I read in abject disbelief in this morning's paper that Ma Ying-jeou (
This is the same man who, at a speech given to members of Taiwan's foreign business community at the Howard Plaza Hotel on Nov. 29, was not able to understand an important question on the subject of greenhouse gases from an English-speaker in the very front row.
Some stark facts from an letter by Stephen Krashen (Letters, Nov. 22, page 8) bear immediate repetition.
A proposed "English village" would be a "one-week English immersion experience for students between the ages of 13 and 14 years" that "can accommodate 200 students at a time," he said.
Krashen pointed out that if "three villages are set up, they can accommodate about 600 students a week. That amounts to about 25,000 a year." Doing the math, Krashen concluded that "fewer than 1 percent of the children in school in Taiwan will experience the English village, and the experience only lasts one week."
This leaves me wondering where Ma is getting his advice with respect to the future of English in Taiwan.
It seems likely he is drawing from the exaggerated -- although popular -- claims in support of the efficacy of language-learning by speaking and listening in a target-language community.
But research clearly shows that this approach is egregiously inferior to those that emphasize more focused, comprehensible, examined input.
Leaving aside the issue of how much money would be squandered for such an initiative, one should hope for Ma's sake that any proposals he might have to combat greenhouse gases are not nearly so specious.
Martin de Jonge
Fulong, Taipei County
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