Rosetta Stone uses what it calls a "Dynamic Immersion" approach. The student is immediately faced with vocabulary in the target language. He is expected to pick up the grammar and idiosyncrasies of the language much like a young child would in his native country. The student is constantly challenged to apply the new knowledge in spoken or written sentences. Rosetta Stone employs native-speaker audio clips, voice-recognition features and interactive exercises to test the user's comprehension. The Rosetta Stone Manager, which is included in classroom solutions, has administrative tools so a teacher can set class goals and see where each student needs improvement.
The fourth version of Rosetta Stone was released in July 2009. Version Four features what Rosetta Stone calls TOTALe, a system that uses two interactive elements. The first, Rosetta Studio, makes it possible for the user to interact live with two other students and a native speaker. The second, Rosetta World, connects a user trying to learn one language with a person trying to learn his. For example, an English speaker trying to learn French would be connected to a French speaker taking an English course. The goal of TOTALe is to introduce the student to the social aspects of using the target language.
The student may choose to purchase "Rosetta Stone Classroom Audio Companion CDs." The student can use these to continue to learn the target language outside of a class or home environment.