diff --git a/src/ccstruct/ratngs.cpp b/src/ccstruct/ratngs.cpp
index 2012d57944..b61cf55294 100644
--- a/src/ccstruct/ratngs.cpp
+++ b/src/ccstruct/ratngs.cpp
@@ -529,12 +529,7 @@ WERD_CHOICE& WERD_CHOICE::operator=(const WERD_CHOICE& source) {
 // to get the target positions. If small_caps is true, sub/super are not
 // considered, but dropcaps are.
 // NOTE: blobs_list should be the chopped_word blobs. (Fully segemented.)
-void WERD_CHOICE::SetScriptPositions(bool small_caps, TWERD* word) {
-  // Since WERD_CHOICE isn't supposed to depend on a Tesseract,
-  // we don't have easy access to the flags Tesseract stores.  Therefore, debug
-  // for this module is hard compiled in.
-  int debug = 0;
-
+void WERD_CHOICE::SetScriptPositions(bool small_caps, TWERD* word, int debug) {
   // Initialize to normal.
   for (int i = 0; i < length_; ++i)
     script_pos_[i] = tesseract::SP_NORMAL;
diff --git a/src/ccstruct/ratngs.h b/src/ccstruct/ratngs.h
index 08b0e1092e..18b2ac8ce7 100644
--- a/src/ccstruct/ratngs.h
+++ b/src/ccstruct/ratngs.h
@@ -552,7 +552,7 @@ class WERD_CHOICE : public ELIST_LINK {
   // to get the target positions. If small_caps is true, sub/super are not
   // considered, but dropcaps are.
   // NOTE: blobs_list should be the chopped_word blobs. (Fully segemented.)
-  void SetScriptPositions(bool small_caps, TWERD* word);
+  void SetScriptPositions(bool small_caps, TWERD* word, int debug = 0);
   // Sets the script_pos_ member from some source positions with a given length.
   void SetScriptPositions(const tesseract::ScriptPos* positions, int length);
   // Sets all the script_pos_ positions to the given position.
diff --git a/src/wordrec/language_model.cpp b/src/wordrec/language_model.cpp
index 5f11b5c033..cc506a3eee 100644
--- a/src/wordrec/language_model.cpp
+++ b/src/wordrec/language_model.cpp
@@ -1284,7 +1284,7 @@ void LanguageModel::UpdateBestChoice(
     return;
   }
   if (word_res->chopped_word != nullptr && !word_res->chopped_word->blobs.empty())
-    word->SetScriptPositions(false, word_res->chopped_word);
+    word->SetScriptPositions(false, word_res->chopped_word, language_model_debug_level);
   // Update and log new raw_choice if needed.
   if (word_res->raw_choice == nullptr ||
       word->rating() < word_res->raw_choice->rating()) {