A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

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Speakeasy
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Re: A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

Postby Speakeasy » Thu Jan 09, 2020 12:36 pm

Hellfrick, a warm welcome to you and to your mother! Hopefully you’ll stick around and, by reading through some of the discussion threads, some members’ logs, the Master List of Resources and the Spanish [Study] Group, you’ll rekindle your interest in studying Spanish, or some other language.

Now then, as to your question concerning the “cards”, in my introduction to this thread,
I (Speakeasy) wrote: The Materials
The programme was divided into four levels. The list of materials below is based the notes provided by the publisher, the items in my collection, and comments from forum member mente&cervello:
Student Texts
Student Pamphlets (unit-by-unit pamphlets, suitable for inclusion in a three-ring binder, as an alternative to the textbook)
Student Test Answer Form Booklets
Teachers' Edition (keystone of the programme)
Teachers' Test Manual (student test booklet, answer key, scoring, etc.)
Cue Cards (basic materials, vocabulary exercises, etc.)
Practice Record Sets (33-1/3 vinyl records)
Practice Record Sets (33-1/3 paper records) (as reported by forum member mente&cervello)
Classroom/Laboratory Tape Sets or Record Sets (content different from the above-listed Practice Record Sets)
Listening-Comprehension Testing Tapes
Teachers' Classroom/Laboratory Cassette Tapes (comprising a staggering 85 cassette tapes!)
From the images that you posted (and thank you very much for these), I suspect that the framed cards were the “Cue Cards” mentioned in the list of materials. Although the cards are not mentioned in the Teachers’ Manual, I would imagine that they were to be used as visual aids for the purposes of supporting role-playing of the dialogs or similar exercises. For example, A-LM German Level One, Unit 13 (which appears in the lower right-hand corner of one your images) opens with a Basic Dialog as follows:

Heinz: Well, you’re finally here.
Barbara: Yes, have you been waiting for me long?
Heinz: Yes, since four o’clock. But I’m sure you took your friends home first.
Barbara: Do you mind? What did you do in the meantime?
Heinz: I went over my homework, I played your records, and I even learned the dialog.


The exchange above would seem to correspond to the image of the young woman arriving home, with her coat still on, greeted by someone who was waiting for her, vinyl record and textbook in hand.
A-LM German Level One Unit 13 Cue Card.JPG

Thank you for this trip down memory lane! By the way, should you ever have an opportunity to revisit the owner of the framed cue cards, you might inquire as to the possibility of their having the vinyl records or the reel-to-reel magnetic tapes containing the drills for A-LM German. Should they have them, I would be a very willing buyer.

EDITED:
Trip down memory lane.
Image of cue card, tinkering.
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Hellfrick
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Re: A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

Postby Hellfrick » Thu Jan 09, 2020 6:54 pm

Hi, Speakeasy!

Thanks for thorough and prompt reply!

Cue Cards makes perfect sense. I've ready your detailed post a few times, and I gather that you own some of these cue cards for some/all editions? The number on this card is 27. Does that mean there's at least 26 others? It fortifies the belief that these courses were very thorough and well-conceived. (It also reminds me of some of the teaching elements I had when I was in elementary school in the 70s.) It's a whole different playing field now, isn't it? (Like you, I'm a nerd and not a computer geek!)

It's wonderful that you've invested so much time, love and energy into this--and shared your info with this community. I'm very grateful.

When do you think I could find cue cards? I imagine they wouldn't survive as long as, say, a textbook or even the vinyl.

As for approaching the owner of the framed card...What a great idea! I'll pursue that. It was at an Air BnB, and I'll be able to reach out to the owner pretty easily. I'll ask about the original vinyl or reels on your behalf.

Thanks again!
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Hellfrick
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Re: A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

Postby Hellfrick » Thu Jan 09, 2020 7:44 pm

Hi again...

Not necessarily the reason I posted, but...

What are the "33-1/3 paper records"?

Danke!
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Hellfrick
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Re: A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

Postby Hellfrick » Thu Jan 09, 2020 10:09 pm

Hellfrick wrote:What are the "33-1/3 paper records"?


