The Use of Rosetta Stone® as Teaching Media to Improve Students’ Vocabulary Mastery

Abstract

The objectives of the research are to identify: (1) whether the use of Rosetta Stone ® can improve students‟ vocabulary mastery; (2) the strengths and weaknesses of Rosetta Stone ®. The research was carried out at a Junior High School in Surakarta, Central Java in 2014/2015 academic year. It was conducted in two cycles and applied Rosetta Stone ® as teaching media for teaching vocabulary. The data were analysed by qualitative and quantitative methods. The result of the research showed the improvements, students could: (1) pronounce most of the words correctly; (2) memorized the new words more easily; (3) use the correct grammar in sentences. The class situation also improved, the students: (1) gave a full attention and did not make non- academic activities during teaching learning process; (2) tended to be active learner. In addition, the students‟ mean score also improved. The strengths of Rosetta Stone ® are on the enhancement of teaching learning process. On the other hand, the weaknesses of this software are on the task preparation and the images limitation.