6/13/13 Welcome to English Through Pictures

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*English Through Pictures:Book 1 and A First Workbook of English

*English Through Pictures:Book 2 and A Second Workbook of English

*English Through Pictures: Book 3

byI.A. Richards & Christine M. Gibson

Pippin Publishing, Toronto, Canada 2005

* Reproduced from volumes held in the Language Research, Inc.Collection, Monroe C. Gutman Library, Special Collections,

Harvard Graduate School of Education. Copyrights have beenassigned to Harvard University.

6/13/13 English Through Pictures

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The three pocketbooks comprising the English Through Pictures series are the remarkableinvention of I.A. Richards and Christine Gibson, who designed them to help the learner speak, read

and write World English in the quickest and clearest possible way - through pictures.

The authors have made a careful selection of the most widely useful English words, choosing those

with the power to define other words, and have put them to work in key patterns that offer the

learner the ability to communicate successfully in World English. Book 1 contains a vocabulary of

250 such words, with an additional 500 developed in Book 2; these 750 words are then used in

Book 3 to build a command of 1000 words which, by their defining power, hold the possibility of

understanding as much as another 20,000 words of World English.

Throughout English Through Pictures, responsibility for language learning is placed directly on thelearner, who from the very start enjoys the ability to put essential words to work creating key

sentence patterns where meaning is clearly shown in pictures. These simplified drawings allow

learners to focus on the sentence and to enjoy growing confidence as they successfully take control

of language, with the workbooks in Books 1 and 2 challenging and reinforcing their growing

competence as both speakers and readers. Motivated and inspired, learners will soon find to their

delight that fluent communication in World English - the common language of today's world - lieswell within their grasp.

English Through Pictures has already been used successfully alone or in combination with other

English language programs by millions of learners in more than forty countries.

English Through Pictures: Book 1 and A First Workbook of English

ISBN 0-88751-111-2 • 272 Pages • $15.00 CDN / $12.95 US

English Through Pictures: Book 2 and A Second Workbook of EnglishISBN 0-88751-113-9 • 336 Pages • $15.00 CDN / $12.95 US

English Through Pictures: Book 3

ISBN 0-88751-115-5 • 256 Pages • $15.00 CDN / $12.95 US

Order these three titles as a set: $39.95 CDN / $35.00 US

TO ORDERPippin Publishing

P.O. Box 242, Don Mills, Ontario M3C 2S2

Telephone (416) 510-3359

e-mail: cynthia@pippinpub.com

www.pippinpub.com

or from Pippin’s distributor, University of Toronto Press

Telephone (416) 667-7791 or 1-800-565-5923

Fax (416) 667-7832 or 1-800-221-9985

e-mail: utpbooks@utpress.utoronto.ca

6/13/13 Uses and Users

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Reasons For The Success

Right from the beginning, learners have a book at hand which they canquickly make their own

They take charge of their learning by setting their own pace inmastering each page and by testing themselves at every stage

They focus on the 850 to 1000 most widely - useful words in English.These have the power to define other words so another 20,000 wordscan be understood

They develop a command of a World English, now the commonlanguage of over 2.2 billion persons

World English provides a base for entry into all other forms of English(English for schools and universities; spoken English for other cultures;English for science and technology; English for the workplace; Englishas a foreign language; All those diverse settings where a command ofEnglish is essential)

Learners can attain mastery of World English on their own whilemoving at the same time into other forms of English

6/13/13 Uses and Users

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USES AND USERS (Notes based on ETP files, 1955-2012)

General

The greatest number of users have been those who wanted to read and write English to meet specific needs

and who had limited access to instruction or self-teaching materials. The three pocketbooks supplied starting

points for persons, on their own, and in their own time, to go out in different directions as their different

interests took them. The pocketbooks have been essential beginnings to help find work, as steps on the way to

education in all its forms, for business, travel or better living and for an English that could open a window to a

wider outlook and contact with the world.

Specific Examples

1. A personal schoolbook. For millions the pocketbooks became possessions providing a key to

understand themselves and the English milieu in which they were living. The pocketbooks have beenused by persons as young as five years of age and through Continuing Education programs,even beyond

seventy-five. Learning to learn gave them a basis for seeing what should come before what, when and in

what order, how what comes next has been supported by all that has come before and makes ready for

all that is to come later. In "English as a Second or Alternative Language" classrooms, the pocketbooks

gave a foundation to enter into spoken English and to better understand complexities of language. For

many the pocketbooks were often the escape out of failure and frustration with other instructionalmaterials. Taken home, the pocketbooks became something to be shared with family and others wanting

English. They often became the passport for many to understand schools and a new culture.