Nevermind. I found the description in mente&cervello's other thread. Wow. Fascinating.
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Speakeasy
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Re: A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

Postby Speakeasy » Thu Jan 09, 2020 10:59 pm

Hellfrick wrote: … I gather that you own some of these cue cards for some/all editions? …
No, I do not own any A-LM cue cards, this was merely a deduction on my part. Upon reading your question, I reviewed the list of materials above, I noted the item “cue cards”, I compared the image of A-LM German Level One, Unit 13 which you provided to the contents of the student textbook for Unit 13, noticed the compositional similarity of the Basic Dialog to the image, and deduced that the framed cards that you photographed were cue cards. Should I be proven wrong on my conclusion, in my defence, I will counter that I had been misinformed, duped, deceived, led astray, or otherwise betrayed by tricksters, fraudsters, and all manner of nefarious individuals.
Hellfrick wrote: … The number on this card is 27. Does that mean there's at least 26 others? …
As the A-LM German Level One textbook is divided into 14 units, and as the 27th cue card pertains to Unit 13, I would tend to conclude that the total number of cue cards was in the neighbourhood of 30 or greater.
Hellfrick wrote: … It fortifies the belief that these courses were very thorough and well-conceived…
Harcourt, Brace & World Center acquired a very solid and well-deserved reputation for developing complete, well-integrated sets of materials for the American classroom. The A-LM series was but one example. As to the teaching methodology, the audio-lingual method (which had been developed during the Second War for the training of American service personal), had been proposed to American educators by the Modern Foreign Language Association and the A-LM series was one of the first broad applications. Although it eventually fell out of academic favour, it was widely embraced by American academia, so much so that it is hard to find an American language course classroom textbook from the 1960’s that did not use the audio-lingual method. Should you be interested in reviewing a few other courses, check out the FSI (Foreign Service Institute) Basic courses on the Yojik Website .
Hellfrick wrote: … It also reminds me of some of the teaching elements I had when I was in elementary school in the 70s …
I spent most of the seventies patrolling in the North Atlantic … it was not half as romantic as Hollywood filmmakers would have us all believe.
Hellfrick wrote: … Like you, I'm a nerd and not a computer geek! …
I suspect that many of the members of this forum would recognize themselves as being a tad nerdy. In any event, while I might feign taking offense at your suggestion that I am nerd, my wife would very willingly testify on your behalf (which begs the question: why hasn’t she left me? I would have left me!)
Hellfrick wrote: … When do you think I could find cue cards? I imagine they wouldn't survive as long as, say, a textbook or even the vinyl…
I am very surprised that any survived at all! During my searches of the internet for A-LM course materials, as well as those for other audio-lingual-based language courses, I came across reports that, when the method was abandoned by American academia and replaced by the communicative approach, many teaching institutions ripped out the reel-to-reel equipment from their language laboratories and tossed it, along with the textbooks, audio tapes, and everything else pertaining to these courses into the trash bin. I have built up my own collection of the A-LM textbooks, Student Practice Records, and reel-to-reel tapes by haunting eBay (OCD just might be a trait shared by many nerds). Given the passage of time, stocks are dwindling.
Hellfrick wrote: … What are the "33-1/3 paper records"? …
As I noted in the list of materials in my initial post, member mente&cervello reported the use of “paper records” in a separate post. Subsequently, other members have reported using them, as well. While I do not have an image of an A-LM Student Record wherein this type of material was used, the photograph below depicts a standard 7-inch x 33-1/3 rpm vinyl record superimposed over a set of 7-inch x 33-1/3 rpm “paper” records.
Paperbacked records.JPG
It would appear that, in the early 1960’s, the recording industry introduced the single-sided, paper-backed record technology wherein heavy sheets of paper were covered with a thin film of plastic upon which the recording was pressed. As far as I understand, this low-cost production process was introduced so as to assist companies offer free-of-charge sound recordings as promotional items to prospective customers. In the sixties, a number of publishers of phrase-book-style language guides adopted the technology (my collection of vintage materials contains a few examples). Some members who have used the A-LM paper records have reported that the lifespan of these materials was rather short. However, as students were required to pony-up for a set of 15-odd Student Practice Records for each level of their A-LM courses, and as the vinyl editions would have been comparatively more expensive, the paper versions would have had the advantage of decreasing the students’ financial burden.

