Duolingo vs. Rosetta Stone: Classic or Modern Learning – What’s best for you?
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Any language learner can get confused about duolingo vs rosetta stone language learning platforms.
While many factors distinguish Duolingo and Rosetta Stone, there’re those unique elements engrafted in their learning platforms that make it easier or difficult for the learners.
So Duolingo vs. Rosetta Stone lies in the classical or modern learning model that best defines personal learning preferences.
For a more straightforward comparison, it’s imperative to compare Duolingo and Rosetta Stone with a particular focus on the languages they offer, their pricing model, and the teaching approaches.
In the end, the article provides the pros and cons of Duolingo vs. Rosetta Stone with a slight intrusion on which site; duolingo vs rosetta stone is ideal for specific language learning preferences.
So, in the end, this article will dispel all the doubt on Duolingo vs. Rosetta Stone and help the reader on selecting the platform which best suits their language learning desires.
Table of Contents
Duolingo and Rosetta Stone Compared
Duolingo vs. Rosetta Stone are platforms that focus on language teachings to introduce the learner to the target language through interactive and spell out procedures.
These two platforms are significantly different, and the variance illuminates in the individual descriptions below.
What is Duolingo?
Duolingo is an excellent language learning online-based platform that uses a gamified approach to entice learners and encourages the grasping of grammar and vocabulary.
With Duolingo, learning is experiential because the learners encounter free bit-size lessons geared at establishing and maintaining communication in real-life scenarios.
Studying a language with Duolingo empties the student into a balanced approach that considers explicit and implicit language learning concepts. What makes Duolingo stand out and become a subject of discussion in this article is their investment in big data analytics.
The online language learning website uses data, machine language, and artificial intelligence to make language learning free and available.
Using data systems and machine learning capabilities, Duolingo uncovers emerging insights and builds them in unique designs to facilitate language learning.
So the ease of workability of the platform and excellent interactive knowledge is born out of machine language, artificial intelligence, and data models. Coincidentally, Duolingo provides personalized lessons that are fun and universal.
What is Rosetta Stone?
Rosetta Stone is another visual and structural language learning online platform that utilizes natural immersion to train new language.
For an inspired learner who is not easily distracted, Rosetta Stone is the best for learning a new language. The site uses conventional approaches engrafted in simulated visual and sound systems to ease the learning process.
If not only looking for learning a language, then Rosetta Stone is the best by offering well distributed digital ignited learning suitable across the age groups. So Rosetta Stone prides in tuning learners’ pronunciation to native speakers by engulfing the course with real-life conversations.
What Languages Do They Offer?
When it comes to language offering, duolingo vs rosetta stone, both language teaching platforms have distinguishable features and offerings.
For instance, Rosetta Stone offers traditional language learning skills exemplified in audio and visual displays for those willing to learn Spanish, French, Italian, German, English, and Ingles.
Duolingo uses experiential language learning-powered by insights and models sourced using artificial intelligence and machine learning. Examples of languages taught in Duolingo include Cestina, Deutsch, English, Espanol, Francais, Italiano, Nederlands, Portugues, Chinese, among others.
Pricing
A comparison of Duolingo vs. Rosetta Stone cannot be complete without looking at the prices. So below is a comparative overview of Duolingo vs. Rosetta’s learning packages.
Duolingo
The experiential and gamified language learning experience at Duolingo comes in two main packages, the free and the plus.
The free package is the most basic with full access but cannot track learners’ progress. The basic package also has limitations for mistakes and offline access. Well, the basic package is complete of ads that may distract any learner.
Duolingo plus
Some people get distracted when learning on a website full of ads, and Duolingo knows how to get rid of that through the plus package.
The plus package at Duolingo offers premium services free of ads and downloadable materials for learners’ offline experience. Similarly, the package has a mastery quiz for tracking the learning process with streak repair every month.
Rosetta stone
The utterly immersive language learning program at Rosetta Stone comes in three main packages. The first package runs for three months for American English and goes for $11.99 in a month. The second package ran for 12 months, covering a set of unlimited languages and priced at $14.92 per month.
SaaS
As discussed above, Rosetta stone started with conventional models simulated to visual and sound systems on the computer. But to leverage the current technological advancement and a method of retaining relevance, Rosetta Stone adopted the Saas model.
