WEEKLY ACTIVITIES REPORT NO. 14

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-06096A000300050028-4
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 6
• Document Creation Date: December 9, 2016
• Document Release Date: July 27, 2000
• Sequence Number: 28
• Publication Date: June 17, 1965
• Content Type: MEMO

OPTIONAL FORM NO. 10
010-104
eseAKffsRobqfAc ,R-
Memorandum
I
Np1DENIT-thbp78-06096,4000300050028-4
TO : Director of Training
FROM : Chief, Language Training School
SUBJECT: Weekly Activities Report No, 14
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A. SIGNIFICANT ITEMS
None to report.
B. OTHER ACTIVITIES
DATE: 17 June 1965
1. visited Language Laboratories, Inc.
on Tuesday to look at some basic, short programmed materials
in Spanish and French. At first examination these materials
look good enough to experiment with as a?possible means of
satisfying some of our low-level requirements.
2. ORD/S&T, paid a visit to C/LTS
and with a view to "picking their brains" regarding
the feasibility of certain ideas of interest to his component.
One of these is the possibility of developing a "language
diction" program aimed at identifying the regions from which
individuals come through their pronunciation of key words
in their speech, also sought opinions on various
linguistic scholars throughout the country who might be
helpful, should such a project be set up.
3. One SR Officer began part-time Basic Russian (RSW)
training on a six-hours weekly basis. Regular daytime staff
resources are being used.
4. On Friday, 18 June, the Voluntary Language Training
Program German 102 class will be terminated with two students
left out of the original five. Tutorial training was not
deemed necessary for these two students.
5. will begin his summer training program
at Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, on
21 June. In the eight weeks he will be there he will study
IciBemba (the Language of Zambia), general linguistics and
African linguistics.
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6. Six students (2 classes) of French and three
instructors completed three days at on 16 June.
7. Four students in French finished the Basic Course
this week. Their departure will not reduce the number of
classes being conducted since all four have, in the course
of the 20-week period, been reassigned to classes compatible
with their respective aptitudes and levels of proficiency.
8. A copy of evaluation of overseas language
training program course in Mandarin Chinese for the Defense
Language Institute is enclosed for your information.
Attachment:
As stated in para.8
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Evalua
Course
4 June 1965
on of Overseas Langue Tra.ning Program
n Mandarin Chinese.
I an returning herewith the copy of your Overseas
Language Training Program course in Mandarin Chinese.
In commenting on this course, I am
beyond a simple critique of the course,
to me that some rethinking is needed in
the program as a whole. If this is not
simply ignore my general comments.
Firstly, the time period allotted. It should b
e1ear1y recognized that in any given period, an En /ish-
sp king student can go further in the learning of Spanish
than he will in Russian, and both these will peke much
more rapid progress than the student of Chinese. Thus
after three months, the typical student may have a fai ly
creditable grasp of Spanish, while still being rather
shaky in Russian and barely started in Chinese. This may
have been considered in the original planning, and in a
sense the results are comparable. People speaking any
Chinese at all, or not very fluent Russian, are probably
as rare in their respective assignments as fairly good
speakers of Spanish are in their assignments.
Secondly, even though the allotted period may he
inadequate, the course must serve as a basis for those
who are going on to further study of the language. Thus
what is taught must be taught thoroughly and accurately
so that the student does not form incorrect speech patterns
that he will have to unlearn later.
going to
since it
the cone
what you
go far
seems
Pt of
wanted,
Pinally, the course must be such that it cau be taught
by the average overseas instructor. Unfortunate y, this
usually means a native speaker "off the street," so to
peak, with little or no knowledge of modern language
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teaching methods. As was found in the USAF' materials
in World War II, this demands a carefully prepared and
voluminous instructor's manual.
The sum of these race mendations is that a course
must be prepared differing completely from anything ever
attempted before, with the exception of the USAFI materl Is
already mentioned. It also means, unfortunately, that the
materials prepared st DLIWC can hardly serve the purpose.
These materials would be fine for use at an installation
manned and equipped like DLI. Even though equipment
comparable to that at DLI could be made available overseas,
there is no hope of getting comparable instructors. The
inescapable conclusion is that a new start must be made.
