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Letters: On lacking English literacy

As a teacher of two years' standing in central Taiwan, I would like to comment briefly about the state of the schools here.

I am familiar with the system, as I teach in two junior high schools. The engine of the teaching curriculum, broadly speaking, is the exam. While exams are used almost everywhere in the world, they are not the engine of teaching and opportunity in many Western systems.

The most pertinent problem is that very few students read English books even though English is compulsory. And very few students seem to understand why this might be a problem. Young people do not enjoy English or communicate in it.

Of the maybe 80 staff I have met here, 20 or so could read a novel in English.

Students do "exam English." It largely means nothing to them except academic prestige. So the kids obey the system, with all the moral credibility of a temple sacrifice. The kids have their behavior managed for 10 years. This sets them up for failure -- many of them, anyway.

Life is not an exam. Isn't a child too great a sacrifice to make to such a deity?

When straying from examinable material, many students tend to misbehave. This is partly because of the behavior of adults who depend on habit -- not judgment, art or intuition.

Reform is needed, if only step by step.

Peter Nelson

Changhua

Dan Ritco's advice to parents ("Choosing an English curriculum," Oct. 18, page 8) on English teaching would have been up-to-date about 30 years ago, but a lot has happened since then.

Ritco assumes that a skill-based curriculum featuring vocabulary memorization, grammar study and training in "inductive and deductive reasoning" is the only path to proficiency.

Over the last 30 years a massive amount of scientific evidence has accumulated that indicates the hard work of memorization and study is not only unnecessary but also may be ineffective.

Rather, the research strongly suggests that we acquire language when we understand what we hear and what we read. At best, the grammar we study is a supplement with very limited use.

Ritco's view also conflicts with common sense. If successful second-language acquisition required the memorization of "thousands of words" and the extensive study of grammar, nobody would ever acquire a second language.

Ritco is free to disagree with this view, but he is not free to simply assert the opposite and ignore the last 30 years of serious research.

Stephen Krashen

Professor emeritus

University of Southern California, Los Angeles
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