Students' instructions to the Linguaphone language record course ..

LINGUAPHONE

CONVERSATIONAL COURSE

STUDENTS'
INSTRUCTIONS

^LINGUAPHONE INSTITUTE

LINGUAPHONE

CONVERSATIONAL COURS.E

STUDENTS'
INSTRUCTIONS

LINGUAPHONE INSTITUTE

LINGUAPHONE INSTITUTE, LTD.,

207-209, Regent Street, London, W.i,

30, Rockefeller Plaza, New York,

and throughout the world

INDEX.

Page
Introduction:

How to make the most of the Linguaphone Course 5

Instructions for Adult Students:

Preliminary Advice ... ... ... ... 7

General Instructions and Exercises 9

Summary of Exercises ... ... ... ... 15

Independent Self-Expression ... ... ... 16

General Advice 17

The Sounds Record and Pronunciation Generally ... 18

Final Note 19

Instructions for Children 21

Exercises for Children under 12 21

Exercises for Children unable to read . ... 26

30 1

Introduction

How to make the MOST of the Linguaphone

Course

You have now in your hands the finest means yet devised
for the teaching of Modern Languages. Many years of experi-
mental work with every known method of language teaching
have gone into the preparation of this Linguaphone Course.

You can now command the services of the finest language
teachers in the world — men and women who combine all the
essential elements of the ideal teacher. For the language they
are waiting to teach you is their own language, as familiar to
them as your own language is to you. They are acknowledged
experts in their language, understanding every aspect of it,
widely read and widely versed in the culture of their own nation.

And, most important perhaps of all, they are expert
teachers, with the skill born of long experience in imparting their
knowledge to others, and in understanding and smoothing out
all the difficulties that might impede your progress.

You are waiting to learn — they are waiting to teach. This
book has only one purpose, to introduce you to each other, and
to help you over the early stages of your acquaintance, until you
know each other so well that you can get on by yourselves.

You may think that you do not need to be told how to
listen. But when to listen and when to speak, what to listen
for, how many times to listen, and how to absorb all that there
is to listen to — on all these points these Instructions will guide
you.

They will even tell you how you can carry on a conversation
with your teachers, or with their recorded voices ! They will
show you at every point of your developing knowledge, how
your ear, eye, lips and memory can best and most effectively
co-operate — as they did automatically when you learned as a baby
to speak your own language — so as to enable you to master and
make your own every sound and every idiom of the foreign
language you have chosen.

If you follow these instructions carefully, even though at
the moment you may not see the value of them — if you are pre-
pared to " begin at the beginning and go on till you come to the
end " — you will find that at every step of your progress, as on a
path that climbs from a valley to the shoulder of a hill, you
are offered an ever wider and more fascinating prospect, but,
unlike the hill-climber, you will find that the nearer you ap-
proach the summit the easier and more attractive the climb
becomes. And when you reach the summit a new world lies
at your feet.

Instructions for Adult Students

Preliminary Advice.

These instructions are applicable both to those students who
already have some knowledge of the foreign language, and to
those who have no knowledge of it at all, whom we may call
" Beginners."

The object of these instructions is to help you to learn, not
only how to speak the language, but also how to write it and
understand it.

A word of advice to those who already possess a " smat-
tering " of the spoken language and have taken up the Lingua-
phone Course in order to become more fluent : —

If you have no previous knowledge and follow these instruc-
tions conscientiously, you must inevitably speak the foreign
language with the same accent and intonation as the speakers to
whose voices you have been listening on the records. If, how-
ever, you already possess a certain knowledge of the spoken
language, your accent may not be perfect, and experience shows
that it is very difficult to eradicate a wrong accent once acquired.

Therefore, if you already possess some knowledge of the
spoken language, we advise you to try and forget as far as pos-
sible what you have learned before, following the instructions
even more carefully than if you were a Beginner.

If you are a Beginner it may seem to you, because your ear
is as yet untrained to the sounds of the foreign language, that
the speakers speak rather quickly. That is not so. On the con-
trary, the first few records are spoken very slowly and deliber-
ately, so as to enable the beginner to catch every word. The
more your ear gets accustomed to the foreign language, the
clearer and more distinct the foreign words become to you, and
what at first may have seemed to you a jumble of strange and
incomprehensible sounds gradually assumes the shape of distinct
and intelligible speech.

8

The rate of speech advances with every lesson as the course
progresses, until in the later lessons it reaches the normal rate.
By then, you will have no difficulty in following the text, because
in the meantime your ear will have become thoroughly trained
and attuned to the foreign language.

