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Letters: Improving English acquisition

I was honored to receive comments on my article ("Choosing an English curriculum," Oct. 18, page 8) from such a renowned academic as Stephen Krashen. I sincerely believe that these discussion and debate forums can only enhance the focus of educators, the government and parents on the current and emerging problems that face us in second and third language acquisition situations with the ultimate outcome of hopefully fueling a positive engine of change.

As the former director of two ESL elementary through secondary schools in Taiwan for more than five years, part of my responsibilities included assembling and overseeing curriculum teams charged with the task of revising and writing effective EFL/ESL curriculums (as I have previously done on two other continents). During that time, we looked at dozens of models and became intimately familiar with theories from Gatto to Armstrong, and even Krashen's.

It is true that much has happened in this field over the past three decades (unlike Krashen, I would have cited the post-World War II era in general). However, as an academician of some standing, I am sure that the good professor is all too aware of the way that research, statistics and "facts" can be, and often are, manipulated to support theories in many, if not all, academic fields.

How many times have we been told one thing by so-called "experts", only to have their views contradicted and overturned by other so-called "experts?" Even Krashen carefully qualified his statements by using such ambiguous terms as "may" and "the research strongly suggests" when he outlined his arguments. In truth, there are many things that we simply don't know about higher brain functions or learning despite the millions spent in this field.

Furthermore, I would add that Krashen is incorrect when he asserted that my views were in conflict with common sense. As any competent and observant classroom teacher or parent knows, students often automatically memorize words from nursery rhymes to songs; from poetry to complex words, phrases and entire passages; most of the time the student is unaware that they are even learning. Grammar structures are likewise automatically acquired through constant usage and refined by watchful teachers and parents alike. Tens of millions of people around the world are multilingual.

Krashen must understand that in brief editorials it is impossible to succinctly elaborate upon such a complex subject and that I do not believe that my way is the "only path to proficiency." Nevertheless, I stand by my views and hope that these kinds of dialogues improve student acquisition of English.

Dan Ritco

Puli, Nantou County

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