2. Meeting immigration requirements where English is an official language. The pocketbooks have

been used by thousands to prepare for immigration application and as a foundation for meeting specific

standards of English proficiency.

3. Passing English Language Proficiency (ELP) examinations in countries where English is an

official language. Passing the examination is required for employment in the public service (eg.India) orin unification programs where English is to become the official language (eg.South Sudan). ETP has

again been a foundation on which the particular variations of English can be built.

4. Meeting demands for understanding the English employed in science and technology, higher

education, business and transportation. Pocketbooks have built competencies of "a language within a

language" whereby complex terms can be defined and be better understood. Book 3, particularly, has

often been used as a dictionary for clarifying meanings.

5. Increasing readability and understanding of operations and safety manuals in the

workplace,military and public services. Mastery of vocabulary in the three books has led to

reworking of thousands of manuals to provide better understanding of regulations and procedures.

Results included an increase in productivity and a reduction in accidents. They have also been used as a

blueprint or design for recordings, sound motion pictures and television.

6/13/13 Uses and Users

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6. Increasing effectiveness of development assistance programs. The pocketbooks have been used for

Basic Education programs and where an understanding of English is critical in providing clean water,food and shelter. Thousands and thousands have used the pocketbooks as a launching pad for entrance

to education when no other opportunities for learning were available. Once a learner had succeeded in

one book it was passed to others who continued to share until the books were in tatters. The

pocketbooks appear to transcend culture barriers and have been found to enhance literacy in local

languages.

6/13/13 World English

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Current World Status of English

English is now found in all countries of the world with over 2.2 billion people having competencies in thelanguage in varying levels of proficiency

English is the second most commonly used language in the world (next to Mandarin)

Native English speakers-about 370 million-are now outnumbered by those coming to English as a second oralternative language

English is the dominant language globally in telephone communication, science and technology, commercialtravel and business, book publishing and second language instructional programs

English is the language of the Internet even in China where over 84% use the language

English is used in over 95% of transactions among members of the European Union and throughout theCommonwealth

The Emergence of a Universal Language of Communication

Of 1.2 billion “successful transactions” undertaken globally, over 74% used only a vocabulary of between 800and 1000 words

This language within a language is being described now as a World English to distinguish it from a moreculturally-specific “standard” or “complete” English

The simplification used in World English is aimed directly at improving communication particularly acrosscultural lines - essentially increasing the odds whereby persons can be understood and can understand others

Successful communication is always a triumph against odds. Use of a “defining” vocabulary of 800 to 1000words simply reduces the odds and provides an instrument for communication among persons from everycountry of the world

Amazingly this international auxiliary language was first discovered in the early 1920’s and it is only now that are-discovery seems to be taking place

6/13/13 World English

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World English and its uses

1923 saw the publication by C.K. Ogden and I.A. Richards Meaning of Meaning: A Study of the Influenceof Language upon Thought and the Science of Symbolism

Ogden made the brilliant discovery that with a carefully worked out system consisting of 850 words and therules for their use it was possible to have an international auxiliary language. Everything in English could be saidusing these 850 words.

The main characteristic of World English is its power in clarifying meanings and improving humancommunication and understanding

Richards moved into the design of self-instructional materials with the publication of English Self TaughtThrough Pictures in 1939; the approach was aimed at touching off an organic process to human languagelearning whereby learners took responsibility for their own learning with increasing control of language andthought

World English provides a base or common stem on which all other forms of English can be mounted (Englishfor college and universities; English as a foreign language; English for the work place; all those diverse settingswhere competence in English is required)

As Users of World English grow in individual competence they can enter any other form of English at the sametime.

For more information seeRichards, I.A. "So Much Nearer, Essays Toward a World English", Harcourt, Brace and World Inc.New york, 1966

6/13/13 Language Learning

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Richards perceived that language has to be learned, as it were, “growing through what it has been already.” “The

ordering in which events take place” is decisive both for the immediate as well as the furthest consequence.

Richards saw a “close organic connection” between all phases of language development. The beginning student

encounters many of the stumbling blocks that he will eventually have to face in complex literature, or indeed in

anything. How parts relate to wholes, perceptual and analytical paradigms, distinguishing the similar from the same,the feelings of reward, these all sink into the “unremembered process” that began in infancy: “Tricks, traits, habits,

formed earlier continue to persist and display themselves through new material. Thus certain ways of guessing atwords-regardless of their companions-recur as ways of guessing at meanings-regardless again of their companions.