At the outset you may find the different turns of speech and
idioms strange, but just take these peculiarities (present in every
language — including English !) for granted at first. Later on,
when you have the " feel of the language," they will all become
perfectly clear to you, and you will be able to express your
thoughts in this new medium just as spontaneously as you do
in English.

IMPORTANT.

Do not attempt to pronounce the sentences aloud until
instructed to do so.

GENERAL INSTRUCTIONS.

Keep your records in the case in serial order. Always see
that the record you are using is free from dust. Fluff or dust
collected by the needle as it travels round the grooves may distort
the sound. Never use worn needles. Find out how often you
should change the type of needle you use, and be sure to keep
within the limit. Before beginning the exercises, see that your
text-books are at hand, together with a note-book and pencil.

Decide how much you can assimilate in the time you have
allowed for your study, and work to that plan. Experience
shows that 8-10 lines is the average amount the beginner can deal
with successfully. The exercises 1-8 given below should be
worked through for each portion of every lesson, and the lessons
should, of course, be studied consecutively.

1.

Preliminary Ear-training.

Taking the first sentence, work as follows : —

1. Listen to the sentence once, at the same time following
the text in the book.

2. Listen to the same sentence four times without the book.

3. Listen to it twice more, following the text.

If necessary, repeat this exercise several times more. Then play
the next sentence in the same way, and so on till the end of the
portion you are studying.

Do not try at this stage to understand the meaning of the
text. Your principal object should be to distinguish each syllable
and each word and to identify the spoken word with the printed
text.

10

Understanding.

Without listening to the record. Read* through the portion
of the text you are studying and refer to the pictures. They
will help to make the meaning of the sentences clear to you and
to fix the words in your mind. Wherever a number is attached
to a word in the text, refer to the large picture illustrating the
lesson; there you will see the same number attached to the object
which the word represents. If there are small pictures as well,
the words that represent them will be indicated by a letter in
italics. Having done this, make quite sure you understand the
whole of the portion by consulting the Vocabulary.

^Silently. At this stage do not attempt to pronounce the
foreign words.

3.

Ear-training in conjunction with Text and Pictures.

Play the record several times, first following the text in the
book and then concentrating on the pictures and looking at the
various objects as they are mentioned. By now you should have
quite a good idea of the meaning of the sentences as you hear
them.

4.

Ear-training combined with Spelling — Writing.

Listen again, while following the text in the book, this time
paying special attention to the spelling of the words. Repeat
three or four times.

Copy out the text. (If you are studying a language that has
a special script, practise first with the alphabet and individual
words.)

it

5.

Detailed Ear-training.

Listen to the first sentence while following it in the book.
Do you understand every word? If so, go on to the next
sentence. If not, underline in pencil the words you do not
understand. Look up the meaning of the words underlined and
listen to that sentence again and again without the book, until
you are able to understand it all. Proceed in the same way to the
end of the portion allotted. Then listen to the whole portion
again, and if there are still words you do not understand, repeat
the procedure, first with the book and then without it, until you
are able to understand every word.

Speaking.

You are now ready to start speaking the words and sentences
you have heard. If you are to be understood easily, you must
speak the language in the same way as the native. This means
imitating the speaker on the record in the matter of intonation
as well as pronunciation, so do not be afraid to copy the rise and
fall of the voice exactly. Practise as follows : Listen to the first
sentence without the book, stop the record and say the sentence
aloud. Compare your pronunciation with the speaker's and see
whether you can detect any difference. Repeat until you are
quite satisfied that your pronunciation and intonation correctly
reproduce those of the record. Proceed in the same way with
the whole portion, sentence by sentence.

II

7.

Dictation.

Dictation from the record gives excellent practice in ear-
training, spelling and writing at the same time. Play a few
words at a time, stop the record and write down the words you
have heard. When the whole portion has been written down in
this way, compare it with the printed text and correct any mis-
takes you may have made.

Reading.

Listen to the whole portion, at the same time following
the text in the book. Then listen to it once or twice without
looking at the book. Finally read it aloud to yourself several
times. Read slowly at first. Fluency will come of its own
accord. Reading aloud is an excellent exercise for acquiring
fluency in speaking, but should only be practised when one is
sure of one's pronunciation.

NOTE : The foregoing Exercises 1-8 should be worked
through for each portion of the lesson.

The following four Exercises apply to the text of the com-
plete lesson studied as a whole.

9.
Ear Test.

Without looking at the book, listen to the whole of the text
to satisfy yourself that you understand every word you hear.

10.

Spontaneous Conversion of Images into Spoken
Words.

Look at the large picture. Take No. i. Besides giving the
name of the person or object represented, give a description of it
and convey the whole idea represented. In case of doubt refer
to the text. Always say the words aloud. Now take another
number, and another, until a mere glance at one instantly brings
to your lips its equivalent in the foreign language.