Ciao!

EDITED:
Typos, tinkering.
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Dieter Schmidt
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Re: A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

Postby Dieter Schmidt » Thu Dec 17, 2020 10:25 pm

A-LM® DIALOG POSTERS
(To Hellfrick)
Your cards are from the DIALOG POSTERS set that accompanied A-LM® German: Level One, © 1961 (14 booklets + Index version), 1963 (hardbound textbook version) by HB&W, Inc. The posters were first available in 1964, three years after the initial 1961 text materials were published. They were designed to aid the teacher in presenting and practicing the Basic Dialogs of each unit.* Sets were prepared in all five A-LM® languages: French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish. The specific copyright listing for the German set reads:
"A-LM, German: Level One; 30 cards illustrating the dialog situations of Units 1-14 in the textbook. Drawings by Doris Jackson. 30 col. reproductions of drawings in box. © Harcourt, Brace & World, Inc.; 25Mar64; E70815."
Below is the information for the other languages in abbreviated form (no. of cards, illustrator, copyright date):
A-LM® French • 29 cards, Kelly Oechsli, 28Aug63
A-LM® Italian • 29 cards, Barry Geller, 16Jan64
A-LM® Russian • 29 cards, Grisha Dotzenko, 31Dec63
A-LM® Spanish • 29 cards, Doris Jackson, 30Oct63
You will note that artist Doris Jackson served as illustrator for both the German and Spanish sets. Since four different people drew the posters, the styles are naturally somewhat different. Subjectively, the French posters were particularly appealing. Kelly Oechsli was a talented artist who illustrated (and occasionally wrote) children's books. In addition to the A-LM French posters, he also illustrated Sesame Street and Fraggie Rock books along with many others.
Regarding availability, I'm afraid that these poster sets have long since disappeared. When I began teaching in 1970, the French set was still in the building and I used the first several posters in teaching Unit 1 to my exploratory classes. (By that time, we were using the second edition of A-LM French® in our regular classes.) I wish now that I had grabbed that first edition set before moving on to the high school! If anyone has surviving sets from the first edition, it may be of historical as well as intrinsic interest to digitally preserve the illustrations!
Both DIALOG POSTERS and SUPPLEMENT POSTERS (vocabulary) were available for A-LM® Level One, Second Edition, but not beyond the first level. Again, they were prepared for French, German, Russian and Spanish. (There was never a second edition of A-LM® Italian. Our regional Harcourt sales rep told me that the Italian authors were satisfied with their original work and therefore opted out of a second edition project. However, given comparatively low sales numbers, the publisher may have been unwilling to finance the project.) I have the DIALOG and SUPPLEMENT POSTERS for French and the DIALOG POSTERS for German. Given the humorous style, it's possible that Mr. Oechsli prepared the French set. The more straightforward presentation of the German and Spanish sets may point to Doris Jackson as the illustrator, but I can't be certain in either case. New illustrators may have been commissioned for the Second Edition. (Please see the attached photos for samples of this second edition material.)
Regarding A-LM® TEACHER'S CUE CARDS, I will comment in a subsequent post.
By the way, since I was both a student of A-LM First Edition (French I-IV, Spanish I-II) and a teacher of A-LM Second Edition (French I-IV, Spanish I), it was always interesting for me to compare the two quite different versions of the program!

