Combining e-learning and language learning to save time and money has been one of the most dreamt ideas for any learner. But is it possible? The answer is yes. An example is Rosetta Stone. This software is known for its successful method and has won many awards. This essay aims to spark interests in the readers regarding the possibilities of such an immersion approach with e-learning. As a user of the software, I would say that it is definitely worth investing time and effort, especially if you would like to learn and speak in different languages without actually having to spend a lifetime in that country yourself.

If we put aside the idea of e-learning and focus on the immersion approach, we can see that it is an approach that have been theorized and tested by many for language learning. It is basically the idea of exposing the learner to everything in the language they want to learn. This “no translation or clarification method” aims to help learner’s mind to pick up the language intuitively after strategic exposures. Just like how children are not taught grammar or phonics before entering school but they can still do it. We associate and make connections based on what we have seen and heard, and then create our own rules to understand what’s happening around us. And most of the time, the creations are quite similar to the rules in the books.

In Canada, many parents of English students enroll their child in French immersion programs so that children can grow up to be bilinguals. Immersion approaches are often seen to be more successful in younger learners compared to older learners due to the time required. It’s also because of the idea of “filling a cup that’s already full”. Often times, older learners in such programs or settings would end up rationalizing or translating everything they are seeing to make connections, making the approach less effective. Another example is when expats are immersed in completely new and foreign environments. Some can pick things up quickly while some do not. Immersion approach works differently on everyone. However, the general consensus is that, the longer you are immersed the more you would learn.

With all that said about the immersion approach, the question now is how does it change when e-learning is involved? E-learning uses electronic means to educate, done as a group or individually and sometimes through a distance. When e-learning is combined with the immersion approach, the creators/teachers would have to focus more on the delivery of the approach because the learners are now also the facilitators of their own immersion. With this lack of control over how much immersion time the user/learner would spend, the success rate could fluctuate a lot.

Rosetta’s infamous “Dynamic Immersion Method”, where they use a mixture of images, text, and sounds at different levels of difficulty to help students learn, attacked this potential problem. With this method, repeated practices and translations aren’t required. The program also has the option of allowing users to choose what and how they want to learn. Their speech recognition aspect also helps with quality control as it monitors the users in certain exercises. This checks the quality of learning as users wouldn’t be allowed to continue in the studies until it’s within acceptable range. This method without a doubt is not meant to speed up the immersion approach but simply to imitate and replicate it outside of a classroom. Learners would still have to spend the same amount of time devoted to immersing themselves in the language, however now, instead of being in a classroom or the country we can do so in the comforts of our homes.

While e-learning can benefit all ages, the immersion method would probably work better with the younger crowd. But aside from the initial costs and the time it takes to see the results being some of the downsides to this technology, I believe that this is a successful example of e-learning. I strongly believe that e-learning and language immersion is possible and can be successful.

REFERENCE:

Rosetta Stone, LTD. (1992). United States of America.