A language learners’ forum

NOTICE TO THE READER
This presentation replaces the discussion thread “Funk and Wagnalls Language Phone Method” which has been deleted. In hindsight, the previous presentation, owing to the sequence in which I discovered the editions of Dr. Richard S. Rosenthal’s language courses, was rather disjointed: (a) it began with a review of the Funk and Wagnalls Language Phone Method of 1945, followed by (b) my subsequent discovery and presentation of the origins of these materials, the Dr. Richard S. Rosenthal’s Common Sense Method of Practical Linguistry, and ended with (c) my ensuing discovery and presentation of the Funk and Wagnalls Self Taught series of 1945 which was minimally revised in the 1950’s and reprinted in the 1980’s. The previous presentation’s sequencing made for difficult reading.

This revised presentation proposes to trace the history of Dr. Richard S. Rosenthal’s language method from its beginnings in the 1870’s to its conclusion in the 1980’s. Anyone who had the patience to read through the previous presentation is already familiar with much of the history, but might still be interested by a few details which have been added to this new version. This presentation is in three parts, the first covering the Rosenthal editions with the second and third covering those of Funk and Wagnalls.

In a very real sense, this review covers one generation of a unique self-instructional language course which first appeared in the 1870’s and which was used, or at least marketed, with little revision, up to the 1980’s. The same could be said of the R.D. Cortina courses and a handful of others.

PART 1 of 3
ROSENTHAL EDITIONS (1870’s – 1920’s?)

Dr. Richard S. Rosenthal
Scant information is available concerning Dr. Richard S. Rosenthal the person, a specialist in linguistics who developed a series of self-instruction language courses in the late 19th century.

The International College of Languages
I have not been able to uncover much information on Dr. Rosenthal’s “International College of Languages” beyond that it had offices in London and New York and that the latter location seems to have served as the headquarters of the author’s world-wide operations. The image below depicts a magazine advertisement offering the institution’s self-instructional Rosenthal language courses. The reference to the “Language Phone Method” is to the use of phonograph cylinders in the learning process (more details below).

Dr. Rosenthal’s Language Courses: Titles
Tracing the history of Dr. Rosenthal’s language courses is complicated by that fact that, while the first English language edition seems to have appeared in 1879, the author chose to change the titles of these home-study language courses a number of times. The subsequent publisher of the of these materials, the Funk and Wagnalls Company, too, chose to change the titles. As far as I can tell, the Rosenthal method was published, in various forms, under the following titles and in the following sequence:

Das Meisterschafts-System zur praktischen und naturgemässen Erlernung der [...] und [...] Geschäfts-und Umgangs-sprache zum Selbstunterricht; von dr. Richard S. Rosenthal; 360 pages in total; published 187-?. Published in a German, this was likely the foundation of Dr. Rosenthal’s self-instructional language courses. Copies of a few such courses are available for viewing via the Hathi Trust Digital Library.

The Meisterschaft System. A Method Perfected, for the Practical and Natural Learning of the [...] and [...] Languages for Business and Conversation in Fifteen Parts; 303 pages in total; published 1879 in London. This would appear to be an English translation, possibly revised, of the German-language series, above, and was likely the first instance of Dr. Rosenthal’s language courses for English speakers.

The Meisterschaft System: A short and Practical Method of Acquiring Complete Fluency of Speech in the [...] Language in Fifteen Parts; approximately 550 pages in total; published 1881-1893. These would appear to retitled, revised, and expanded edition(s) of the previous series. Copies of a few such courses are available for viewing via the Hathi Trust Digital Library. NOTE: In some cases, the publisher was the International College of Languages and, in others, the Meisterschaft Publishing Company. However, some listings show the I.K. Funk & Company (subsequently Funk and Wagnalls) as the publisher. See Part 2 of 2 of this presentation (although the dates do not line up perfectly, the lineage is correct).

Rosenthal’s Common Sense Method of Practical Linguistry: The [...] Language in Ten Parts; 540 pages in total; published 1897-1917 by the International College of Languages. Newspaper and magazine advertisements of the period promoted these retitled/revised courses as “entirely superseding [Dr. Rosenthal’s] Meisterschaft System”… minimally-revised edition(s) of the previous series. Copies of a few such courses are available for viewing via the Hathi Trust Digital Library. My collection includes the 1901 and 1905 editions by the author as well as the 1945 edition by Funk and Wagnalls.

