomas to learn Polish grammar and it is a very good compliment to Rosetta Stone.

The strenght of Rosetta Stone is that it gives a beginner instant feedback and encouragement, but once you get past the early stages it does not have a lot to offer.

 

[Skrej]

Our center decided to switch to Burlington, so I'm going to close the thread.

Thanks for everyone's input.