The aim is to increase the versatility of its learning experiences powered with technical approaches. Consequently, the website is reaping increased performance, cost controls, and reliability.
Lifetime
Rosetta prides itself on creating convenience for the user and the organization. That’s why a lifetime learning package comes in handy. Thus, a learner can choose the package at only $199 and get an unlimited learning lesson supply.
Features
It’s only possible to distinguish a thing from another through their features. A critical look at duolingo vs rosetta stone targeting their characteristics is as below:
DuolingoWebsite vs. App
Choosing between desktop or mobile applications on any website, look at the easiness, workability, and affordability of the systems. Easiness and workability are two distinctive features that make Duolingo users choose the mobile application over the desktop platform.
The Duolingo desktop platform captures the users’ experience, desires, and interests in learning the language. The desktop layout is better, more experiential, and interactive for the learner. First, the capability to type out the words using an external keyboard is a plus when learning to read and pronounce vocabularies.
In contrast, the mobile application is difficult to navigate, the layout is not appealing, and the course distribution is significantly longer. So it gets complicated and non-experiential for Duolingo language learners when using the mobile application.
Also, the Duolingo website mobile application has no room for tapping from one course to another. It’s challenging to compare lessons and access the note sessions for practicing the language.
Generally, the desktop version is better at the initial and intermediate experiences while the mobile version is suitable for advanced learners.
Rosetta Stone Website vs. App
Rosetta stone desktop version is more widespread and contains exceptional examples that allow learners to follow lessons through different tabs. The mobile application is much more compressed, making it difficult for first-time learners and individuals to find it challenging to start language learning.
Typically, the Rosetta Stone application offers a series of photos accompanied by words. The aim is to help the learner to select the images that match the expression.
The process is tiring and hard to follow for a newbie. Thus, the compressed status of mobile application makes it significantly challenging to grasp the language.
Teaching Methods of Duolingo
Any learning website succeeds through clear and well-illustrated teaching methods. A breakdown of Duolingo’s teaching methods is as below:
Translation training
Duolingo translation training comes as a section of learning languages. Users test their skills and language acquisition by translating short sentences in closed beta for German and Spanish. As the complexity of translation training changes, the user transitions from one level to another.
Gamified progress tree
Duolingo offers a gamified learning experience that tends to scale out the learners’ progress depending on their experiences.
Thus, the learning process falls into different levels, where each indicates the advancement of language skills. Therefore, you receive an Experience (XP) point for each group to encourage interactive learning.
The gamified progress tree matches with (XP) for every passed level, and the learner obtains ‘lingots,’ which is an equivalent of coins capable of unlocking in online shopping.
So learners’ purpose of moving from one level to another is further encouraged through constants upgrades and degrades depending on active participation in the website.
Stories
Duolingo creates an exceptional learning experience by encouraging you to gain experience by listening and reading the stories that further helps you learn the language.
Again, Duolingo prides itself on customized stores to suit the different real-life situations that work perfectly for any learner.
Good forums
There’s nothing experiential in learning than interacting with a series of learners to compare and contrast the notes.
Duolingo offers good forums for the learners to communicate, compare, and determine the learning experience. Ideally, learners interact and discuss ideas leading to the creation of Duolingo communities.
Teaching Methods of Rosetta Stone
Teaching must be engaging and experiential, and Rosetta Stones understands the advantages of capturing the learner’s interests. Read the below sections to appreciate the teachings methods carried out at Rosetta Stones.
Classic learning style
At Rosetta stone, the classic learning style involves listening, speaking, writing, and reading to practice reading, comprehending, and listening.
Rosetta Stone focuses more on written and spoken language, allowing you to grasp and understand the target language. It’s a full immersion learning method through speech recognition, which expands the capacity to pronounce phrases, words, and sounds.
Voice recognition
Learning a language at Rosetta Stone comes with an option for voice recognition. As in a learner can enable or disable voice recognition of the target language.
Voice recognition works for the better pronunciation of phrases, words, and sounds. But individuals have different preferences when it comes to voice recognition.
Tutoring sessions
Learning is simple and targeted through tutoring services, and Rosetta understands the power of live tutors. That’s why the program offers unlimited access to live tutors for all subscribers to ease the language learning process. Although the live tutoring sessions vary, most of the subscribers enjoy 25 minutes sessions with native speakers.