NOTE: Although this observation will be repeated elsewhere with this presentation, I wish to say now that, having made a superficial comparison of the contents of the older editions, which are available for viewing via the Hathi Trust Digital Library, to three sets of physical copies in my collection, I am left with the impression that there were actually very few what-I-would-consider-to-be substantive changes across the entire series. That is, these courses existed as one “generation” for which there were several minimally-revised editions.

Language Phone Method?
I suspect that the appellation “Language Phone Method” was either a “shortened form” of the comparatively lengthier titles listed above or that it was derived from the labelling of the Rosenthal phonograph cylinders: (1) the Rosenthal phonograph cylinders were labelled “Language Phone Method”; (2) the newspaper advertisement, above, references “Rosenthal’s ‘Language Phone Method’ combined with the Rosenthal Common Sense Method of Linguistry”;
Of additional note is that the covers of the Funk and Wagnalls 1945 editions of the Rosenthal booklets are titled “The Language Phone Method of Practical Linguistry” or, simply, “The Language Phone Method” as it appeared on the covers of the Advanced and Pronunciation booklets.

Dr. Rosenthal DID NOT publish any courses using the title “The Language Phone Method”. I conclude that: (a) the author’s use of this title was a reference to the recent introduction of phonograph cylinder audio recordings in language instruction, and (b) a number of decades later, Funk and Wagnalls, in their reproduction of the Rosenthal materials, preferred the “shortened form” to the author’s original, lengthier titles. The shortened titles would have been consistent with wide-spread preference amongst American publishers of the mid-1940’s for short titles.

The Meisterschaft System: A short and Practical Method of Acquiring Complete Fluency of Speech in the [...] Language in Fifteen Parts
Shortly after preparing this presentation of Dr. Richard S. Rosenthal’s language courses, I happened upon an offer for a complete set of his “Meisterschaft System: A Short and Practical Method of Acquiring Complete Fluency of Speech in the German Language”, published in 1889 by the author’s Meisterschaft Publishing Company, located at Boston, Massachusetts and, of course, I could not resist the temptation of ordering it. Here is a brief description:

Printed Materials
The fifteen soft-covered booklets of the Meisterschaft System series measured 4-3/4 x 7-1/4 inches comprising roughly 50 pages of lesson materials each, with the exception of the last booklet, which was a summary of grammar, stored in a slim cardboard case. The page numbering in the booklets followed from the first through the last without interruption, yielding some 418 pages in total.
Recorded Materials (none)
There is no mention of recorded materials which, given the date of publication, along with other information that I have come across concerning both Dr. Richard S. Rosenthal’s language courses and his adoption of the then-nascent/developing phonograph cylinder technology, is not surprising. The inside cover of the course booklets invite the “non-resident student” (that is, an independent learner who was not enrolled at the Meisterschaft School of Practical Linguistry) to subscribe to a tutoring service via correspondence.

Methodology
The approach to learning, sometimes referred to as the “Direct Method”, was similar to that used in the Charles Berlitz, R.D. Cortina, Edmond Gastineau, and a few other home-study language courses of the period including that of the author’s subsequent “Common Sense Method”; in fact, the latter was but a minor revision to the “Meisterschaft System”.

Rosenthal’s Common Sense Method of Practical Linguistry: The [...] Language in Ten Parts
Languages in the Series
The commonly-studied languages of French, German, Italian, *Russian, and Spanish were covered (from an English base) in both in the original Rosenthal series and in the reprints and revised editions published by Funk and Wagnalls Company in the 1940’s and thereafter.
*Russian: Although I have not come across any vintage copies of the Rosenthal Russian courses, given that Funk and Wagnalls’ “Self-Taught” and “New Self-Taught” series included one for the study of Russian, and given that the Funk and Wagnalls editions were, for all practical purposes, copies of the Rosenthal courses, I conclude that the original Rosenthal series must have included a Russian course, as well.

