Berlitz Corporation is an international corporation, one of the world leaders in the provision of foreign language teaching services. It was founded by Maximilian Berlitz in Providence ( Rhode Island , USA) in 1878 [1] . The corporation is part of the Benesse Group. It has headquarters in Princeton ( New Jersey ) and Tokyo .
| Berlitz corporation | |
|---|---|
 | |
| Type of | private company |
| Base | July 1878 Providence , Rhode Island , USA |
| Founders | Maximilian Berlitz |
| Location | Princeton , New Jersey , USA Minami Aoyama , Minato , Tokyo , Japan |
| Key figures | Mark Harris ( CEO ) |
| Industry | foreign language teaching, linguistic services |
| Parent company | Benesse corporation |
| Affiliated companies | and |
| Site | berlitz.com |
Presented in more than 70 countries of the world [1] [2] .
The company employs more than 20 thousand teachers and employees [1] .
Content
History
Professor Maximilian Berlitz (1852-1921) immigrated to the United States from Germany, where he was born and lived, in 1869. The amount of money that he had with him was very small [3] .
By that time he was already an experienced teacher of a foreign language. In the United States, he was just about to find a job as a teacher of several languages, which he owned [4] .
In 1878, Berlitz opened his first small school of foreign languages in Providence in Rhode Island in 1878 [5] . The training was conducted standardly, according to the “grammar + translation” method - the only one that Berlitz knew [4] [6] .
And then one day, as the “official story” says, he placed an advertisement for hiring a French teacher and received a number of letters from applicants. Choosing a young man named Nicolas Joly, whose letter was written just splendidly, he was very disappointed when, in person, he found out that he did not speak English at all. But it so happened that it was then that Berlitz fell ill from processing. There was no longer any opportunity to look for another replacement. Berlitz left the school in Zholy, ordering him to use a pointer for explanations and try to somehow get out. As a result, Berlitz fell ill for six weeks, and when he returned, expecting the worst, he saw that the students had made very strong progress, spoke French very quickly and with a very good accent. Progress was more than if he continued to teach himself. So Berlitz came up with a teaching method based on the following principles: no translation, a minimum of grammar, the language is studied purely by means of pleasant communication in an environment suitable for this [4] . His method, unique at that time, quickly became popular [3] .
By 1900, about 70 Berlitz schools were opened in the United States, France, England and Germany [7] .
For a quarter century, by 1914, a network of language schools under the Berlitz brand peaked in popularity. The franchise already included more than 200 schools in the UK, Germany and the USA [5] .
In 2014, more than 550 Berlitz schools operate in more than 70 countries around the world [5] .
Berlitz Method
At that time, Berlitz’s methodology was innovative. Training was built and is based on the following principles he invented:
- emphasis in training is on oral speech;
- teachers never translate;
- in the class they speak only the language being studied;
- the teacher is always a native speaker;
- the teacher is enthusiastic and enjoys interacting with students [5] .
This method of teaching invented by Berlitz is called the “direct method” [5] .
Moreover, according to Howette and Widdowson, Berlitz was not a methodologist, he created materials and language assignments for his “direct method” by systematizing and reorganizing existing standard basic materials for studying foreign languages into his method [5] .
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 The Decoded Company: Know Your Talent Better Than You Know Your Customers . - Penguin Publishing Group, February 20, 2014. - P. 133–. - ISBN 978-0-698-15215-1 . , chapter "Berlitz: The Tower of Babel"
- ↑ About Berlitz . Benesse Company. Date of treatment December 8, 2015.
- ↑ 1 2 Benjamin J. Patterson. Ethnic Groups USA . - Xlibris Corporation, 2008. - P. 69–. - ISBN 978-1-4363-3354-2 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 Garon Wheeler. Language Teaching Through the Ages . - Routledge, 2013. - P. 141–. - ISBN 978-0-415-65789-1 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 The Handbook of English Pronunciation . - Wiley, April 28, 2015. - P. 99–. - ISBN 978-1-118-34680-8 .
- ↑ Kirsten M. Hummel. Introducing Second Language Acquisition: Perspectives and Practices . - Wiley, December 16, 2013 .-- P. 113–. - ISBN 978-1-118-58802-4 . chapter 5.1.3 “the Direct Method”
- ↑ HH Stern. Fundamental Concepts of Language Teaching: Historical and Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Applied Linguistic Research . - OUP Oxford, 24 March 1983. - P. 15–. - ISBN 978-0-19-437065-3 .
Links
- berlitz.com - official Berlitz website
- Japanese official website (jap.)
- Berlitz Corporation: Private Company Information - Businessweek
- Corporations: The Language Merchants - Time , June 21, 1963