WEEKLY ACTIVITIES REPORT

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-06363A000300010019-1
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: S
• Document Page Count: 3
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 17, 2000
• Sequence Number: 19
• Publication Date: May 14, 1971
• Content Type: MF

Approved For Re~le~se 2002/06/17: CIA-RDP78-06363AQ,Q,p300010019-~
-JCL ~_4
l~+ May 1971
MEMORANDUM FOR: Director of Training
SUBJECT Weekly Activities Report
1. Since the Language School has moved to its new quarters, we
25X1A9a have made much greater use of the OTR Visual Aids Branch than was the
case when we were in Rosslyn. Our Department Chiefs now have frequent
contact with where before they had virtually none. We would
like to compliment the graphics people on the enthusiasm and helpful-
25X1A9a ness with which the have res onded to our requests for visual aids.
who constitute asub-committee for
universally applicable training aids for the Language School, have
made a great many demands on the time and talent of the artists across
the street - and they have consistently given us complete cooperation
and imaginative, professional products.
2. After visit to the Monterey language school
of the DLI, I invited the West Coast Commandant, Colonel Kibbey Horne,
to visit us here. Since he will be in town next week to attend the
DLI's conference on audio software, he will spend Monday afternoon at
the Language School. Colonel Horne is a respected linguist as well
as the manager of the largest language training effort in the country,
so we expect that discussions with him will be fruitful.
25X1A9a 3? , vice-chairman for OTR in this year's Savings
Bond Drive, reports encouraging results from the first week's
canvassing, with the Language School and ISS leading in the number
of positive responses. An interesting sidelight is the fact that
Savings Bonds seem to be getting some competition from the Voluntary
Investment Program. At any rate, according to some keymen, a number
of employees are giving their intention to join VIP as the reason
for not initiating or increasing payroll deductions for savings
bands .
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4. On 7 May a group of 29 cadets, members of the Russian and
Chinese language clubs at West Point, visited Headquarters where
they met informally with a panel of analysts in the USSR and China
fields. Dr. Edward. Proctor, the new DD~I, and Bruce Clarke, Jr.,
Director of OSR, participated for brief periods in the question-and-
answer session which lasted. most of the morning. 25X1A9a
Chief of the Slavic Department at LS, attended to answer ques ions
that might be asked about language training. The cadets showed. a
lively interest in the Agency language training program and, particularly
in the question of language qualifications as related to the recruit-
ment of new employees .
5 , atte nde d
the Sou heas on erence on inguis zcs mee ings - y at the
University of Maryland.. Most of the discussion concerned. the supposed
speech areas of the brain and the neural networks involved in speech
acquisition. Leading psycholinguists, psychologists, and physicians
participated in the forum.
6. Last week the Testing Branch concluded a workshop on
language proficiency testing. The sessions were conducted in small
groups to assure maximum participation by the testers. Besides
discussing the definitions of proficiency levels, the following
general points were agreed upon:
a. that proficiency levels should be assigned the same
interpretation, regardless of the difficulty of the language
for an English speaker.
b. that grammar and vocabulary should contribute equally
to a rating; pronunciation and fluency carry somewhat less
weight.
c. that the assignment of a proficiency level is not a
prediction of the success an individual will have in his job;
it is only an evaluation of his ability to speak a language.
d. that '?putting ideas across" is not the only relevant
criterion for a proficiency rating; certain structural require-
ments must be met by the candidate as well.
e. that the numbers 1-5 will be used internally in LS to
identify proficiency levels instead. of the adjectives which
were formally used.
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7 our chief Swedish instructor, attended a
conference on Scandinavian studies held last week in Kentucky. She
had an opportunity to meet several of the leading scholars in the
field, including Professor Einar Haugen of Harvard. who wrote most of
the materials we use in Norwegian. She also had a chance to look
over new teaching materials that had been published in Swedish and
Norwegian during the last year.
8. This week the Testing Branch tested an employee who claimed
proficiency in Amharic. Because we d.o not have a testing capability
in the language and. the examinee could not go to the Foreign Service
Institute for cover reasons, the test candidate rated himself by means
of our newly-developed, self-evaluation questionnaire. We supplemented
the questionnaire by a controlled test in which questions were asked
in English to elicit responses in .Amharic. The recorded test was then
sent to FSI to be rated. The rating that the examinee gave himself
was close enough to the rating that he received from the FSI to
strengthen our confidence in the questionnaire system.
g. Language School Statistics:
Students and Classes as of the week of 3 - 7 May 1971:
Students Classes
Full-time - 88 Full-time - 38
Part-time - 166 (~+5 BAHLT) Part-time - 56 ( 8 BAHLT)
(69 Hqs?) (13 Hqs.)
TOTAL.....25~+ TOTAL.....9~-
Laboratory hours for the week of 3 - 7 May 1971:
Language School - 206
Headquarters - 4~
25X1A9a Acting Chief, Language School
There were 32 proficiency tests given during the week of
3 - 7 May 1971?
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