TOTALe — How Rosetta Stone Transformed Language Learning in 2009
When it comes to educational technology, Rosetta Stone is one of the earliest and most iconic language learning softwares that has appeared in the world. Its name “Rosetta Stone” was inspired by the ancient Egyptian stone inscriptions which represented one of the oldest documented languages. Allen Stoltzfus, the founder of the company, discovered that learning German while living in Germany was much more effective than learning Russian later in a regular classroom setting. Therefore, Stoltzfus intended to incorporate computational technology into language instructions to create real-language environments that would simulate his own immersive German learning experience many years ago.
Rosetta Stone’s first product was a CD-ROM based project. Debuted in 1992, the product gradually evolved into various digital formats along with the technological development later on. Fifteen years after the debut, the company released its most revolutionary version Rosetta Stone TOTALe in July 2009, which was the first update that incorporated internet connection into their language instruction method. The name “TOTAL-e” signified that the language learning process could take place online from then on, envisioning a transformation of future language learning experiences — instead of solely interacting with the pre-programmed computer software, TOTALe allowed its users to get online and actually speak with instructors and other speakers all over the world.
One news article named “Rosetta Stone Announces TOTALe, Language Instruction With A Social Bent” could provide us a general overview of how TOTALe was viewed when it just came out. This article was published just a few days after this new version was released, and the title was pretty much self-explanatory. The term “social bent” in this title suggested that instead of the linear human-computer interaction that the previous versions of Rosetta Stone were built on, TOTALe utilized the social web component to connect people all over the world and thus create a potentially unlimited possibility for language learning experience.
According to this article, there were two most prominent features of this new TOTALe version associated with internet connection: Rosetta World and Rosetta Studio. Not only could learners be paired through Rosetta World to carry out real-time conversations with native speakers using the target language they were learning, users could also schedule live lessons in Rosetta Studio with experienced language coaches that could provide them comprehensive feedback and help them advance to the next level towards proficiency.
Looking back at Rosetta Stone’s own advertisement on TOTALe in July 2009, we can see how comparison was a very commonly employed strategy to point out the differences when introducing new technologies. This piece of advertisement not only compared its own products to potential competitors, as it explicitly stated that “no other program offers such a fun, intuitive, and immersive approach”, but also compared with their own previous versions to emphasize how the latest social web feature could help users carry out real conversations in online settings.
However, another product review shortly after this version was released noted that the internet connection of TOTALe did not completely supersede the offline computer instructions that the previous versions were built on, which were still the basic components of the software itself. Instead, the internet component had increased the transparency of the product. According to Gitelman and Pingree (2003), supercesion refers to the idea that the new form of media destroys or wipes out older, existing media forms, whereas transparency means that this particular new media form mediates less and thus closer to reality. In the case of TOTALe, the internet connection has made the language learning experience through software more similar to real-life environments, simulating some local language immersion schools or even real-life conversations with native speakers in different countries.
Although Rosetta Stone has been slightly declining its popularity for the past couple of years — in the face of rising competitors such as Duolinguo and other apps that offer free version — it is still listed as the top 5 language learning softwares all over the world in at least ten websites that appeared on my first search page on Google. In addition, while the internet is ubiquitous now — especially after we have been taking classes over Zoom for almost half a year — taking language lessons online was considered a “breakthrough moment” back in 2009, as described in the TOTALe advertisement that I mentioned earlier in this article.
In this case, we can see how such technological revolution could be viewed through the relative perspective of new media, where “newness” was relative to the time it was introduced, rather than taking this innovation for granted and see it as the way it always was (Marvin, 1987). Almost every language app I have encountered recently has some type of internet connection, but the transformation that leads up to today’s interactive and immersive language learning experience could be traced back to the moment that Rosetta Stone TOTALe was released 11 years ago. We won’t realize how far we have come along the way until we take a pause and look back at what we have been through. Therefore, analyzing this revolutionary version of Rosetta Stone TOTALe through the timeframe when it was first released can help us better understand how such “newness” in our culture, especially in relation to media technologies have influenced our online educational experience.
References
About Rosetta Stone — Language-Learning Company. Rosetta Stone®. https://www.rosettastone.co.uk/about/.
Biggs, J. (2009, July 27). Rosetta Stone Announces TOTALe, Language Instruction With A Social Bent. TechCrunch. https://techcrunch.com/2009/07/27/rosetta-stone-announces-totale-language-instruction-with-a-social-bent/.
Feingold, S. (2019, July 18). Facing Competitors Like Duolingo, Rosetta Stone CEO Plots a Comeback. Cheddar. https://cheddar.com/media/rosetta-stone-tries-to-translate-expertise-into-profits.
Gitelman, L and Pingree, G. (2003) “What’s New About New Media?” from New Media, 1740–1915
Marvin, (1987) “Dazzling the Multitude: Imagining the Electric Light as a Communications Medium”
Nusca, A. (2010, January 3). With TOTALe, Rosetta Stone brings the social web to language software [review]. ZDNet. https://www.zdnet.com/article/with-totale-rosetta-stone-brings-the-social-web-to-language-software-review/.
Rosetta Stone® Company History — Language Learning. Rosetta Stone®. https://www.rosettastone.co.uk/history/.
