The pages of these three wonderful volumes take us from single, to few, to multiple concepts of language, giving at length into narratives calling for comprehension and expansion by the learner. From June 13, 1962 Frontier College diary entry: Basic English class extremely good today...eager and wide awake...gave them a test. I would be pleased to be associated with the Basic English project, which I used on my summer “gang” 1958. I also used English Through Pictures in Venezuela winter 1996. In 1952 I was with the earliest teachers to meet the Canadian Citizenship Council information representative for English Through Pictures and related versions of Basic. As Field Supervisor of Frontier College during the 1960s I found the Basic English text titled English Through Pictures an extremely useful tool for our labourer teachers. In 1949 a Basic English text with manual came into my hands, which assured my success as a young labourer teacher with Frontier College among 100 gang workers, Hornepayne.
Four principles motivate designers of a universal language: to develop a lingua franca which communicates ideas without ambiguity; to reduce the potential for conflict; to be readily understood for practical business purposes; to be easily learned. Basic English was developed specifically to meet these objectives, with inherent self study elements. Basic English is a system of 850 words, designed so that each consecutive syntax pattern is constructed on the previous one, in meaningful context through pictures. A version of Basic English was developed at Harvard University by I.A. Richards and Christine M. Gibson. Titled English Through Pictures, learners are soon able to speak and write their thoughts with ease, with fully correct English word order. This learning system has been applied to French, Spanish and ten other languages. Literacy and Second Language Learning Following years of international experimentation, English Through Pictures was used in 1941 by the American military extensively in training, while “Caterpillar English” of Caterpillar Inc. was used to upgrade the literacy levels of its employees. In Canada, versions of the system in both English and French were widely distributed, to meet the language learning needs of many thousands of new Canadians. Advanced Use of Basic Designed for self study, there is nevertheless a Guide available in order to assist professional and lay teachers for institutional and community use, and for mentors. |
