LETTER TO ADMIRAL STANSFIELD TURNER FROM WESLEY W. POSVAR

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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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PDF icon CIA-RDP84B00890R000800060034-9.pdf217.96 KB
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ROUTING AND ----Approved%or=Release 2004106/29: CIA-RDP$4BT 90R000800060034-9 TO: (Name. office symbol, room number, Initials Date building, Age car/Post) 3. 4, coon Note and Return ~~rvvai For Clearance j Per Converse tion ;ecL~ested For Correction Prepare Reply .rc data For Your Information i5ee Mia investigate Signa7ure ac~rdsr*atian -JC Juste REWR 3 DDA SUSPENSE: 19 January 1981 ST TNOT use this form as a RECORD of approvals, concurrences, disposals, clearances, and similar actions r--- 541-102 OPTIONAL FORM 41 (Rev. 7-76) Prescribed b FPMR (41 CFI 101-11.206 p ~~, 11J t~ Approved For Release 2004/06/29 : CIA-RDP84B00890R000800060034-9 Approved'rr -Release 2004/06/29 : CIA-RDP14B90R000800060034-9 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 ~~t 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 STAT ADDITIONAL P EMARKS/INSTRUCTIONS Approved For Release 2004/06/29 : CIA-RDP84B0089OR000800060034-9 provecf'FVor Release 2004/06/29 : CIA-RDP84B90R000800060034-9 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 PrT ~ ~ ~f or2Delpa~S~e6 499 06/29 : CIA-RDP84B0089OR000800060034-9 Approved?br Release 2004/06/29 : CIA-RDP84BI 908000800060034-9 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 Approved For Release 2004/06/29 : CIA-RDP84B00890R000800060034-9