Linguaphone History

Established in 1901, Linguaphone is the world leader in the field of languages. We provide a range of over 100 products, in 32 languages, in 60 countries. We provide language courses for people to progress from beginner to expert proficiency levels. We also have an extensive network of assisted learning centers worldwide. In our 100+ years of experience, Linguaphone has helped over 100 million people worldwide, including academics from top universities, multi-national corporations, leading statesmen, and royalties—to learn or improve a new language.

Linguaphone was the pioneer of self-study language learning. We were the first to recognize the potential of combining the traditional written course with audio recordings (back when audio recordings had just been invented!) . Linguaphone courses allow language learners to study at their own pace using books and original recordings supported by Linguaphone's proven methodology: 'Listen, Understand, Speak'.

In both its self-study programs and its assisted learning centers, Linguaphone has played a dominant role in language-learning across the globe ever since.

Linguaphone was founded by Jacques Roston, a translator and language teacher who emigrated from Poland, at that time part of Russia, at the turn of the century and set up his business in London, England.

Roston was one of the first pioneers to recognize the potential for language teaching of Edison’s invention of sound recording (1877) and Alexander Graham Bell’s development of wax cylinders (1888). The first Linguaphone courses, then on cylinders, combined authentic native speech with illustrated texts, which also incorporated vocabularies and grammatical notes. By adding to the range of languages and skillfully promoting the distinctive Linguaphone name, Roston created a new and intriguing product of wide appeal both to the home-study hobbyist and the growing number of travelers. With the arrival of flat records, the gramophone came of age, and with it Linguaphone’s opportunity to reach out to a wider public.

Mr. Roston and his family acted as their own photographic models for the first Linguaphone brochure in 1925. We see them grouped around the gramophone in their sitting room, Jaques Roston, the Linguaphone founder, is seen in a classic pose, comfortable in his armchair, listening to one of his own courses.

Mr. Roston maintained his keen interest in all developments associated with the gramophone. He promoted the Linguaphone "Repeater", designed especially to help Linguaphone students to position the tone arm of the gramophone precisely on the correct groove without having to lift it manually.  The "Solophone" - which enabled students to listen through earphones without disturbing the rest of the household - was another new device. Linguaphone even offered their own brand of three-tone gramophone needles to vary the loudness of sound as required.

Linguaphone has always been involved in the use of new technology as an essential aid to language learning. From those very first sound recordings and the invention of the gramophone, we have followed all advancements through cassettes, videos, CDs, CD-Roms, and now the internet, to ensure that we give our students the best advantage in language learning.

Mr. Roston's preoccupation with language teaching methods also never flagged. In 1927 he published a new monthly journal "The Linguist" and contributed to it a history of language teaching ideas from the ancients, through Comenius to modern theorists. It is in the second issue of this journal that a Linguaphone advertisement appeared which contains the following definitive description of the Linguaphone Method:

"A Linguaphone course is composed of a series of records dealing with everyday subjects, situations and needs. Whenever you have a moment to spare you slip one of these records on your gramophone and follow, in a special pictorial textbook, the speaking of a cultured native teacher. The textbook contains, side by side with the printed text, composite pictures illustrating the various persons objects and actions described in the text. With the aid of these pictures you learn to associate the appearance of things with the appropriate word-sounds. This is the truly natural way of learning a language, the way you first, as a child, learned your own mother tongue. The results of this method are astonishing. Under this tireless tutor, mastery becomes easy. Quite soon you find yourself able to speak fluently, to understand others and also to read and write correctly. A course gives you a vocabulary of about 2,500 words, and in two or three months you find you have acquired a sound practical knowledge of the language, with correct accent and pronunciation."

Mr Roston's 70th birthday in 1945 was marked by the Linguaphone staff presenting him with a bust of himself sculpted by Jacob Epstein. The following year Mr Roston started the Linguaphone League with its motto "Let the nations understand one another". Members carried on a lively correspondence, went on foreign holiday courses, formed language circles, attended foreign films together, arranged exchange visits and received the quarterly Linguaphone League Magazine. Mr. Roston died in 1947.

Linguaphone has always had close ties to the academic world. Jacques Roston, the founder, was advised by distinguished scholars in the field of languages. In 1967, Linguaphone’s relationship with the academic world was formalized with the appointment of an Academic Advisory Committee. Collectively the committee provides wide specialist knowledge and great depth of experience.


Looking to the Future

Global leadership in making learning languages even easier—that is our desire and our quest. In fact, “Languages made Easy” has become our company motto. The development of our current line of products and services reveals a broad range of effective and varied language learning resources:

• Daily Online Service.  A unique, award winning and stimulating way of improving your language abilities via an online news service that gives you daily practice in French, Spanish, or English.
• Next-generation Complete language courses (in French, Spanish, and English),
• New allTalk language courses (in French, German, Italian, and Spanish) for those wanting to make the most of their free time while "on the go" (or perhaps stuck in a traffic jam!), provide an innovative approach to hands-free learning.
• Our excellent PDQ basic language courses, for learning the basics "pretty darn quick."
• New In-Action CD-rom course, is a resource for visual interactive learning on your computer.

Linguaphone will continue to seek to provide the learner with a range of complimentary options for online and off-line study.

Combining the unparalleled success of the Linguaphone method with an unrivalled reputation and a range of excellent and complementary products and services—Linguaphone has become an industry benchmark for quality and reliability and an essential business resource.

It is our belief that an 'Assisted Learning' approach is the way forward. By combining the interaction and support provided by language schools and online materials with the high standards and flexible methodology of self-study programs, our students have the perfect combination of resource and motivation to achieve and surpass the level of language proficiency they desire. Linguaphone has established an impressive network of 68 assisted learning centers around the world, with an annual enrollment of just under 35,000 learners!

Our aim is to be the most successful provider of quality self-study and assisted learning programs in the world. After 100 years of success, Linguaphone enters the new century well-positioned to enhance its enviable reputation for providing high quality language learning solutions via the internet, at home, in schools, and at work.

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