LETTER TO ADMIRAL STANSFIELD TURNER FROM WESLEY W. POSVAR
Document Type:
Collection:
Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST):
CIA-RDP84B00890R000800060034-9
Release Decision:
RIPPUB
Original Classification:
K
Document Page Count:
4
Document Creation Date:
December 15, 2016
Document Release Date:
June 23, 2004
Sequence Number:
34
Case Number:
Publication Date:
January 6, 1981
Content Type:
LETTER
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ROUTING AND
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DDA SUSPENSE: 19 January 1981
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DCI PERSONAL CORRESPONDENCE LOG/INTERNAL ROUTING SLIP
NOTE: RETURN TO WRITER FOR CONTROL/REROUTING/FILE
CLASSIFICATION:. UNCLAS
'JED FROM: Dr. Wesley W. Posvar, Chancellor, Univ. of
Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, PA 15260
ZUB~ECT' Forwards info on language training methods at
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DATEoOFCOR ..RESPONDENCEryyIDATE RECEIVED [INCOMING SERIAL NUMBER
6 Jan 81 9Jan_8.1
REPLY REQUIRED ROUTING CODES
I ? INFORMATION
"A" - ACTION /
"R" - PREPARE REPLY
"C" - ADVANCE COPY FURNISHED
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ADDITIONAL P EMARKS/INSTRUCTIONS
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University of Pftburgh
January 6, 1981
Admiral Stansfield Turner
Director
Central Intelligence Agency
Washington, D.C. 20505
As you requested during our conversation the other day, here is some
information about the unusual language training method that we are reviewing at
the University of Pittsburgh.
A brief brochure from the Michel Thomas Language Institute is enclosed.
It would also be possible to provide stacks of clippings and favorable reports, on
Thomas' work such as extensive teaching of Spanish to public school teachers in
biracial communities in California. However, I think the most useful step is for me
to give you a report of our personal experience and observations in Pittsburgh and
to make a modest suggestion.
I am especially pleased to do this because I am a strong advocate of
expanded foreign language training, and indeed have become a spokesman in the
whole community of higher education for expanded international studies (article
enclosed). One of our critical national needs, in my view, is expanded foreign area
expertise including language competency, and this would assist especially the
agencies of our federal government involved with international affairs.
We just completed a demonstration program here at the University in
French and Spanish, involving about forty faculty staff and students (including my
wife and me), over a period of ten days. Observations of the participants have not
yet been tabulated, but from listening to their reactions I can say that a great
majority of them felt that this was a most worthwhile educational experience.
Most of them took up the given language at a beginning level, and achieved a
satisfying degree of conversational, reading, and writing proficiency in that period
of time; some of them had previously studied the language but felt that they really
did not know it, and they were brought to what they described as a state of fluency.
Whatever claims or comparisons might be made, of this I am sure: eighty or ninety
hours spent in this method is more effective for this purpose than two or three
semesters of college training, which, of course, is several times as time-consuming,
and, in my experience, not nearly as exciting.
The main point to be made to sktics is that the method really works, and
for plausible reasons. The best way to understand it is for non-linguistic
professionals who have been involved in the experience to make their own
ExecuuVe Real
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evaluation. On my part, very briefly, I judge the success of the method to derive
from several factors: a mood of relaxed participation, without a sense of being
measured or tested, and with a ban on rote, drill, memorization, notes, and
homework (that is, for the ten day period); a beautifully constructed serial
presentation of the structure, grammar, syntax, and comparative origins of the
language; willing responses with the teacher (in person or in cassette tapes) that
produce reinforcement, recall, and speaking facility more efficiently than do drill
and repetition; the total revelation within the first three days of the language in all
its complexities, using English for necessary explanation--all the difficult
conjugations, tenses, and irregularities, so that there are no secrets or mysteries
remaining to baffle the student.
I believe that the linguistics professors who observed this demonstration
here would find little to disagree with what I have said. However, I would not give
automatic credence to views of people outside universities who make their living
teaching languages in completely different ways, such as government language
institutes or Berlitz.
I can illustrate this point by a relevant anecdote. I first met Michel
Thomas through a senior Washington attorney, Charles E. Morin, who had been
thrilled by having learned French with Thomas. Sometime last year a teacher from
the CIA's language training program visited Mr. Morin to interview him in French.
According to Mr. Morin, his proficiency was dismissed by the teacher as not having
been feasible to obtain in such a short time and by such a method. Charles Morin is
a former colleague and personal friend of William Casey, your designated
successor.
I would like to make this recommendation, which reflects the way I
proceeded from my own initially skeptical position: that the Agency send two or
three professional people, not connected in any way with language training, to
spend ten working days at Michel Thomas' home office in California, studying
either French, German, or Spanish on the basis that the language studied be mostly
new and unfamiliar to the individual concerned. At the least, they can be assured a
rewarding intellectual experience; whether the method has further promise for the
Agency can be left to their judgment.
I look forward to my continuing work on the Military-Economic Panel,
although I will miss seeing you on visits to Langley. I hope we get together soon
under more relaxed circumstances.
Sincerely,
Wesley W. Posvar
Chancellor
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