A similar exercise can be practised whenever there are small
pictures in the text. Look at the first one and describe it as
indicated above. In the case of nouns, always add the article.
This will help you to memorize the gender.

11.
Detailed Understanding of the Text.

Copy out from the Vocabulary the meanings of the words
and phrases in your own language. Close the book and add the
foreign equivalents. Check from the Vocabulary.

At this stage you should consult the grammatical handbook
to make quite sure you understand the grammatical construction
of the sentences.

12.
Final Test.

Listen to the whole lesson, without the book, two or three
times. Can you understand and follow it all? Do you know
it so well that you do not need to think of the English meaning of

it? If so, you are beginning to think in the foreign language
and have really mastered the lesson.

Go through the lesson again, this time reading it aloud and
making a final check on the correctness of your pronunciation and
intonation.

SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES.

The additional exercises given below should be worked
through for every portion of text consisting of conversation in the
form of questions and answers.

13.

Answering Questions heard on the Record.

Play the first question and then stop the record. Repeat the
question aloud and then give the answer from memory. Then
listen to the answer on the record and make sure your own
answer was correct. Continue in the same way with the
remaining questions.

14.

Asking Questions and Hearing Answers on the
Record.

Imagine that you are the speaker who is asking the ques-
tions and let the record give you the answer. Ask the first
question, then listen to the same question to see whether your
version was correct. Follow on by letting the record give you
the answer. As soon as you hear the answer, stop the record and
ask the next question, and so on to the end of the text.

SUMMARY OF FOREGOING EXERCISES.

A. Listening.

(a) Listen once, following text in book.

(b) Listen four times, without looking at the book.

(c) Listen twice, following with the book.

B. Understanding.

Make out the meaning with the help of pictures and
Vocabulary.

C. Ear-Training.

Listen, first following with the text and then only
looking at the picture.

D. Speaking.

Listen to the sentence, then repeat.

E. Dictation.

Listen to the sentence, then write it down.

F. Reading.

Listen to the whole passage, then read it aloud.

G. Conversation.

Play the Question. Stop the record. Give the Answer
yourself and check by listening to the Answer on the
record.

i6

INDEPENDENT SELF-EXPRESSION.

When you have come to the end of your study of a complete
lesson, you will have acquired quite a considerable vocabulary.

The material thus learned will not only enable you to
formulate such sentences as appear in the book, but you will
find by degrees that with the words and expressions you have
acquired, you will also be able to formulate correctly your
own independent sentences and phrases as occasion arises. The
more lessons you master, the easier you will find the art of
self-expression in the foreign language. Of course, it is impos-
sible to compress a whole language into one book, but you will
find in the end that, within the limits of this book, your mastery
of the new language is complete.

The material is there, the means of acquiring it are there;
it is for you to make it your own by a little perseverance and a
little work.

GENERAL ADVICE— IMPORTANT.

Never take any sound for granted. Make sure always that
you have grasped the correct pronunciation of the foreign sounds
before attempting to pronounce them yourself.

Be especially careful with words which, in the foreign
language, are spelled in the same way, or in practically the same
way, as in English. The French word table is NOT pronounced
in the same way as the English table, nor does premiere sound
at all like our premier. The word piano is not pronounced in
the same way in French, Italian, Spanish or Portuguese as its
English equivalent. The French le$on does not sound the same
as the English lesson. The stress in the French word visiteur
is on the end syllable and not on the first, as in the English
visitor. The sound of " a " in Spanish familia or Italian jamiglia
is not the same as in the English word family; the Italian gentile
is not pronounced in the same way as the English gentile, nor
does the Spanish general correspond in sound to the English
general. The German words Hand and Wort differ considerably
in pronunciation from their English relatives hand and word.
Instances of this kind are very numerous.

Never overtire yourself; just stop as soon as you feel you
are not giving your full and proper attention to the lesson.

Never let a day pass, if you can possibly help it, without
doing some study. If you can manage only a few minutes, that
is better than nothing. Even listening to half a lesson (while
doing something else) is better than not listening at all. (By the
way, why not listen to a record whilst dressing or brushing your
hair?)

It is better to do a little at a time at regular intervals than
a great deal at irregular intervals.

Seize every opportunity of listening to natives, and after the
first few lessons, of talking to them. Much valuable practice can

be obtained by listening to the radio, etc., and it is very gratifying
to note the increasing amount you can understand.

Always play over the last lesson you have learned before
taking up fresh work. You can then " tune in " on material
you know, so that the new material will not sound as unfamiliar
as it might otherwise do.

