Dear Sir,
In answer to your Letter to the Editor ["More English immersion needed," Vol. 5 No. 8, March 1-7] I believe native Slovak teachers of English do an admirable job of teaching grammar, vocabulary, etc. Because many of them have never been to an English speaking country, they are hampered by this lack of experience in every day conversation.
My goal as a teacher of English in Slovakia was to raise the level of conversational ability of my students.... no matter what their level of proficiency. I wasn't as concerned about their accent, the sentence construction (syntax is a problem for Slavic speakers), nor their vocabulary. I wanted each student to enjoy communicating with an English speaker. It seemed to work!
Laura Rose,
Seattle, Washington
