Features:  

Rosetta Stone has a very thorough system for tracking your progress and showing your scores on individual exercises. This can help you identify if you are struggling more in pronunciation,in writing or in some other category and focus more on that. Each lesson is accessible at any time, so you can focus on certain activities or even start in the middle of the course if you have some previous Spanish speaking experience.

The only thing Rosetta Stone lacks is a version for portable devices such as MP3 players and PDAs. Many other programs are offering this option, which makes it easy to learn on the go. It’s not essential, but it could definitely make Rosetta Stone easier to use for people who don’t have a ton of time to sit down in front of the computer.

Fundamentals:  

Rosetta Stone has the fundamentals down to a science. Vocabulary is gradually introduced through picture and word association. Then grammar is introduced by further associating the words and phrases with other pictures. It doesn’t sound simple, but the process is so intuitive you may find yourself doing it without thinking, which we find to be much more enjoyable than studying vocabulary lists and grammar rules.

During all of this, Rosetta Stone also works on pronunciation and conversation skills through the use of their speech recognition system. Sometimes you must listen to words and phrases and write them, later, you practice saying them and get immediate feedback on your pronunciation and accent. Rosetta Stone even focuses on the fundamental sounds common to Spanish words so that you can improve your pronunciation of many words at once.

Ease of Use:  

Rosetta Stone is exceptionally easy to use. The program is so simple in fact, you might feel like you aren’t getting your money’s worth at first. After all, when you pay for a program, you expect a lot of menus and features, right? Rosetta Stone proves how unnecessary all that is by creating a simple interface and an even simpler curriculum.

The interactive lessons are very intuitive. It is easy to tell between correct and incorrect answers and figure out the point of different activities they have designed. In fact, Rosetta Stone is so easy that they don't provide any initial information about how to navigate the program; we had no problems and didn’t have to consult any instructions. If you get lost, there is help available that can explain how to use the program.

Rosetta Stone offers an online version of the program as well. This can be very convenient because you can access it from anywhere.

Teaching Tools:  

The basic program begins by showing you four images at once; you listen to a Spanish pronunciation and then pick the corresponding picture. Rosetta Stone has included thousands of pictures in their database to represent a broad Spanish vocabulary. All the basics are covered and more.

But if you get bored with this learning angle, you can toss in some variety: read the word, then choose the corresponding image; listen to a word and select the correct image; hear the Spanish words and then write the correct answer. The combination of variety and reiteration allows you to build and test your skills backward and forward, so that you can become proficient in not just comprehension, but speaking, reading and writing too.

The writing program is simple to use. You can either type a word, letter by letter, or for phrases, you can select words from a list. Rosetta Stone allows you to modify the program to be either strict or lenient when judging your writing attempts, a plus for the novice who needs a confidence boost.

Also, if you misspell a word, the program highlights the exact letter that is incorrect and allows you an opportunity to fix your mistake. To add common Spanish accent marks to written words, the program offers a keyboard representation on the screen; all you have to do is click the correct accent mark.

There are a few different modes you can use to run Rosetta Stone. Delay mode allows you to see or hear a word, then, after a brief delay, four pictures appear to choose from. The Timer mode allows you a few seconds to select the correct answer, and Test mode keeps track of how many exercises you get correct and how many you miss. After you finish, your statistics are displayed; the program tracks all of your progress so that you can see which lessons you have completed as well as what you scored for each lesson.

The speech recognition software for Rosetta Stone is good. Additionally, this is one of the few programs that differentiates between Latin American Spanish and Spain Spanish.

Word Tools:  

Rosetta Stone doesn't provide much in the way of dictionaries and translators, mostly because you are intended to retain and translate the Spanish yourself. We found that the Rosetta Stone method is effective enough that we didn't need the word tools that other programs provide. There is a simple index of the Spanish words used in the program in the order they are introduced. This is convenient if you would like to review the lessons later.

Help/Support:  

The support for Rosetta Stone Spanish is very helpful. The FAQ, user manual and tutorials can answer most of the basic questions you may have about the program, as well as how to navigate the program (though we don’t think you’ll need help there). If you have more technical problems, you can also get technical support via email or phone.

Rosetta Stone is so easy and simple that it sounds too good to be true, but it's not. If you want Spanish dictionaries and grammar rules, this isn't the program for you. If you want a program that teaches Spanish intuitively and makes retention easy, Rosetta Stone is exactly what you want.