THE SOUNDS RECORD.

When a Sounds Record is provided, the text of this record
will be found in the main text-book. This record should be used
for reference purposes throughout the Course. It will enable you
to identify and classify any particular sound which troubles you,
and you will be interested to see the grouping of sounds. There
is no set way or time to use this record — just use it when you feel
it necessary.

REGARDING PRONUNCIATION GENERALLY.

Too much stress cannot be laid on correct pronunciation.
You may feel sure that you can repeat the first lesson correctly,
but if you go back to Lesson i, after you have finished Lessons
2 and 3, your ear will have become sharper in picking up
nuances of tone — and you will find many little points to correct.
Keep on referring, therefore, to Lesson i at intervals as a pro-
nunciation test — you can always learn from Lesson i in this
respect.

FINAL NOTE.

And now that you have come to the end of this Course, you
will, if you have followed the instructions carefully, have acquired
a lasting knowledge of the language you have chosen. You can
now make yourself easily understood when you speak it; your
accent is irreproachable and you have a sufficient vocabulary for
all the ordinary needs of everyday life. Moreover, you will nave
no difficulty in understanding the language when others speak
it, and can converse fluently with natives and enjoy the broad-
casts from foreign stations. Most thrilling of all, perhaps, you
are well-fitted to set out on a voyage of exploration in the litera-
ture of the language you have mastered. When you do so, make
a habit of reading aloud a short passage for half an hour, or even
less, repeating the same passage from five to ten times. If, after
you have done this, there are still some words in the passage
which you do not understand, look them up in a dictionary,
and when you have completely ascertained the meaning of the
whole passage read it aloud again. You will find that in this
way you increase your knowledge while you are making use of
it.

Even after you have completed the Course, it is a good
plan to listen occasionally to one or other of the records in order
to keep your ear attuned to the language and to maintain the
purity of your accent. The Course is particularly valuable for
enabling the student to maintain his knowledge of the language
at a high level at all times, especially in the important matter of
the intonation to be used in conversation on everyday topics.

A further means of extending your vocabulary and one
which will give you another aspect of the language is to be found
in the Linguaphone Travel Courses (published in French, Italian,
and English for foreign students). Such a course will not only
increase your knowledge of the language, but will also give you
much useful information about the country itself and about its

20

people. The value of such a course to anyone who has travelled
or intends to travel abroad is obvious.

There are also Linguaphone Literary Courses (in French,
German, Italian and Spanish) which form an indispensable
and fascinating introduction to the inexhaustible literary
treasures of each of these languages. The passages selected are
in each case the finest and most representative examples of the
nation's literature, and are most beautifully and sympathetically
recorded by the foremost speakers and elocutionists of the
country.

It is an interesting fact that it is possible by the Lingua-
phone Method to learn two, or even three different languages
simultaneously and with an expenditure of very little more time
and effort than is needed to learn a single language. Moreover,
it is fascinating to compare the forms of expression given to the
same idea in different languages. This added interest, again,
enables rapid progress to be made without strain and almost with-
out conscious effort, because a task which gives pleasure in itself
is always easier of accomplishment — in fact, it ceases to be a task
and becomes a pastime.

Each language has its own advantages. For business pur-
poses, French, Spanish and German will be found the most
useful. Esperanto, a very easy language to acquire, is becoming
more and more popular as an International language. Italian
offers you a magnificent literature and a fuller understanding of
many beautiful operas. Russian, too, a language not nearly so
difficult to acquire as some people imagine, will give you access
to some of the great novels of the world.

In any case, the hardest part of the work is behind you. In
acquiring the language that you have already mastered you have
prepared the ground for a great harvest of real and lasting en-
joyment— that you will now be ready to reap. But you have
done more. You have prepared and trained yourself, so that
when next you set out into new fields, your labour will be the
lighter, and even more abundant and satisfying the reward.

21

Instructions for Children

Children of twelve and over should in most cases be able
to follow the same instructions as for adults. Children under
twelve who are able to read may take the exercises given below.
It should be borne in mind, however, that the younger the child
the less material should be covered in every lesson. The adult
who is supervising the lessons should, of course, be thoroughly
acquainted with each part of the text before taking the child
through it. Those who already understand the language will
find this presents no difficulty, while those who have no previous
knowledge will be agreeably surprised at the progress they them-
selves will make by running through each lesson once or twice,
in accordance with the Instructions for Adults, before giving the
child his or her lesson.

GENERAL EXERCISES.

1.
Preliminary Ear-training.

Having decided how much the child can assimilate in the
lesson, let him listen to that passage, sentence by sentence,
several times :

1. without looking at the book,

2. while following it in the book,

3. without looking at the book.

