Maxwell's actions

[Emily Tall]

Dear colleagues:
    I must admit I am aghast and what David Maxwell has done at Drake. I
knew David thirty years ago when we were both graduates at Brown
University, and have followed his career from afar since then. I cannot
understand how someone who was head of the National Foreign Language
Center can just throw out language instruction like that.
    I was struck, in what I read on the web, by the fact that David
referred to his own disastrous years of language study. But surely he
must realize how much has changed since then!  No doubt there are still
some retrograde programs that cram you with grammar and then go on to
literature, but what about all of us who have embraced communicative
competence and "Golosa"!
    Speaking of "Golosa," I wouldn't be as hasty as some of you in
saying that one or two years isn't enough to "communicate" and that we
should stress things like cultural understanding, understanding of the
way the language works, and so on. As I tell my students, they can
communicate after one or two semesters--but at a certain level. If
that's not true, then I don't know why I've been knocking myself out
doing conversation and aural comprehension in my classes all these
years.
    I wonder if there is more than meets the eye to the Drake story.
Perhaps someone should ask David directly.
    Collegially yours, Emily Tall (State Univ. of New York/Buffalo)

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