By Robert Oliphant
Columnist EdNews.org

This is an encouraging letter, not a critical one. I'm taking the liberty of publishing it openly because, although the climate of opportunity it describes is uniquely yours, the points made in it may be useful to educational leaders in other countries where English, according to Time Almanac 2007, is explicitly characterized as an official language.

Dear Secretary Lapus:

This is an encouraging letter, not a critical one.I'm taking the liberty of publishing it openly because, although the climate of opportunity it describes is uniquely yours, the points made in it may be useful to educational leaders in other countries where English, according to Time Almanac 2007, is explicitly characterized as an official language.

In general terms that climate of opportunity can fairly be described with the phrase High Tech Workforce Mobility.Traditionally, educated citizens with technical training have always had plenty of social and geographical mobility in a nation.But today that mobility has assumed global status, paralleling the increasing use of American-pronunciation Latinate English in worldwide science, industry, and commerce.

A random check of your desk dictionary, for example, will indicate that roughly 80% of the words in it, especially technical terms, are of Latinate origin, not Anglo-Saxon, and are therefore just as easy (or difficult) for non-Anglos as for Anglos.Going further, since most Latinate English terms were coined during the European Renaissance, a check of, say, the Mayo Clinic Family Health Book glossary will indicate that only half as many Latinate English terms appear in English-Latin dictionaries as appear in English-Spanish dictionaries, e.g., Eng. encephalitis/ Sp. encefalitis, Eng. neurological/ Sp. neurológico.

If you agree with me. Secretary Lapus, that your citizens already have a built-in advantage when it comes to mastering American-pronunciation Latinate English in medicine and other technical fields, I respectfully urge you and your colleagues to consider introducing a low-cost maximum-impact pre-professional Latinate English learning program for your citizens — all of them — along the following lines.

1) The production of authoritative dictionary-accessible lists of terms for a number of currently important technical fields: medicine, chemistry, law, linguistics, etc.

Via professional organizations and universities, there are many of these available online in glossary format, most of them containing between 500 and 1,000 terms.This means that each list will take only one page front and back, since dictionary definitions will replace the original definitions.

2) The production of low-cost dictionary-based test questions that take advantage of a dictionary's "five clue" learning assistance.

The headword-plus-definition glossary format is far less helpful to learners than, say, Steadman's Medical Dictionary (now in its 28th edition). which offers the learner-memorizer a five-clue presentation: headword, pronunciation, definition, etymology, and root-element cross references, noting that its 1,200 Latinate-English root elements turn up in 80% of its 107,000 entries.The best and cheapest question format is still a spelling-bee style question like, "What word is pronounced /uh nee" mee uh/ and defined as "a reduction in the hemoglobin of red blood cells with consequent deficiency of oxygen in the blood, leading to weakness and pallor"

3) The provision of encouragement for potential participants through local and national spelling bees, maybe even an online web site program.

Standard size ("college") clearly designate medical and other technical terms.So anyone, including parents at home, can locate and present appropriate questions like the above in both oral and written form.As for online practicality, the Merriam-Webster web site "word of the day" feature uses a spelling bee format, e.g., "What word matches the following description: /bak sif" uhr uhs/ "bearing or producing berries" (BACCIFEROUS).

4) The provision of opportunities to earn official recognition.

Regarding recognition:The Carnegie-unit "credit hour" measure still has international transfer acceptability.This is to say that 45 hours of study (e.g., 700 terms in a specific subject category like Chemistry) with an average level of test performance (70%) on an officially proctored test would legitimately earn one transferable semester unit of academic credit.

TO CONCLUDE. . . . Lists, dictionaries, encouragement, academic credit — these four elements comprise a program that I believe merits attention by you and your colleagues.I also believe it is a timely one, especially in a new century where the unifying and healing force of educationally driven social and income mobility is perceived as a crucially important worldwide priority.

Respectfully,

Robert Oliphant, columnist, Education News

cc: Vilma L. Labrador, Undersecretary for Programs and Projects ([email protected] )

Socorro A. Pilor, Executive Director, Instructional Materials Secretariat ([email protected] )

Published April 19, 2007