Printed Materials
The ten soft-covered booklets of the Common Sense Method series measured 4-3/4 x 7 inches comprising roughly 75 pages of lesson materials each, with the exception of the last booklet, which was a summary of grammar, stored in a soft case/pouch. The page numbering in the booklets followed from the first through the last without interruption, yielding some 519 pages in total.

Recorded Materials (1)
Dr. Richard S. Rosenthal and the Phonograph Cylinder
Language laboratories were made possible by Thomas Edison's invention of the tin foil phonograph in 1877. At first, spoken word cylinders were made primarily to preserve rare languages such as those of the Native American peoples. For more information on the University of California Berkley project to restore these recorded sound archives, please refer to the discussion thread “Phonograph Cylinder Audio Archives Vintage Language Courses” and the links therein.

To continue, whereas the earliest known foreign language instruction cylinders were issued by the Cortina Academy of Languages on Edison cylinders in 1899, it was actually Dr. Rosenthal who had earlier proposed to Thomas Edison that this technology could be used successfully in the teaching of foreign languages both in language laboratories located in teaching institutions and via correspondence language courses. Dr. Rosenthal’s own use of this technology followed shortly after R.D. Cortina’s and, rather curiously (given his prescient discussions with Thomas Edison), his supplier of phonograph cylinders was the United States Phonograph Company.

Samples of the audio recordings which were prepared (in sets of 18 phonograph cylinders) to accompany the Rosenthal Common Sense Method language courses, published 1901-1917 are freely available to the public, in mp3 format, via the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive website, catalogued under the sub-section “Language Instruction” identified as “International College of Languages”, the name of Dr. Rosenthal’s language school: http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/browse.php

Recorded Materials (2)
Re-Recorded Audio Files
It is not clear to me whether Dr. Rosenthal arranged for the transfer of the audio recordings from the phonograph cylinders to the flat shellac record technology which supplanted the former or whether he was even still around and sufficiently involved in the operations of the International College of Languages to take on such a project. One thing is certain: the texts were most definitely re-recorded. Although this could have taken place during the period the early-1920’s through the mid-1940’s, for practical reasons, I have presented the discussion of the re-recorded sound files under the Funk and Wagnells section.

Methodology
The approach to learning, sometimes referred to as the “Direct Method”, was similar to that used in the Charles Berlitz, R.D. Cortina, Edmond Gastineau, and a few other home-study language courses of the period. The Elementary lessons introduced the language through the presentation of dialogues, answer-and-question exercises, and either short or extended reading passages. The English translations of the dialogues, both literary and literal, were presented on the left-hand page of the booklets whilst the target language was presented, in line with the English, on the right-hand page. Although the author stressed that no particular emphasis would be placed on grammar, preferring to rely upon the assimilation of actual (imitative) situational conversations, explanatory notes accompanied the English translations, most noticeably in the initial lessons. The notes were similar in style to those of the Linguaphone, Assimil, and Cortina courses. The instructional part of the Elementary lesson materials were printed in a font similar to the Times Roman that had become quite common in many parts of the English-speaking world. Nevertheless, in the case of the German course, quite early on in the lessons, the reading sections were printed in the German Gothic/Fraktur font which was widely used in German language publications.

Somewhat unusual for introductory language courses, from the earliest lessons, the dialogues, answer-and-question exercises, and reading passages deployed the full German case system and complex sentence structure. While the accompanying notes “stated” which elements of grammar were most apparent, I found that, as for the notes in the Linguaphone, Assimil, and Cortina courses, this might have been a little too demanding for the novice language learner. Although the tenth booklet in the packages contained a very good summary of the L2’s grammar, regrettably, the notes in the lessons were not referenced to it by number, as had been done in the Cortina courses.

Assessment: Excellent!
The Rosenthal “Common Sense Method of Practical Linguistry” self-instructional language courses introduced the novice to a foreign language using the well-respected “Direct Method” of instruction. The 520-odd pages of printed materials covered the essential vocabulary and structure of the language for everyday use by a traveller in predictable situations, thereby providing a diligent student with the opportunity of achieving the equivalent of a CEFR A2-B1 level of competency. The materials were supported by sets of 18 phonograph records having a total duration of approximately 2 hours which, taking into consideration the technology of the period, represented a good opportunity for developing adequate aural/oral skills.

