Progressa Language Courses

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Speakeasy
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Progressa Language Courses

Postby Speakeasy » Mon Aug 14, 2017 4:20 pm

Recently, I came across a few offers on the internet (eBay, AbeBooks, Amazon, et cetera) for sets of “Progressa” self-instruction language courses that were most likely marketed in the 1950’s and 1960’s as boxed sets of twelve 7” x 33-1-3 rpm vinyl records inclusive of a bilingual course book, similar to the Assimil format of that period. Several L2 languages were available and, while it seems that German was the predominant L1 language, a few offers for partial sets are in language pairs of L1-Spanish / L2-German. https://www.abebooks.com/servlet/SearchResults?kn=Transworldia+&sortby=7&tn=PROGRESSA

One of the offers is for a complete set of records, including the course book, in the language pair of L1-German / L2-English. So far, I have been able to identify the author of this course as “Dr. Phil L. Weidner” and the publisher as “Transworldia Societe Anonyme, Lausanne” in 1957 and 1962. I have attached a photo of the course book wherein the following bizarre dialogue appears:

“Daddy, Mrs. Wood is very fat, isn’t she?
No, she is not – it only seems so to you.
What does she do to look so fat?
Go into the kitchen and eat your soup there!
Daddy, you have wrinkles on your forehead!
(Boy goes out, Mrs. Jones to her husband) Mrs. Wood really hasn’t any brains, has she?”


Using the Assimil and Cortina boxed-set courses of the period as a point of reference, I would assume that the Progressa courses were prepared (technically speaking) with similar care and that they were marketed at similar prices. However, the dialogues, as exemplified by the extract above, suggest to me that these courses rendered something of a lesser service to their students than did materials of numerous competitors. My search of the HTLAL did not reveal any information concerning these materials. Would anyone happen to know anything about this series of courses?

EDITED:
(1) Tinkering. Insertion of the relevant LINK to AbeBooks.
(2) Removal of the spaces between the lines of dialogue.
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Last edited by Speakeasy on Sat Sep 09, 2017 7:58 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Speakeasy
x 7658

Re: Progressa Language Courses

Postby Speakeasy » Sat Sep 09, 2017 7:56 pm

Resistance is Futile
Despite the decidedly unusual dialogue which appears in the Progressa English course that I reported in my initial post, and anticipating (or rather hoping) that the dialogues in this series of courses would be dependent on the individual authors, I decided to purchase a copy of the Progressa German course. Nevertheless, as a measure of precaution, I first ensured that the author of the latter was not that of the former. I was not disappointed!

The Materials
The printed materials for this series of language courses consisted of one, very solid, hardbound textbook measuring 6” x 8-1/8” containing slightly less than 500 pages of very good quality paper stock. The audio recordings were presented in a boxed-set of twelve 7-inch 33-1/3 rpm vinyl records for a total duration of approximately 2-3/4 hours. As for the standard Assimil courses, the Progressa course books were published in a variety of L2-L1 pairs while the recordings were produced in the target language only. As I have come across only a few offers of combinations of the course book and vinyl records, whereas numerous offers of the individual components exist, I suspect that the items were available for purchase separately, as was the case for Assimil, Cortina, and other publishers. The inventories of used copies of these course materials seem to be held by small bookshops and individuals who offer them for sale through the major online shopping outlets. Prices are quite low.

Approach to Teaching
The textbook begins with a brief guide for using the course and a guide to pronunciation. The target language is introduced in 100 lesson units via the presentation of short dialogues and, in the final lessons, via short extracts from classical literature. The dialogues are accompanied by a line-by-line translation which appears under each line of the dialogue. In addition, for about the first dozen lessons, an L1 phonetic representation is included. The accompanying notes are very brief, and I would say somewhat insufficient, representations of the grammatical points displayed in the dialogues. The appendix includes an L2-L1 glossary of some 3,700 words. The accompanying vinyl records contain the dialogues and literary extracts included in the 100 lesson units.

Audio Recordings
The dialogues are recorded on the accompanying vinyl records by native speakers of the target language. Two features stuck me immediately. First, rather unusual for introductory language courses, from the very first lesson, the cadence of speech is that of normal (rapid) conversation between native speakers. Second, the speakers, of which several were employed, do not seem to be voice-trained professionals. I was left with the impression that the speakers were accustomed to delivering language lessons in a classroom setting and that they were making rather nominal, and not exaggerated, attempts at articulating their speech. That is, rather than make concessions on the cadence of speech for the benefit of the beginner, not to mention over-articulated pronunciation (to the point of exaggeration as in the case of the Cortina courses), the authors chose to present the spoken language in a manner that a visitor might conceivably encounter it. Daunting, yet refreshing!

Evaluation and Recommendation
The Progressa courses seem to have been marketed in the early-to-late 1960’s and would have represented an interesting, if not superior, alternative to many other products available at that time. Somewhat surprisingly, despite the age of these courses and the inevitable changes to the language, the dialogues (in the German course) seem reasonably current. Although the cadence of speech is quite fast and despite the apparent lack of voice-training on the part of the speakers, the recordings provide an unusually good preparation for the basics of spoken German. Nevertheless, despite the genuine strengths of these materials, given the availability of more modern language courses, I would recommend that only collectors consider adding a Progressa course to their private libraries.

EDITED:
Tinkering.
Discover of, and corrections to, the inevitable typographical errors will follow.
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