The above comments probably apply eqi.ally to the
courses in other languages. The writers of all the courses
undoubtedly produced a series of materials similar to
thos, they have been producing for use at DLI. They could
hardly have been expected to do otherwise without an
extensive briefing based on a complete rethinking of the
problems involved. Such a rethinking would lead to the
following conclusions:
1) The course must concent atevon the problems of the
lish speaker. For example. the Chinese auxiliary verb
is structurally almost identical with the English. Thus
auxiliary verbs may be introduced unsystematically, when-
ever needed. The student need only be given the meanings
of the auxiliary verbs as they occur, and virtually no
drill is required on this point. The resultative compound,
on the other hand, needs systematic presentation and exten-
sive drill. It is a very productive Chinese structure but
resembles nothing in the structure of English.
2) When the structures that need to be taught have
been isolated and listed, they must be programm d into a
basic course outline,. They must be introduced and mastered
one at a time, and should be arranged in an order based on
their usefulness as against their difficulty for the English
speaker. These criteria often conflict. The resultatiire
co2peer:4 ilentioned above should be presented early on the
criterion of usefulness. On the other hand, it differs
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completely from any English structure,which is an
argument in favor of not presenting it early. The point
being made in this paragraph should be obvious, but no
course has yet been written in Chinese that takes this
factor adequately into account. Various courses I have
seen present the resultative compound as early as the first
lesson or as late as the twenty-first lesson out of twenty-
four; The OLTP course presents it abouttwo-thirds of
the way through the course, which is not unreasonable.
However, the course as a whole does not seem to have been
thoroughly programmed before writing was begun.
3) Another point that should be obvious. The
explanations of Chinese structure should be accurate.
However; no course yet produced has given linguistically
accurate descriptions of the se.called "coverb", of the
verb-object combination, or the use of the verb ba as
a marker of the direct object. Here again, a reexamination
of the structure of Chinese from a sound linguistic view-
point is needed.
4) The format for the course materials should be
studied. Again what is suitable for DLI may not be usable
in OLTP courses. TWO suggestions for consideration are:
a) whether the dialogues should be more in the
form of connected exchanges that one might actually
hear between two Chinese conversing together.
b) the extent of drills necessary. Remembering
that the instructor is likely to be inexperienced,
at least in the more modern techniques, the course
should at least outline every drill that is to be
used. It takes an experienced instructor to
develop from simple recombination drills the
immense amount of material that the student needs
for really learning a structure. A tremendous
amount of work in writing and taping drills must
be done before the course can be taught by instruc-
tors like those who are available overseas.
Robert Lado's Language Learning -- A Scientific
Approach can be very he p u n giirng some idea
of whet is needed.
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A final consideration for the Chinese course is which
romanizat on to use. The Yale romanization is used in
most civi ion and service schools because the best currently
available materials are the Yale Mirror Series. However,
it is useful only as long es the student is in school. When
he starts to use Chinese in the field, the only romenization
he is likely to encounter is the Wade-Giles. Furthermore,
If the field instructors know any romanization at all, it
will be the Wade-Giles. Admittedly, it is not as elegant
a romanization as the Yale, but it is thorouchly usable.
The Pin-Yin advocated by the Chinese Communists and the
Nationafrir Gwe eu Romatzyh have both been used in teaching
Chinese. Ne t er of them itas any wide acceptation. I
have yet to see a case (except in teaching materials) where
either of them has been used without accompanying characters
or Wade-Giles romanization to make clear what is meant.
It might be considered worthwhile to familiarize the student
with all three of these romanizations. However, a three-
month course must be pared to the bone, so the "modern"
romenizations might well be left for the intermediate
student.
I must end with an apology for what is a drastic
criticism of a course that has involved a large amount of
work by many devoted people. I shudder to think of their
reaction and the effect on their morale when they are asked
to start over, virtually from the beginning. However, I
gather from the comments that were made when I was asked
to evaluate the course that my opinion will not come as a
great surprise to HOU. In any event, it is better to
face realistically the necessity for redoing the material
now, rather than trying to make do with it in an OLTP that
would thereby be doomed to inadequacy if not to failure.
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