It is not surprising though, that the language used in the dialogues was of a formal register and that it would appear somewhat stilted by today’s standards. Similar reservations could be expressed over some (but definitely not the majority) of the vocabulary used in these courses.

These courses would have been “excellent” for the period and, putting aside the issues of register and vocabulary, they could still be used today, a century on, to develop a good command of the language up to the lower-intermediate level (clearly, were one to do so, one would have to make adjustments for differences in register and vocabulary, but that would not be as difficult as many people might otherwise believe).

EDITED:
Attachments, formatting.
Description of the "Meisterschaft System".

PART 2 of 3
FUNK & WAGNALLS’ EDITIONS (1940’s)

Funk and Wagnalls Company
The I.K. Funk & Company was founded in 1875 by Isaac Kaufmann Funk. Not long thereafter, Adam Willis Wagnalls, one of Funk's classmates at Wittenberg College (now Wittenberg University), joined the firm as a partner and the name of the firm was changed, in 1877, to Funk & Wagnalls Company. Throughout the ensuing 90 years, the company established itself as a renowned American publisher of religious books, encyclopaedias, dictionaries, atlases, and other reference works. Beginning in 1965, through a series of transactions, either the company itself or the rights to its major product lines were acquired in succession by: Reader’s Digest, Dun & Bradstreet, Field Corporation, K-III Holdings Inc., Primedia Inc., Ripplewood Holdings, and Microsoft. My understanding is that the company and its brand name no longer exist.

Funk and Wagnalls “Language Phone Method”: 1945
Unrevised, Unattributed Edition
In 1945, Funk and Wagnalls published a their own edition of the 1901-1917 Rosenthal “Common Sense Method of Practical Linguistry” self-instructional language courses for the study of French, German, Italian, and Spanish, under the series title “The Language Phone Method of Practical Linguistry" or, simply, “The Language Phone Method” (please refer to discussion of the appellation “Language Phone Method” in the Rosenthal editions, above). The course materials did not make any mention of the authors or the editors who might have contributed to the preparation of these courses, nor did they make any reference to their lineage. The materials were lodged in a remarkably-study leather-covered wooden box for storage and transport, having two storage compartments the interior of which was lined with felt.

Printed Materials
The printed materials of Funk and Wagnalls 1945 “The Language Phone Method of Practical Linguistry" booklets were identical, in every respect, to those of the 1901-1917 Rosenthal “Common Sense Method of Practical Linguistry” booklets save for the title, with one exception: the Funk & Wagnalls edition included two hard-covered books measuring approximately 6 x 10 inches of some 60 pages each: (a) one entitled “Advanced [Language] Course” which contained a selection of readings drawn from the L2’s classical literature, mostly poetry, and (b) a second one entitled “Speaking and Pronouncing Manual.”

Recorded Materials
The audio recordings were furnished as a set of eighteen 10” x 78 rpm shellac records having a total duration of approximately 2 hours. These were NOT the original recordings which were prepared circa 1900 on phonographic cylinders to accompany of the Rosenthal courses. Rather, these were NEW recordings, prepared with the assistance of native speakers.

In the case of the German course, Dr. Wilhelm A. Braun, Professor Emeritus at Barnard College, lent his talents to the re-recording of the texts. His speech was clear, highly-articulated, and easy to understand. Although the cadence of speech approached that of native-speakers in normal conversation, his delivery lacked the naturalness of the spoken language and, instead, resembled that of someone reading from a prepared text in a lecture hall. This observation should not be taken as a pejorative remark, particularly as Dr. Braun’s studied delivery did not affect the usefulness of the recordings.

Not all of the materials of the Elementary lessons were recorded. Rather, the recorded materials covered extracts of the Elementary lessons which had been reprinted in the Speaking and Pronunciation Manual. A convenient and easy-to-follow reference system was used to connect the audio recordings to the printed materials. While I would have preferred that the entirety of the lesson materials be recorded, I recognize that doing so would have required a substantial increase in the number of the 10” x 78 rpm shellac records, the sheer mass of which might have discouraged prospective buyers. My vintage copies of the equivalent Linguaphone and Assimil courses do not contain a noticeably greater quantity of audio recordings. On balance, I would say that the Funk and Wagnalls recordings were sufficient for acquiring the basics of the spoken language, provided the user applied himself diligently.

