Notes by the Webmaster:
Learning the English Language is a pamphlet, 8-1/2" x 11", 32 pages each of Book One through Book Four.
This is a wartime publication. Thousands of Allied airmen and sailors were taught an introduction to
English when the came to the United States and Canada to pickup aircraft, ships, and other equipment.
The intent was to be able to communicate with their instructors, learn how to operate and maintain lend-lease ships, planes, guns, etc. and to understand the instruction manuals. There were recordings, wall charts, films and such aids that are now mostly lost.
These wartime training developments gradually evolved through a series of steps into the English Through Pictures book series we have today. Steps as best I can tell were :
Learning Basic English, 1945, an excellent handbook (8"x10", without pictures) . and the public paperback market Pocket Book of Basic English that introduced stick figures, also 1945, ; this lead to English Through Pictures I & II, 1957 ; to be jointed by First Steps in Reading English, 1957 ; There were separate workbooks ;English Through Pictures, I, II & III, 1965 ; English Through Pictures and a Workbook of English, I, II, & III, 1972 ; and English Through Pictures, Book 1 and First Workbook of English, plus Book Two, and Book Three, 2005.
These are all further described and linked from page "texts".
English Language Research, Inc is a corporation set up by I. A. Richards (1893-1979) of Cambridge while teaching at Harvard to publish his efforts in Basic English. It continues with several generations of Learning the English Language and related Workbooks directed towards education agencies. Christine Gibson
joined in preparation of these works. Her name is on those from 1945 and after. Hint : when searching online for these works, look for key words "Christine Gibson", because I.A. Richards published dozens of books on literature, poetry and criticism that will clutter the search results, whereas Gibson's name is only on those books intended for teaching Basic English.
Basic Picture Talks , also 1942, by L.W. Lockhart, Ogden's assistant, prepared the first Basic English textbook that includes drawings for the words. Primarily of words, the pictures help make the text clear. Whereas Richards' works start with picture icons and adds the name of the object and its use in building sentences.
Pamphlet, 8-1/2" x 11", 32 pages
