Dr. Paul Pimsleur was a professor of applied linguistics, who, during the '60s, created an innovative methodology for teaching foreign languages in the most natural way possible.
The Pimsleur Method is focused on conversation, thus shifting the attention to the sounds of words and sentences in the target language, rather than their spelling.
Mental images are widely used in order to create long-lasting associations that will allow learners to easily retrieve concepts from their memory.
The Spaced Repetition Technique is another pillar of this methodology: the material introduced in a unit is repeated in later ones, thus reinforcing it. Reminding the learner about new words at constantly increasing intervals allows the new notions to be moved from the short-term into the long-term memory.
Michel Thomas was a polyglot linguist, who served in the French Resistance during WWII, was captured by the Nazis, survived internment in several concentration camps, and ended up working with the U.S. Army Counter Intelligence Corps. After the war, he emigrated to the United States, where he developed a language-teaching system known as the Michel Thomas Method.
Keeping the students in a relaxed state of mind, as well as focused and engaged, constitutes the core of the method.
Words and short expressions are gradually introduced via the student's mother language. The chosen contents are the most common elements (called building blocks) of the target language. The gradual introduction of new concepts allows the student to master the basics before moving onto more complex structures. A feeling of constant successful achievement is guaranteed.
Also, the use of cognates (words with common etymological origin) facilitates linking of expressions in the target language with their equivalents in the student's native one.
Maximilian D. Berlitz was a linguist, who, starting in 1878, founded the Berlitz Language schools.
The method he developed is characterized by a conversational approach that encourages the students to learn the target language in the same way that they learned their first, by listening, repeating, and speaking.
The direct method, preferred by this approach to second language learning, implies the use of the target language only and assumes that the students will be able to understand grammatical rules from the input language provided, without having to explain them overtly.
The effectiveness of the methodology is based on the elimination of any translation, so that the student is forced to think directly in the target language.
