FROM: Professor Louis E, Department Head, Foreign Languages & Literature, Portland State University

TO: Professor Joseph K, Chair, Foreign Languages, Oregon State University

Dear Professor K,

I am writing to recommend Mr. Michael L. Reymers to you, who is applying for a position in your program.

Michael has taught a special course, “Rapid Spanish” here a Portland State University, under the Division of Continuing Education but under this department (Foreign Languages & Literature). I was his department head for 16 years. 

“Rapid Spanish” is Michael’s own development. It is a course designed to teach the student the maximum ability in conversational Spanish in the minimum of time. 

He has his own book, handouts and other supplemental materials, which I looked over carefully and found impressive before we hired him. 

This course was, throughout the years, an unqualified success, even though the regular staff would not imitate it. For them it seemed too demanding of the instructor.

Michael did a superb job here with his language course, and has also taught Spanish Culture and Civilization (in Spain/Summer Term) on several occasions,  with equivalent energy, enthusiasm and success. 

I give him my highest recommendation and urge you to appoint him.

Sincerely, Louis J. E. Department Head, Foreign Languages & Literature, Portland State University

 

FROM: Sandy H, Curriculum Director, Education Service District Washington County, Oregon

TO: Isabel C-C, Houghton Mifflin Publishers

Dear Ms. C-C,

I can't tell you how excited I am that a national publisher is showing interest in what I consider to be one of the most effective and exciting programs I've seen. Mike Reymers' RAPID SPANISH does what very few programs do: it delivers quality instruction using methods that make learning vivid and memorable and it does it much more rapidly than traditional "memorize and move on" language programs.

It has been my privilege to work with Mike over the last five years. His energy and dedication have been devoted to taking the best information and the best methods form all over the world and making coordinated, good sense of them.

In my opinion, RAPID SPANISH is the kind of program that meets the needs of a world where the demands for multiple language competency are growing. We need programs that will build competency quickly and allow the learner to move on to a third and fourth language.

I think this is a critical issue for the United States. We can't afford the ethnocentric attitudes we have had. We must become a nation of people who are able to communicate.

I applaud Houghton Mifflin's interest in RAPID SPANISH. It's exciting to see a great program get the attention it deserves.

Sincerely, Sandy H.,  Curriculum Director

 

FROM: Ann D, Assistant Superintendent, Education Service District of Washington County, Oregon

TO: Isabel C-C, Houghton Mifflin Publishers

Dear Ms. C-C,

I have just completed three terms of “Rapid Spanish” with Michael Reymers and have been very impressed by the materials he has developed.

Of particular value was his attention to the principals of learning. With the conventional formats of listen, speaking, and writing, Michael has created a spiral curriculum. The spiral curriculum is often discussed in the literature, but rarely found in practice. The “Rapid Spanish” materials consistently adhere to the basic tenets of the spiral curriculum in that there is planned systematic repetition and expansion.

The learner has extensive opportunity to interact with re-representation of previously experienced vocabulary and grammar.  In every lesson the content moves from the know to the unknown by design, not by chance. The vocabulary has much in common with traditional texts, but the rapid rate at which grammar is presented facilitates a holistic concept of the language. A student does not languish in the “present tense.”

I have found, as has my husband who has been a student in the course, that the materials support different rate of learning and that the workbook chapters are extensive enough to provide a strong sense of learning re-enforcement.

I hope you will extend the discussion of the “Rapid Spanish” materials with Michael to the point at which you will understand the elegance of his design and the merit of having such materials available to the student.

Sincerely yours,
Ann D
Assistant Superintendent