* "A set of 'Dialog Posters,' consisting of 29 two-color 17" X 22" cards on heavy cardboard, illustrating the fourteen dialog situations, has been especially prepared by the publisher." from A-LM French: Level One Teacher's Manual, © 1964, 1962, 1961 by HB&W, Inc., p. 12.
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Last edited by Dieter Schmidt on Thu Jan 21, 2021 4:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Dieter Schmidt
White Belt
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Languages: French, Spanish, a little Italian, and am studying German.
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Re: A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

Postby Dieter Schmidt » Fri Dec 18, 2020 12:29 am

Following is the description of the TEACHER'S CUE CARDS that accompanied the A-LM Level One First Edition books:
6. Drill Technique
It is obviously impossible for the teacher to keep all drill items in his head from day to day. You may wish to prepare cards with the model sentence and the cues for the drills you intend to use in any one class period. A ready-made set of "Teacher's Cue Cards," a box of 4" X 6" cards reproducing all dialogs and drills from the text, may be purchased from the publisher.
—from A-LM French: Level One Teacher's Manual, © 1964, 1962, 1961 by HB&W, Inc., p. 11.
Relabeled CUE CARDS (sans TEACHER'S... ) were also included as a supplementary component in the A-LM Levels and Two programs, Second Edition. Again, here is the description from Level Two:
CUE CARDS
The Cue Cards reproduce the Basic Materials, Vocabulary Exercises, Presentations of Structure, and Structure Drills as they appear in the annotated part of the Teacher's Edition, i.e., with responses to drills and suggested drill variations.
—from A-LM German: Level Two, Second Edition Teacher's Edition, © 1970 by HB&J, p. T5.
As a teacher, I found the Cue Cards to be a handy tool which facilitated moving around, thereby eliminating the burden of carrying a textbook.* The Cue Card sets were packaged in a small sturdy cardboard box and organized sequentially by unit, so they were indeed a very useful teacher ancillary.

* The Teacher's Editions of the Second Edition were particularly heavy and cumbersome. Teacher-only material printed on light blue paper and labeled pp. T1, T2, etc. was bound into the front part of the book. This section was followed by the complete student text with teaching annotations in red (Level One) and blue (Level Two) overprint. (See attached photos below.)
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Dieter Schmidt
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Re: A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

Postby Dieter Schmidt » Sat Dec 19, 2020 11:57 am

THE TWO VERSIONS OF THE A-LM LEVEL ONE STUDENT TEXTS, FIRST EDITION

VERSION 1: © 1961 A-LM French, German, Italian, Russian, Spanish: Level One—STUDENT TEXT MATERIALS
Format:
• A packet of fourteen separately bound units + index booklet (basically a L2 –> English dictionary of words and expressions).
• An optional red three-ring binder.
Notes:
The packaging of separate text materials is described in the Teacher’s Manual (p. 4): “The student text materials consist of fourteen units and an index bound separately so that they may be distributed one at a time, according to the progress of the class. The student receives his book unit by unit and inserts each in a loose-leaf notebook.” Teachers were advised to withhold printed material until the first three or four units were mastered audio-lingually. This approach provided for: 1. a focus on language as speech first and foremost, and 2. an opportunity for the student to "strive for something approaching mastery" of the sound system before learning to read and write previously learned material. Lessons in the supplementary "Reading-Writing-Spelling Manual" were provided as an aid to the teacher in systematically presenting the sound –> letter correspondences of the target language. When this procedure was followed, there was necessarily a gap between the material being practiced orally in class and the material being practiced graphically. For example, students would be learning Unit 4 or 5 audio-lingually while learning to read and write the material in Unit 1. In fact, it wasn’t until the publisher-prepared Unit 12 Test that this gap was finally closed and students were tested in listening, speaking, reading, and writing all the way through Unit 12. Of course, teachers were not prevented from going faster in the reading-writing-spelling lessons, or selectively doing them, or even eliminating them altogether. Some may have!