Friend talk
They say that word of mouth spreads out more than the bush fire and Rosetta Stone understands and appreciates the role of human to human interactions, and that’s why the site integrates chat rooms options to help the learners to host discussions with other learners.
It’s a great way to practice the language and also acquire friends. The private chats enhance the website’s appeal and attract many learners wishing to have a different experience in the community of their homes.
Games
Rosetta stone knows the benefits of engaging and a fun learning environment, and that’s why the site mounts games in the platforms to allow more intuitive language learning capacities.
Also, Rosetta stone understands there’s no other method to capture the children’s interest than rollout gamified learning experience. That way, learners become more engaged and focused on accomplishing lessons and unlocking more language experiences.
Stories
A story cannot be so interesting than when narrated by a native speaker, and Rosetta Stone takes advantage of such to offer a wide variety of stories on the platform.
It allows you to read and listen as well as create personal records responding to the stories. The stories are ideal for broadening children’s exposure and creating interest in the target language.
Rosetta Stone Pros and Cons
The following are the pros and cons of Rosetta Stone.
Rosetta stone pros
- Rosetta Stone is easy to use even for individuals with no computer experience.
- The native speakers make it easier and fast to grasp the language due to the right pronunciation, phrases, and words.
- The site is kind of free.
- The use of stories and games are engaging and interactive.
- The games capture the interest of young learners enhancing language learning.
Rosetta stone cons
- It’s quite challenging to start the learning process.
- The speech recognition software can be very distractive for beginners.
- There’s no decent foundation for individuals that struggle to grasp a language.
- It can be disastrous for tonal language
- It’s hard for a first learner to understand the structure of the sentences.
Duolingo pros
- Duolingo offers plenty of languages to choose from.
- The platform is simple to use and navigate for a beginner.
- The visuals are perfect and interactive ways of learning.
- Duolingo platform is straightforward, making it easy to decipher the content.
- The topics are well elaborated suitable for any learner.
- The audio is perfect, making it easy to study and repeat through the phrases.
- Learning is easy through translation.
- It’s possible to redo the exercises.
- The application is free
- The games are engaging and assistive in learning.
- It has a sound reward system that is encouraging.
Duolingo cons
- There’s little orientation about the whole course.
- Speech recognition software is not up to the standards.
- The translations are hefty, and the whole process is not clear to the learners.
- The site is not very elaborate about the grammar and its requirements.
Is One Better For a Specific Language?
Rosetta stone
Rosetta stone language learning website is very immersive and comprehensive for learning the Japanese language. The website makes the Japanese vocabulary, lessons, pronunciation, fun, and interactive.
The bit-sized Japanese studies make it easier for any language learner to grasp the concepts within the shortest time possible.
Duolingo
Duolingo offers an exceptional experience for Japanese and Russian languages. Generally, Duolingo provides more experiential and straightforward exercises that make the learning process more comfortable for those willing to learn Korean, Russian, and Japanese.
It takes a little time to go through a couple of lessons powered by lessons and sentences to help anyone from scratch.
Bottom Line
The best language learning platform is interactive and considers the learners’ naivety basing on the above comparative overview.
Individuals tend to resonate with gamified learning instead of deep, immersive learning unless for the sharper scholars. Many people learn a new language out of adventure, which requires a comfortable and interactive process.
Rosetta Stone and Duolingo are both exceptional sites at teaching languages through online platforms. But Rosetta Stone is more traditional and offers outdated learning formulas, although it’s currently integrating with technology through the SaaS software. Duolingo is a better, interactive, engaging, and gamified way of learning a new language.
Duolingo offers a comparative method of choosing to learn with different levels of experience to earn a reward. The more the rewards, the higher the motivation for advancing further in the language levels.
Thus, rewarding systems motivate learning. Duolingo is exceptional in teaching Korean, Japanese, and Russian languages in more straightforward and targeted approaches that make learning easy and comfortable.
Do you have experience with Duolingo or Rosetta Stone?
Share your experience on the best language learning website. How about the application? Which one is better, the desktop platform or the mobile application?
About the Author Jacob M.
Jacob has a background in finance and engineering. Outside of his day job, he is a lifelong learner, who enjoys reading, taking online courses, and writing about what he's learned.
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