Maximillian D.

Berlitz

This paper deals with the foremost figure of linguistic and his Berlitz Method

applied in his institutions over the world. He was born 14th of April 1852, died in 6th of

April 1921. David Berlitzheimer was born and raised in the Black Forest region of

Germany, a descendant of a long line of teachers and mathematician, and always had

fascination with languages. He studied many languages including the major Romance

languages, several Scandinavian and Slavic languages, Latin and Greek. Most reports

agree that Maximillian Berlitz began his American career in Providence, Rhod Island, as

a private language teacher and soon began to work at the Warner Polytechnic College, of

which he became director and whose curriculum he reduced to language instruction.

There he developed a method of incorporating students into direct communication with

the language being taught. In 1878 he founded the Berlitz School in Boston, which

included courses in English for foreign students, and as international trade and the

commercial need for foreign language ability increased, his business prospered. By 1914

Berlitz schools offered classes in many languages throughout the United States, Europe,

Latin American, and Africa.

Berlitz became so famous for his teaching method that he was called on to demonstrate it

at the 1900 World's Fair in Paris and was soon in demand throughout Europe. He was

honored for teaching the Kaiser to speak English in Germany and received medals from

the king of Spain and the government of France. In 1898 he detailed his technique in The

Berlitz Method for Teaching Modern Languages and followed its publication with

teaching manuals in several languages. No details of a marriage are reported, but he was

the father of at least one child, Melicent.

1
 Outlines

1) About Maximillian D. Berlitz.

a) Nationality: American.

b) Field of study: linguistic & business.

c) Theory or method: The Berlitz method for teaching English language.

2) His important contributions:

a) The Berlitz Method for Teaching Modern Languages (1892).

b) English Literature with Extracts and Exercises (1902).

c) First Book for Teaching Modern Languages (1907).

d) Second Book for Teaching Modern Languages (1908).

e) Course in Business English (1910).

f) First Book for Teaching English (1911).

g) English Idioms and Grammar (1915).

h) German With or Without A Master (1915).

i) Second Book for Teaching English (1916).

3) Origins of the Berlitz Method:

4) The objectives of the Berlitz method.

5) The principles of the Berlitz Method.

6) Conclusion.

7) Resources.

2
2) Origins of the Berlitz Method:

According to the Berlitz Method site, Berlitz was in need of a French instructor;

he placed an ad in The New York and pleased to receive an impressive resume from a

Frenchman named Nicholas Joly. When Joly arrived in Providence, Berlitz was shocked

to discover that he barely spoke a word of English! Ill of overwork, Berlitz instructed

Joly to point at objects and describe them, acts out verbs as best as he could, make the

students repeat and answer questions. With that, Berlitz turned the French class over to

his new assistant and took to his bed, hoping for best.

Several weeks later, Berlitz returned to find animated students chattering away in

elegantly accented French…and the Berlitz Method was born! In few weeks, students had

achieved a level of proficiency far beyond what would have been possible with

traditional instruction. The original founding principles remain the core of the Berlitz

Method® today; focus on conversation first with maximum student participation, speak

only the language being taught, present objects and actions in a building-block approach,

teach grammar by example and visual demonstration, employ native-fluent instructors

and make corrections in a positive way to build students’ confidence. According to The

Modern Language Journal, Berlitz never cared to give a detailed description of his

method to the large public. He was content to improve upon it all through his life, and to

found new branches of his school system. This was perfectly in the line with his

conviction that rules and theories should not be discussed but applied and practiced.

3) Objectives of the Berlitz Method:

The objective of the Berlitz Method is the fourfold aim of understanding,

speaking, reading, and writing, with emphasis on speaking from the very beginning. In

other words, the primary objective of the method is oral communication; its secondary

objectives are reading and writing. An active (speaking) knowledge is considered

3
superior to, and more difficult to attain than, a passive (reading) knowledge. Hence the

attention of the method is centered on speaking from the very start.

4) The principles of the Berlitz Method:

According to the Berlitz Method site, even though the principles of the Berlitz

Method has been refined and enhanced by over a century, customer feedback and

learning technologies, but it still founded in its original basic principles:

a) Language is an oral phenomenon; therefore, all teaching and learning is done in

an oral context.

b) Reading and writing skills are essential, but must be preceded by and rest on oral

mastery.

c) The acquisition of oral skills involves the development of habits, both intellectual

and physical.

d) The proper mastery of language involves active student participation in all stages

of instruction.

e) With the Berlitz Method one focuses on the target language in the classroom and

in the student review materials. By total immersing the student in the new

language, we can most closely simulate the real-life situations in which he or she

will be using the language, and eliminate the cumbersome process of introducing

a concept first in the students’ language and then in the target language. The

“direct” approach (from concept to language) is the essence of the Berlitz

Method.

f) The Berlitz Method is based on a “building-block” approach. During the early

stages of instruction, primary emphasis is given to establishing basic structures

and grammatical points. Each structure is introduced and thoroughly practiced,

and serves as a foundation for new information.

4
 g) Berlitz proceeds from simple concept to complex ones, from concrete to abstract.

In the early stages, students deal with simple declarative sentences, then

questions. Only later are they expected to relative and subordinate clauses, the

people and objects in their immediate surroundings. This is then expanded to

permit them to discuss abstract relationships, feelings, emotions, conditions,

cause/effect relationship, etc.

h) All instructions have a native command of the language they teach.

The principles of his “conversational” method have been and are being handed down

through oral tradition. There has been leeway for change and improvement. The method

has thus never become a rigid system forbidding adaptation to changing conditions.

Every teacher in every lesson is working with, and at the same time at the method.

5) Conclusion:

Details of the life and work of Maximillian D. Berlitz is provided by Berlitz

International in the company’s official history, 120 Years of Excellence, although much

of its information on the life of the founder has been called into question by some

historians. The Berlitz Method represents the major American contribution to the

development of the direct method in perfect unison with the Reform Methode conceived

in Germany, la Methode directe as introduced by P.Passy in France, and F. Couin’s

psychological method. As integrated system of teaching, it goes much farther than the

natural method of G.Henness and L.Sauveur, two great reformers in their own right.

5
 Resources

 The official site of Berlitz International.

www.berlitz.com

www.jstor.com for the Modern language Journal, vol.39, no,6( oct, 1955),

pp.300-310

copyright ©2010 Soylent communications

htt://www.nndb.com/people/258/0001733/

6
 The Academy of Graduate Studies

School of Languages

English Department

Applied Linguistics

Course: Second Language Acquisition (SLA)

Berlitz Method

Prepared by: Kamal Ali Hassan Balloot

Instructed by: Dr. John Harrington
Summer 2010