Sound Language Courses (1960’s): Industria Italiana Lingue Vive Nel Mondo

[Speakeasy]

Not The Usual Fare
My searches for vintage language-learning materials outside of the Anglosphere confirm what many of us already knew; that is, the Assimil, Linguaphone, and even the 1950’s Living Language courses were available in a number of base languages other than English and they enjoyed significant commercial success beyond the publishers’ borders. The surprise for me has not been that a significant number of regional publishing houses were just as active as the forenamed, but that the latter’s language courses sometimes surpassed those of the former. One of the rival series was the “Sound” language courses by the Italian publisher, Industria Italiana Lingue Vive Nel Mondo.

Sound Language Courses
In the 1960’s, Industria Italiana Lingue Vive Nel Mondo, of Milano, Italy, marketed a series of high quality home-study language courses under the brand name “Sound”. I recently added a copy of this publisher’s German course to my collection.

Languages
A magazine advertisement from the 1960’s lists an astonishingly wide range of languages available (presumably from an Italian base): Afrikaans, Arabic (Algerian), Arabic (Egyptian), Bengali, Chinese, Czech, Danish, Dutch, English (American), English (British), Efik, Esperanto, Finnish, French, German, Greek (Modern), Hebrew (Modern), Hausa, Hindustani, Icelandic, Irish, Italian*, Japanese, Luganda, Malaysian, Norwegian, Persian, Polish, Portuguese, Russian, Spanish (European), Spanish (Latin American), Swahili, Swedish, and Zulu (I presume that the Italian* course was available from bases such as French, English, et cetera). REVISED COMMENT: Please refer to the subsequent post wherein origin this list is discussed (it may actually have been a list of LINGUAPHONE courses!).

Materials
It seems unlikely to me, from a commercial standpoint, that all of the languages above received the same depth of coverage. That is, it is more likely that many of the less-frequently-studied languages were available as short courses or as phrase books. The course materials for the major languages (English, French, German, Spanish, etc.) comprised: (a) one hard-covered 6-inch x 8-1/2- inch textbook of some 585 pages in length, and (b) a set of 40 x 7-inch x 33-1/3 rpm EP vinyl records, having a total duration of approximately 10 hours, housed in two separate, sturdy, cardboard storage containers.

Sound Tedesco 0 Materials.JPG

Approach to Teaching
The focus of the Sound courses was on introduction to the spoken language through the commonly-employed device of scripted dialogues, exercises, and explanatory notes. One feature that stood out immediately was the emphasis placed on clear but concise explanations of the target language’s structure. While many of the course elements were common to the genre, their presentation differed in these courses somewhat from that of competing language courses. From the very first lesson, explanatory notes and instructions were presented in the L2, with L1 translations in a smaller font below.

The introductory lessons were heavily-loaded with explanations of the basic grammar of the target language, the introduction of some basic elements of vocabulary, and a selection of example sentences for practice. Thereafter, the arrangement of the lessons followed a standard pattern: (1) Grammar, (2) Vocabulary (lots of it), (3) Sentences, (4) Conversations, and (5) Exercises. The appendix contained a one-way (L1-L2) 6,500-word glossary. The images below are drawn from Lesson Nineteen.

Sound Tedesco 1 (Grammatik).JPG

Sound Tedesco 2 (Vokabeln).JPG

Sound Tedesco 3 (Sätze).JPG

Sound Tedesco 4 (Gespräch).JPG

Audio Recordings
The audio recordings were prepared with the assistance of voice-trained native speakers whose delivery was crisp and well-articulated. In a manner similar to that of the Assimil recordings, the cadence of speech was artificially slow in the initial lessons and, although it slowly increased in speed, it never reached that of normal conversational speech between native speakers. The total duration of the recordings, at roughly 10 hours, was about twice that of the Linguaphone courses of the period and nearly three times that of the Assimil courses. Part of this difference was to the rather unusual decision to record, not only the lists of vocabulary, the example sentences, and the dialogues, as one might reasonably expect, but also the notes on grammar! If there is a less-than-positive aspect of these courses, it would have to be the cadence of speech used in the dialogues which, as for the Assimil courses, does not do a good job of preparing the student for real world, meiner Meinung nach (in my opinion).

Depth of Coverage
What struck me most about the Sound courses was their depth of coverage when compared to similar courses by Assimil and Linguaphone. The Sound courses introduced some 6,500 vocabulary items, provided a very solid overview of the L2’s grammar, employed sentence structures which are not often encountered in introductory-level courses, and demonstrated the use of the language in dialogue form which could easily be described as being within the CEFR B1 zone, if not slightly higher. The courses covered both the formal register of speech as well as the more intimate register and colloquial speech. There were no reading passages.

Appreciation: Excellent!
The Sound materials were superb examples of a well-conceived, comprehensive, home-study language course. The depth of coverage and the opportunities for aural/oral practice greatly surpassed those of the Assimil and Linguaphone courses of the period, thereby providing the conscientious self-learner with a realistic opportunity of achieving a level of CEFR B1 without recourse to additional study materials. The only less-than-positive aspect of these courses was the artificially slow speed used in the dialogues. Generally speaking, the Sound courses from the 1960’s would be of primary interest to collectors of vintage materials, particularly those who already possess either a fair grasp of Italian or a superior grasp of another one of the Romance languages. Nevertheless, the truly adventurous student would do well to consider acquiring the Sound version in their chosen L2 and incorporating it into their study plan.

What Happened to this Publisher?
Most likely owing to my chronic incompetence on the internet, and more specifically to my inability at using my browser in languages other than English, I have been unable to find any information on the publisher of these courses, Industria Italiana Lingue Vive Nel Mondo, of Milano, Italy. In addition, as I have not come across any of the Sound courses in cassette format which would have, in the normal course of business, supplanted the use of vinyl records, I suspect that they may have ceased operations. Does anyone know what happened to the publisher? Has anyone used the Sound courses? If so, how would you assess them?

EDITED:
Revised comment concerning the list of languages available from Industria Italiana Lingue Vive Nel Mondo.

[IronMike]

Found the book here. But maybe you already found that one online?

[Speakeasy]

Yup, that's the book alright! But no, I did not come across this listing, which serves to illustrate how you kids are so much sharper with that InterWeb thing than I'll ever be. Grazie!

EDITED:
Tinkering.

[Speakeasy]

REVISED COMMENT:
I received a question concerning the languages offered by the publisher of the "Sound" language courses. The image below was downloaded from an offer on eBay.IT for a Sound English course. Enlarging it reveals the list of languages which I included in my description of these materials, above. KEEP READING!

Sound Language Courses 1.jpg

However, fellow aficionado of vintage language courses, Aravinda, pointed out that the VINYL RECORD in the above image appears to from LINGUAPHONE and that the first line of the accompanying text confirms this! "But, grandmother, what big eyes you have," she said. "The better to see you with, my dear." - Source: Little Red Riding Hood.

Sound Language Courses 1b.JPG

It remains only for me to fall slowly forward onto my drawn sword. I apologize for the ensuing mess!