Methodology
The Funk & Wagnalls’ “Language Phone Method” courses of 1945 were unabridged copies of the 1901-1917 Rosenthal “Common Sense Method of Practical Linguistry” courses save for the addition of 60 pages of readings and a small book on pronunciation. The “Direct Method” was justifiably popular amongst the community of independent language learners because, in the hands of a diligent student, it yielded good results.

Comparison to Assimil, Cortina, Linguaphone
I have copies of the Assimil, Cortina, and Linguaphone courses manuals and audio recordings of the 1930's-1940’s. First, it should be noted that the Cortina and Linguaphone courses dated from the 1930’s at the very best. That is, the original courses had been developed at the beginning of the 20th century and had undergone only superficial revisions by the mid-1940’s. Thus, for practical purposes, the Funk & Wagnalls reissued Rosenthal courses were all from the same era and they show it! In all three cases, the language deployed in the dialogues was somewhat stilted, even for the mid-1940’s, and I suspected that only the Assimil courses, which dated from the late-1930’s and which, in any case, tend to use a less formal register, would have seemed up-to-date during this period. Nevertheless, the four courses had more-or-less equal potential for bringing a diligent student to within the lower-intermediate level of linguistic competency.

Assessment: Still Excellent!
The physical materials of the Funk & Wagnalls’ courses were superior to those of Linguaphone, Assimil, and Cortina of the period. Nevertheless, as I commented above, the four courses had more-or-less equal potential for bringing a diligent student to within the lower-intermediate level of linguistic competency. While I understand that, for practical reasons, the recording technology available at the time precluded the preparation of audio tracks covering all of the printed materials, I continue to regret this element, even though the previously-named competitors offered nothing better.

Funk and Wagnalls “Self-Taught” series: 1945
Unrevised, Attributed Edition
In the same year that Funk & Wagnall’s published their “Language Phone Method”, they also issued a new series of hard-bound textbooks under the “[Language] Self Taught” series name. These were bound editions of the Rosenthal’s “Common-Sense Method” discussed above, for the self-instruction of the languages of the original series: French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. The annotation “New Revised Edition” is misleading as it pertains to Rosenthal’s 1905 minimal revision to his 1901 edition.

Assessment: Change of Format, Still Excellent!
Putting aside the title, the binding, and the grouping of the Ten Parts into one volume, the contents were identical to Rosenthal’s original series and could have been used with the circa 1920’s audio recordings which Funk & Wagnall’s had reproduced in 1945. The image, below, is of the cover of the Funk & Wagnall’s “Self Taught German” course and the frontispiece wherein the publisher acknowledges the origins of this series.

PART 3 of 3
FUNK & WAGNALLS’ EDITIONS: (1950’s – 1980’s)

Funk & Wagnall’s “New Self Taught” series (1950’s)
Revised, No Longer Attributed Edition
In the early 1950’s, Funk & Wagnall’s commissioned what-I-imagine-they-hoped-would-be a “genuine revision” to the “Rosenthal’s Common-Sense Method” of 1901-1917 covering all of the languages in the series: French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. The revisions were executed by pairs of noted linguistics/instructors, who were accredited by the publisher for their contributions. These hard-covered books were reissued, without revision, as soft-cover reprints by other publishers in the 1980’s. The image below is of the cover of a 1980’s reprinted edition of Funk & Wagnall’s “New Self Taught” German course and the frontispiece wherein the publisher references their own “Language Phone Method” series of 1945 but no longer attributes the series to Dr. Rosenthal’s courses which were the true origins of these textbooks.

Revisions? Really?
The Forward to this revised edition advises the reader: “In the present revision, corrections and changes have been made throughout and outmoded expressions have been brought up to date … If used in conjunction with the set of Language Phone Method recordings, made by native-born speakers, it should give excellent results.”