2.

Understanding.

Tell the child the meaning of the passage or help him to
find out the meaning for himself from the Vocabulary. Let
him look at the pictures to fix the words in his mind.

22

3.
Ear-training in conjunction with Text and Pictures.

Let the child listen to the record several times, first follow-
ing the text in the book, then concentrating on the pictures and
pointing out the various objects as he hears them referred to.

4.

Ear-training and Speaking.

The child should now be able to pronounce the passage
correctly. Let him listen to the first sentence and then say it
aloud himself. Let him do this two or three times until he is
able to copy the speaker exactly. He should proceed in the same
way with the rest of the passage, sentence by sentence.

5.

Reading.

Let the child read the passage aloud from the book four or
five times.

6.
Writing and Ear-training.

Let the child copy the passage in an exercise book, the
adult seeing that there are no mistakes. Afterwards the child
should listen to the passage again while looking at what he has
written.

23

7.
Dictation.

Let the child listen to the passage a few words at a time
and write it down. The adult and child together should com-
pare the result with the printed text and correct any mistakes.

After the child has been through each portion of the lesson
in accordance with the above instructions, he should do the
following Exercises :

8.

Let him listen to the whole lesson, first with the book and
then without it.

9.
Ear Test.

Let the child listen to the whole of the text without the
book, but this time satisfy yourself that he understands every word
he hears. If not, the relevant portion must be explained and the
child should then listen to it again.

10.

Spontaneous Conversion of Images into Spoken
Words.

Let the child look at the large picture and say aloud in the
foreign language what each object or person represents, adding,
if possible, a description of it. For example, he will not refer
merely to " the mother " but say " the mother is playing the
piano " or " the mother is reading a book," or whatever the
mother happens to be doing. He will not say merely " the
letter," but " the letter is on the table," and so on.

The child should also give the names of any small pictures
in the text. In the case of nouns, he should be reminded to add
the article.

SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES.

The same exercises can be taken as for adults (Nos. 13-14.)

CONVERSATION PRACTICE.

After the first few lessons of the Course have been completed,
conversation practice should be developed in the following way.
While the child is looking at the large picture, ask him the fol-
lowing six basic questions in the foreign language : —

1. How many people are there in the picture?

2. Who is on the left?

3. Who is on the right?

4. What is on the left?

5. What is on the right?

6. What is ... doing?

These questions can be applied to any Linguaphone picture.
At first the child's answers will be short and simple, but with
practice they will become longer and more interesting.

Instructions for Children unable to

read
*

i.

Let the child listen to two or three sentences about five or
six times for three or four days.

2.

By then the child will probably start asking the meaning
of some of the words or phrases which have impressed them-
selves on his mind. The adult will then explain what each of
these words means.

3.

Whenever the sentences contain objects or situations shown
in the picture, they should be pointed out, so that the child may
learn to associate the spoken word with what he sees in the
picture.

4.

Taking sentence by sentence, let the child first listen to the
record and then repeat the sentence he has heard. If his pronun-
ciation or intonation is faulty, let him listen two or three times
again until he is able to copy the record exactly.

Make sure that the child understands the full meaning of
what he has heard on the record. Give him the English of each
sentence and let him say what the equivalent is in the foreign
language.

26

6.

Having gone through the whole of the text as indicated above,
let the child pick out the various objects in the picture and give
their foreign equivalents.

Finally let him listen to the whole text once more.

SUPPLEMENTARY EXERCISES
on Conversation consisting of Questions and Answers.

1.

Let the child listen to the first question and make himself
thoroughly familiar with it.

2.

Explain the meaning of the question.

3.

Let the child listen again to the question a few times, re-
peating each time the question aloud.

4.

Let the child listen to the answer in the same way.

5.

Let the child listen to the question again and give the
answer from memory. Continue in the same way with all the
questions and answers.

6.

Ask the questions, first in their proper order and then at
random, the child giving the answers.

Published by

LINGUAPHONE INSTITUTE, LTD.,

209, Regent Street, London, W.i.

Co-py 'right. All rights reserved.

Printed in Great Britain for International Catalogues, Ltd., 207-209,
Regent Street, London, W.i, by The Woodbridge Press, Ltd.,

Guildford.
(W.P.35I ist)— STUD. INST. 38.

This book is due on the last date stamped below, or

on the date to which renewed.
Renewed books are subject to immediate recall.

MMbtffrifre LU

MAR 1 * •'Qr

TUDE.

T T^ 01 inn o 'RE General Library
M?l!ilJS?2V«' University of California
(B139s22)476 Berkeley