The original Rosetta Stone provided scientists the key to deciphering ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics.
At the Central Interior Distance Education School (CIDES), adult students are using the software version of Rosetta Stone to learn how to read, write and speak English, French, Spanish and five other languages.
Sponsored by the Ministry of Education, the language program is free to all adults who live in B.C.
"We offer the online language courses using Rosetta Stone as the tool to deliver the curriculum," said Chris Molcak, principal of the Centre for Learning Alternatives (CLA), now in its second year of operation at the former John McInnis junior secondary school.
"When you register and get activated you log in at your convenience and work at your own pace."
Other languages offered are German, Italian, Russian, Korean, Mandarin and Japanese. The school district has space for 350 online language students and currently has 320 enrolled in the program, but Molcak said the capacity can be increased simply by applying for a different licence.
Although it is geared toward adults, some elementary school-aged children whose parents have a first language other than English use the program to improve their skills learning the native tongue of their parents. Other parents use it to help their children learn a second language, while some district staff planning trips to other countries are also enrolled.
"It's a fairly broad range of student we have,"said Molcak. "We also use it as support for our [English as a Second Language] learners. We have 15 students in the district from Colombia, another 10 from Korea, and there are another 40 exchange students in town."
This is the third year the program has been offered. Each four-level program involves about a 100 hours of computer work and students have one full year to complete the course.
To meet the ministry requirements, students are required to complete a written project on the history and culture of the language. The level of each program is equivalent to an introductory Grade 11 language course.
Students work under the direction of CLA language instructor Melanie Niederegger, who provides language support, oversees the research projects and is called upon to fix technical problems.
All that is required from each student is a home computer. The school district will provide a microphone and headset needed to activate the voice recognition software. On-screen keyboards adapt conventional keyboards to the corresponding languages for the written material.
"I haven't seen the Japanese one but I'm sure that's entertaining," laughed Molcak.
For more information, go to the CLA website at www.cla.sd57.bc.ca.