And attendant incuriosities as to what went wrong and inabilities to consider [what went wrong] remain also. One

should trace these habits to their source in childhood, when there is less clutter in the mind and when error can be

dealt with preventatively. Furthermore, one should articulate a method that will start the learner off right and impressself-correcting mechanisms upon him.

Richards realized that the mistakes of pupils were compounded by mistakes of teachers and school organizations

themselves. Teachers often blamed their problems on the low I.Q.’s or board scores or bad behavior of their

students. Richards thought that pedagogical method and textbooks were also to blame. Frequently enough, the

learner did not know what to look for in these books and was stymied by false starts and lack of logic. “Helplessnessbefore the unintelligible,” that is Richards’ phrase, according to A.R. MacKinnon, for the “prime obstacle” to learning

at both early and advanced stages. As soon as distraction and fatigue set in, the learner begins to incorporate his own

errors and bad habits into performance. Learner motivation should not be something that comes and goes. It must be

a constant factor, and hence it became one of Richards’ major preoccupations. His empathic understanding of the

pupil’s situation is far removed from Whitehead, who said: “If it were easy, the book ought to be burned; for it cannotbe educational.” This amused Richards. Modern subjects are difficult enough without adding the “wrong kinds of

difficulty”-for example, “randomness,” “accidental absences of intelligibility,” and false “interest” baits that eventually

prove distracting.

The essence of Richards on the learning process concentrates itself into a single principle of “preparation” or

“growth”: “we learn through what we have learned,” with the corollary and how we have learned it. Behind this

principle lies Coleridge’s concept of “progressive transition” from the theory of method; but also the evolutionism,

organicism, and vitalism in nineteenth and early twentieth-century science and theories of culture. In essay after essay

Richards speaks of the essentially “organic” nature of his programs: “what follows depends on what has come before

and in turn protects, confirms it, and illuminates it. With the principle of preparation, it is easy to see why his practicalemphasis fell on the earlier stages of the learning programs. Here the pupil is at his most helpless, having to make all

sorts of intellectual and imaginative leaps in quick succession to find a way in: here he is most in need of exact

guidance. But he is possibly at his most interested in these stages, and one should not fail to capitalize on this interest.

The pupil could overcome difficulties with a high probability of success if the design inculcates lessons of intellectual

acumen and logical choice at the same time as it presents the actual content to be learned.

6/13/13 Language Learning

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What kind of lessons? Essentially the kind that can be demonstrated in and through language: perceptual and

intellectual comparison, analogy, opposition, ordering. Richards was always most concerned with the modes by

which language organizes, and is organized by, intellectual processes and represents outer reality. A given utterance,

language, thought, and reality were orders of increasing complexity: “What can be encoded [in a given utterance] is a

selection only from the resources of language (which again makes its selection from the larger resources of thought.)

Learning to read, and write, or learning another language, gives the pupil a second or third chance to review the ways

and means governing the selection and organization of thought. Ideally, the pupil annexes a “power of control and

check” upon his mental habits and gains a new means of examining and comparing them. He reviews “at another

tempo and in another form and for the first time the miracles he has been accomplishing fleetingly in speech.”

The central principle of preparation and five practical rules directed approach to both endeavors: economy,intelligibility, sequencing, contiguity programming, and audio-visual interplay.

6/13/13 How it Works!

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Step 1 makes readyfor the next step.

Step 2 makes clearsteps 1 and 2.

Steps 3 and 4 make clear locations in time andspace.

Next

6/13/13 How it Works!

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Line drawings foreach situation makethe sentence clear.

The drawings areabout people and

things anywhere inthe world.

Next

6/13/13 How it Works!

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A small number ofwords work time and

again.

The small numberlimits the load on

memory.

Next

6/13/13 How it Works!

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850 words can make 20,000 words clearer.

Next

6/13/13 How it Works!

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Anything in English can be made clearer by use of 850-1000 words that define other words.

THE LORD'S PRAYER IN WORLD ENGLISH

Loving God in heaven,may your name be kept holy.

Let your kingdom come.Let your pleasure be done,as in heaven, so on earth.

Give us this day bread for our needs.And make us free of our debts,

as we have made free those who are in debt to us.And let us not be put to the test,

but keep us safe from the Evil One.Start

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Pippin Publishing CorporationP.O. Box 242Don Mills OntarioCanada M3C 2S2 Telephone: (416) 510-2918 Toll free 1-888-889-0001(continent-wide)Fax: (416) 510-3359e-mail: cynthia@pippinpub.com

Thursday, June 13, 2013

New!

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GAMES LANGUAGE PEOPLE PLAYWritten by: Jerry Steinberg