I compared my 1901 and 1905 editions of Rosenthal’s original booklets to the 1950’s Funk & Wagnall’s New Self Taught series and, save for a small number of superficial differences, the contents are almost identical. Now then, the authors of the New Self Taught series simultaneously advise the reader that the new edition: (a) contains “changes throughout”, but (b) can still be yield “excellent results” when used with audio recordings which date from the 1920’s. In other words, the “revisions” to the latest edition must have been minimal. Not only does this stand to reason but, having compared “New Self Taught” German course to the preceding editions, I detected no differences of any real substance.

Conclusion
There are at least two ways of considering at Funk and Wagnall’s “New Self Taught” series, either: (1) the publisher, in callous disregard of the interests and needs of independent language-learners, marketed an out-dated language course of little value, or (2) Rosenthal’s original “Common-Sense Method of Practical Linguistry” was actually well-conceived and, as I suggested in my initial review: “These courses would have been “excellent” for the period and, putting aside the issues of register and vocabulary, they could still be used today, a century on, to develop a good command of the language up to the lower-intermediate level (clearly, were one to do so, one would have to make adjustments for differences in register and vocabulary, but that would not be as difficult as many people might otherwise believe).”

LONGEVITY (without A.I.)
I find it quite interesting that, even though the core materials were first published in 1901, with the exception of a few items of vocabulary and an admitted formality of register, they are still (fairly) relevant more than a century on. Were a diligent student to work with these materials over a six-month period, even in isolation from all other materials, he/she could acquire a low-intermediate level of linguistic competence. It is to be expected that a number of adjustments would be necessary upon entering the targeted linguistic community. However, the industrious student, having already developed a sound foundation, would find the period of acclimatization to be surprisingly brief. But, then again, the same could be said of many other courses from the era: Cortina, I.C.S., Gastenau, Hugo, Linguaphone, and the like. You want longevity? You don’t need A.I., you just have to be eternal.

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Attachments, formatting.

WANNA GET IN ON THE ACTION?
Collectors of vintage language-learning materials might wi sh to add a few components the Rosenthal courses to their collections.

Printed Materials
The printed materials are still available as originals and reprints on several websites. Since there are virtually no differences in the contents of the printed materials between the 1901 editions and the 1980’s (minimally revised) reproductions, I would recommend that anyone actually interested in working with the materials opt for a copy of the “New Self Taught” courses. You can find copies on AbeBooks, Amazon, eBay, and other websites.

New German Self Taught by Berger - AbeBooks
This is an "example" search of one of the titles. Should you be interested in locating the offers for other language in the series, you will need to change the search criteria.
https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?an=berger&bi=0&bx=off&cm_sp=SearchF-_-Advtab1-_-Results&ds=50&recentlyadded=all&sortby=7&sts=t&tn=New%20German%20Self%20Taught

Recorded Materials
Samples of the original phonograph cylinder recordings are freely available for download in mp3 format via the UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive website. Please refer to the link below, where I have selected those of the International College of Languages. The language for which the most number of files are available is French and the collection is almost complete. There are no files available for the Spanish course.

UCSB Cylinder Audio Archive - International College of Languages
http://cylinders.library.ucsb.edu/search.php?query_type=keyword&query=International+College+of+Languages&nq=1

Complete or Incomplete Sets
There are presently two offers on eBay.com for the Funk and Wagnalls Language Phone Method Spanish courses.

Complete Set
The first offer is for a complete set of the Funk and Wagnalls 1945 reproduction of the Rosenthal Spanish course including the re-recorded audio files. https://www.ebay.com/itm/Funk-Wagnalls-Language-Phone-Method-Spanish-Program-William-and-Mary-/142096781621


Incomplete Set
The second offer is for the 78rpm shellac records which formed part of the Funk and Wagnalls 1945 reproduction of the Rosenthal Spanish course. An enthusiast could purchase the records and a copy of either (a) the hardbound “Spanish Self Taught” textbook of 1945, or (b) the soft-bound “New Spanish Self Taught” minimally revised reprinted of the 1980’s. https://www.ebay.ca/itm/Funk-Wagnalls-Language-Phone-Method-Spanish-Program-Records-LP-set-of-34-/252785376411?hash=item3adb2ebc9b



How can you resist the temptation?

EDITED:
Attachments, formatting.