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The Big Picture: Army Language School | ||
 Language Learning Forum : Languages & Work |  | |
| palfrey Senior Member Canada Joined 5281 days ago 81 posts - 180 votes  Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 1 of 7 02 November 2011 at 4:37pm | IP Logged | ||
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A video made by the U.S Army, probably in the 1950's, describing the Army language training program in Monterey, California:
The Big Picture: Army Language School Some of the more military parts may not be of interest to many members here, but they do take you inside a language class, in this case for students studying Korean. (I don't see any date given, but it is probably from the 1950's, to judge from the style of cars, among other things. They also mention interpreters at the truce talks in Panmunjom. This would refer, I think, to the ceasefire reached between North and South Korea in 1953.) One thing to note is the lack of modern technological aids, apart from phonograph records which the students used to study on their own in the evenings. (Students were expected to spend three hours per evening studying on their own, after having had six hours of classroom instruction during the daytime.) Also, the class size seemed a bit large - it began with eight students, though eventually dropped to five. I think an FSI article once said that for the more difficult languages, such as Korean, a maximum class size of four students was found to give better results. Nonetheless, I am rather envious. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Snowflake Senior Member United States Joined 5967 days ago 1032 posts - 1233 votes Studies: Mandarin | Message 2 of 7 02 November 2011 at 5:56pm | IP Logged | ||
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I pulled the below information off of DLI sites. Since I'm studying Mandarin, I was focusing on Asian languages. I may have messed up the paragraph separations along the way. Forum members may also find the information here interesting...http://www.govtilr.org/Publications/TESOL03Rea din gFull.htm
http://www.dliflc.edu/asianschools.html Asian Language Schools are responsible for teaching the 64-week basic course for Chinese, Japanese and Korean. The Asian Schools support DoD’s languages acquisition mission by employing highly educated native speakers as instructors who not only teach language, but also bring traditional Asian culture to the classroom such as music, dress, dance, food, religion, history, literature, and the arts into the adult leaning environment. The Asian Schools use DLIFLC’s instructor/student ratio of two instructors to six students. DLIFLC further enhances the learning environment with the implementation of overnight immersions from two to five days at a time off campus. The students are completely immersed in the target language and Asian culture as they carry out real-life situation scenarios which range from negotiations at a border crossing, haggling at an open market for goods, to making hotel reservations over the telephone. To enhance this experience the faculty and staff dress in traditional garb, prepare and cook Asian cuisine, and, most importantly, only speak in the target language. Select students are afforded the opportunity to further their understanding of the Asian language by their participation in the overseas immersion program. A select number or randomly chosen students go abroad for approximately 30 days to study their language at a foreign university and tour the various sites of that country. Selection is made on the basis of student scores, and recommendation of the teaching team and unit. DLIFLC Asian School instructors teach for proficiency and adhere to the Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) testing scale. Students are expected to achieve higher proficiency scores since 9/11 and will be expected to reach a 2+ in Listening, a 2+ in Reading and a 2 in speaking, according to the ILR scale. http://www.dliflc.edu/immersion.html Isolation-Immersion Programs “Iso-immersion” is an abbreviated, government-wide, term used to describe foreign language training conducted in total isolation from the English language. An Iso-immersion event, as conducted at DLIFLC, is a one to three-day language training event, conducted off post exclusively in the target language. This event is intended to simulate real life situations and offer students the opportunity to apply their language skills while also experiencing the target culture. The goal of the Iso-immersion course is to enhance the students learning experience by allowing them to interact in a more realistic environment than they are likely to encounter in the regular classroom. At the iso-immersion facility, students engage in simulations such as hiring interpreters to help American troops in the field, participate in resolving disputes over a traffic accident, or chose a location for a study-abroad program by calling travel agencies and schools over the telephone. The decision-making and consensus-building required for the successful completion of such tasks require the close cooperation by the students and full understanding of the subject matter, which ultimately causes them to process the target language on a more profound level. Iso-immersions are now an integral part of the basic program curriculum in Arabic, Korean, Chinese, Persian Farsi, Russian and Spanish. At full implementation, each graduating class goes through three Immersion events during the course of their study: a 1-day, a 2-day and a 3-day event, in Semester I, II and III respectively. OCONUS Immersion Since 2005, some of the DLIFLC’s best performing students have had an opportunity to travel on three to six week long in-country (OCONUS) immersions. During in-country immersions students attend more than thirty hours per week of classroom language and culture study at the host institute and participate in daily out-of-class activities and weekly field trips and excursions. So far, DLIFLC has conducted immersions in Egypt, Jordan, Korea, China, Russia, Ukraine, France, Costa Rica, Turkey, and the Philippines. Approximately 200 students go on an in-country immersion each year. Many of those students note that the in-country experience has been irreplaceable, both in terms of the language training and the cultural understanding that it has helped them gain. Field Training Exercise (FTX) An FTX event, as conducted at the DLIFLC, is a one to three-day language training event, conducted outside the classroom, exclusively in the target language, which simulates real life situations and offers students multiple opportunities to apply their language skills while also experiencing target culture. FTX events are conducted at DLIFLC’s Immersion Center on Ft. Ord, California. FTXs are intended to enhance the students’ learning experience by providing them with the opportunities to use the language in a closer to real life situations than they are likely to do in the regular classroom. In a course of an FTX, the students engage in simulations such as hiring interpreters to help American troops in the field, resolving a traffic accident, choosing a location for a study abroad, or developing fund raising strategies for non-profit organizations in a target country, to name only a few. The decision making and consensus building needed for the successful completion of such tasks require students to interact and negotiate meaning, thus processing target language on a deeper level. FTXs are an integral part of the Basic Program curriculum in Arabic, Korean, Chinese, Persian/Farsi, Russian and Spanish. At full implementation, each graduating class goes through three FTXs during the course of their study: a 1-day, a 2-day and a 3-day event in Semester I, II and III respectively. Over 2,000 students go through the FTX training each year. Edited by Snowflake on 02 November 2011 at 5:59pm 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6546 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 3 of 7 03 November 2011 at 4:13am | IP Logged | ||
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What's strange is that there are tens of thousands of people in the military who can natively speak Korean, Arabic, Mandarin, Russian,...etc and yet hold jobs that have nothing to do with working in intelligence.
1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sandy Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5636 days ago 37 posts - 61 votes | Message 4 of 7 03 November 2011 at 11:10pm | IP Logged | ||
There is a good reason for that. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Sandy Newbie United Kingdom Joined 5636 days ago 37 posts - 61 votes | Message 5 of 7 03 November 2011 at 11:15pm | IP Logged | ||
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That was very interesting. I wonder if I was the only one expecting Sergeant Bilko to make an appearance.
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| Leurre Bilingual Pentaglot Senior Member United StatesRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5433 days ago 219 posts - 372 votes Speaks: French*, English*, Korean, Haitian Creole, SpanishC2 Studies: Japanese | Message 6 of 7 04 November 2011 at 5:58am | IP Logged | ||
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I once met a guy who took that Korean course. For the amount of time he studied, I wasn't
overly impressed with his skills. 1 person has voted this message useful | |||
| Kugel Senior Member United States Joined 6546 days ago 497 posts - 555 votes Speaks: English* | Message 7 of 7 10 November 2011 at 9:21am | IP Logged | ||
Why of course! Sgt. Bilko was exactly on my mind because an old irrelevant TV show pertains exactly to what this thread is all about. 1 person has voted this message useful |
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