LANGUAGE TEACHING/LEARNING VIA RADIO: ENGLISH
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Also known as the President of the Brighter English League Edwin Samuel was appointed the director of broadcasting,PBS, June 1, 1945 Click here to see articles and transcripts on and by Edwin Samuel that appeared in Hagalgal1944-1948
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Edwin Samuel, the son of Herbert Samuel, the first High Commissioner of Palestine, 1920-1925, developed a series of 24 weekly talks, two series of 12 talks each, entitled "Let's Speak English". They were broadcast on PBS from 1937 to 1939. He gave the talks under the pseudonym of the President of the "Brighter English League." Following the broadcasts, a set of four booklets were printed, each with transcripts of six of the previous broadcasts, plus the outlines of each program. The outlines, a one-page list of the vocabulary/phrases that would taught in each broadcast, could be bought separately by writing to the "president" before each broadcast, to make learning easier.
Initially 4 broadcasts were planned, but these proved so successful that the number of programs was increased to 12. What later became the first series of weekly lectures was broadcast by PBS on Wednesday evenings from 9:00 pm till 9:15 pm. The first broadcast in the series was aired on December 15, 1937.
The eleventh lecture in the series was scheduled to be broadcast on February 23, 1938. Unfortunately on that day, Edwin Samuel's taxi was involved in a serious car accident in which his driver was killed and his wife and his sister-in-law were all injured. The program was back on the air, a week later, March 2, on a new time of 9:30 pm till 9:45 pm. and the last of the twelve lectures was broadcast March 9, 1938.
A new series of 12 weekly 15-minutes broadcasts , scheduled for Monday evenings, started on June 5, 1939. The last talk of the series was broadcast on August 21, 1939.