VERSION 2: © 1963 A-LM French, German, Spanish, Russian: Level One—STUDENT TEXTBOOK
Format:
• A large hardbound textbook (8 1/2" X 11") containing the contents of the STUDENT TEXT MATERIALS above.
• A special “Introduction for Teachers” (pp. vii-viii) briefly summarizing the audio-lingual approach and advising teachers to caution the students against “reading ahead” in the book.*
Notes:
In schools, it was discovered that the sequential distribution of units was both cumbersome and time consuming. Probably because of demand, the publisher made the Level One materials available in textbook format in 1963. (However, A-LM Italian: Level One was never published in textbook format.) In my high school, the French student text materials were used in the pilot classes in 1962-1963, but when the program was adopted the following year, the hardbound textbooks were purchased and the packets were relegated to the shelves. Once the program was implemented, the French teachers followed the initial exclusive audio-lingual practice and told students to store textbooks in their lockers until Unit 4 was introduced. The German teachers, however, distributed the textbooks within the first week or two and the students then practiced all four language skills—listening, speaking, reading and writing—concurrently. It is interesting to note that in the Second Edition of A-LM Level One © 1969, only Unit 1 (which introduced all elements of the L2 sound system) was to be presented audio-lingually before the students received their books. Then, after a brief overview of Unit 1, students studied Unit 2 across all four language modalities.

* “Reading ahead will not improve their achievement, but may actually create additional problems in speaking. They are likely to make pronunciation mistakes which come from reading interference. Insist on high standards of pronunciation and listen especially for examples of interference.” (p. viii)
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Dieter Schmidt
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Re: A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

Postby Dieter Schmidt » Thu Dec 24, 2020 6:56 pm

A-LM® Level One, First Edition TEACHER’S MANUALS

The A-LM® Teacher’s Manuals were published in 1961 along with the other program components: Student Text Materials, Student Practice Record Sets, Classroom/Laboratory Sets (reel-to-reel tapes and 12” records), Student Test Answer Form Booklets, and Listening Comprehension Testing Tape Sets.

The official title of the manual was “A-LM® (French): Level One Teacher’s Manual with Pronunciation Drills* and Tests.” Contents in all five languages—French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish—were subdivided into five sections: Procedures and Techniques, Pronunciation Drills, Tests: Listening Comprehension, Reading, and Writing, Test: Speaking, and Answer Key (to the Tests).

In 1962 the “Reading-Writing-Spelling Manual (Supplement to Teacher’s Manual)” was prepared in each language (except Italian) under the supervision and direction of Alfred S. Hayes (Foreign Language Consultant, Takoma Park, Maryland). This booklet provided an “expanded treatment of the role of printed or written materials in an audio-lingual foreign language course.” (p. 1)

In 1964, a second supplement was written for the French and Spanish programs only entitled “Suggestions for Lesson Plans (Supplement to Teacher’s Manual).” Later in 1964, HB&W combined all the teacher materials for these two languages into an expanded manual: “A-LM® French/Spanish: Level One Teacher’s Manual with Tests, Pronunciation Drills, Reading-Writing-Spelling Section, Suggestions for Lesson Plans, and Audio Index” (© 1964, 1962, 1961). The two new manuals, then, replaced the earlier published materials.

Teacher materials for German, Italian, and Russian were still only available separately, i.e. Teacher’s Manual, Reading-Writing-Spelling Manual (except in Italian), and Audio Index. The Audio Index was a separate 3-hole punched booklet the same size as units from the Student Text Materials packet. It was a quick guide to the physical location of all recorded dialogs and drills in the Classroom/Laboratory tape and record sets. (Note that the Audio Index was reprinted and included in the expanded © 1964 French and Spanish manuals above.)

If any of you would like more specific information on the A-LM® French, German, Italian, or Spanish manuals, please comment and I will gladly respond. Unfortunately, I have no A-LM® Russian materials.

Which A-LM® Teacher’s Manual(s) do you have in your collection?

* The Pronunciation Drills provided practice in the more difficult sounds of each language. Since the drills were intended exclusively for oral practice, the script was only contained in the Teacher’s Manual. The exercises were recorded on the first tape or record of the Classroom/Laboratory sets. Teachers could, of course, alternatively read them aloud.
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Last edited by Dieter Schmidt on Wed Jan 20, 2021 10:54 pm, edited 2 times in total.
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tangleweeds
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Re: A-LM Series by Harcourt, Brace & World Center

Postby tangleweeds » Thu Dec 24, 2020 7:54 pm

I wanted you to know how much I appreciate this kind of in-depth tour through language learning materials, especially ones that are so hard to find. I especially love it when photos are included, too. So thanks for all of the time and work you put into these posts!
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