Maximilian Berlitz was a professor of English literature and was also in charge of all language instruction at the W.Warner College in 1877.
At Warner´s, Berlitz also taught French. There were some slow students in the French class, and M.D. Berlitz decided to offer them special coaching by employing an extra teacher. So he placed an ad in the New York newspapers offering room and board in exchange for teaching. A young Frenchman from Lyon named Nicholas Joly answered the ad. Impressed by the impeccable French in Joly´s letter of application and the excellent references submitted, M.D. Berlitz accepted him on a trial basis.
Upon his arrival in Providence, however, Joly found his prospective employer ill and feverish from overwork – a condition that was not improved when Berlitz learned that other than words like up and down and the numbers one through eight, Joly spoke no Engish at all.
If he hadn´t been so ill, Berlitz might have sent Joly home immediately. After all, the accepted form of language instruction at the time called for a teacher to use a student´s native language to explain and discuss the rules of grammar. If Joly knew no English, how could he teach his American students to speak French?
Fortunately for the future of the company, Berlitz was desperate. Instead of sending Joly home, he told him to try pointing at objects in the classroom, to name and describe them, and then to act out verbs as best as he could. He told him to try to involve the students as much as possible by having them repeat and answer simple questions. With that he turned the French class over to his new assistant and took to his bed, hoping for the best. When Berlitz returned to work several weeks later, he expected the worst.
To his astonishment, he found not a disaster but a smashing success. The characteristic of the formal classroom had vanished. In its place were students engaging in lively question-and-answer exchanges with their teacher in elegantly accented French. In just a few weeks, students had attained a level of proficiency far beyond what would have been possible under the old type of instruction.
Berlitz knew that he had stumbled onto something important. Teaching a language without using the student´s language was not a new idea. Varieties of direct and natural methods were in fact being experimented with by several of Berlitz´s contemporaries. Berlitz´s genius was to expand and elaborate upon the concept, to develop an array of materials that embodied it, and then to create an organization that could deliver this new language approach.
The Berlitz Method set Berlitz language instruction apart from its predecessors as well as its contemporaries. It was different, special. It was clearly more effective than the techniques used by others, and the enthusiastic early acceptance of the Method helped give young Maximilian Berlitz the confidence to go forward on his own.
At Warner´s, Berlitz also taught French. There were some slow students in the French class, and M.D. Berlitz decided to offer them special coaching by employing an extra teacher. So he placed an ad in the New York newspapers offering room and board in exchange for teaching. A young Frenchman from Lyon named Nicholas Joly answered the ad. Impressed by the impeccable French in Joly´s letter of application and the excellent references submitted, M.D. Berlitz accepted him on a trial basis.
Upon his arrival in Providence, however, Joly found his prospective employer ill and feverish from overwork – a condition that was not improved when Berlitz learned that other than words like up and down and the numbers one through eight, Joly spoke no Engish at all.
If he hadn´t been so ill, Berlitz might have sent Joly home immediately. After all, the accepted form of language instruction at the time called for a teacher to use a student´s native language to explain and discuss the rules of grammar. If Joly knew no English, how could he teach his American students to speak French?
Fortunately for the future of the company, Berlitz was desperate. Instead of sending Joly home, he told him to try pointing at objects in the classroom, to name and describe them, and then to act out verbs as best as he could. He told him to try to involve the students as much as possible by having them repeat and answer simple questions. With that he turned the French class over to his new assistant and took to his bed, hoping for the best. When Berlitz returned to work several weeks later, he expected the worst.
To his astonishment, he found not a disaster but a smashing success. The characteristic of the formal classroom had vanished. In its place were students engaging in lively question-and-answer exchanges with their teacher in elegantly accented French. In just a few weeks, students had attained a level of proficiency far beyond what would have been possible under the old type of instruction.
Berlitz knew that he had stumbled onto something important. Teaching a language without using the student´s language was not a new idea. Varieties of direct and natural methods were in fact being experimented with by several of Berlitz´s contemporaries. Berlitz´s genius was to expand and elaborate upon the concept, to develop an array of materials that embodied it, and then to create an organization that could deliver this new language approach.
The Berlitz Method set Berlitz language instruction apart from its predecessors as well as its contemporaries. It was different, special. It was clearly more effective than the techniques used by others, and the enthusiastic early acceptance of the Method helped give young Maximilian Berlitz the confidence to go forward on his own.
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Adorei o blog! Parabens pela iniciativa e pode contar comigo sempre!!! bjs, Cath
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