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FSI or DLI in other countries | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Language Programs, Books & Tapes |  | |
| Zwlth Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 5228 days ago 154 posts - 320 votes  Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, French, Persian, Greek | Message 9 of 35 12 July 2011 at 9:00am | IP Logged |
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Thanks for the continued input, Napoleon, and thank you, Onebir, for joining the discussion. Yes, one of the things I would like to know is why (it appears) that the U.S. FSI and DLI made (or perhaps still make) their own high quality materials, and why these are widely available, whereas (again, it appears) that the equivalents of these institutes in other nations do not do this. More than that, though, I would like to identify the FSI or DSI in other lands. Surely, on this international forum, someone must know the name and location of the official intensive language training institute in his or her country, no? Maybe I should phrase it that way and make it stand out:
Dear Reader: What is the name of the official intensive language training institute in YOUR country? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Zwlth Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 5228 days ago 154 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, French, Persian, Greek | Message 10 of 35 14 July 2011 at 4:28am | IP Logged |
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To the moderator who moved this post to this room: it doesn't have to do with FSI / DSI language progams, books, and tapes, or even with the FSI / DSI institutes. Rather, it is about trying to identify these kinds of institutes in other countries. Oh well, I guess it doesn't really matter where this post is because it's not getting much input despite being viewed fairly often. I wonder if this is because people don't know of the existence of such places? Then, some responses along those lines would be helpful: "I'm from X and I've never heard of such a place here."
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| palfrey Senior Member Canada Joined 5275 days ago 81 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 11 of 35 14 July 2011 at 4:37am | IP Logged |
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For Canada: I have no special information; this is just the result of poking around on the web:
Canada has two official languages, English and French. The teaching of these languages to civil servants appears to be handled by the Canada School of Public Service. A list of their language courses is given under Official Language Acquisition and Maintenance. The teaching of other languages appears to be handled by the Canadian Foreign Service Institute (CFSI). Their course catalogue states that the main languages offered are Arabic, German, Italian, Japanese, Mandarin, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish, "plus any other language required to meet client's needs". Courses include six hours of classroom instruction per day, five days a week, for a duration of 30 weeks to two years, depending on the level of difficulty of the language. (See page 5 of the catalogue.) By my calculation, that is 900 to 3000 hours of classroom instruction. I think that is longer than figures given by the U.S. FSI programs. Perhaps here, as in so many things, the Americans are more efficient :) Also, it looks like foreign service officers are expected to be proficient in both official languages (English and French), no matter where they are posted. From Language Training for Foreign Service Recruits: "New foreign service officer recruits whose proficiency in either of Canada's official languages is not sufficient will receive official language training in Ottawa for a maximum of 52 weeks." I would suppose such training is handled by the Canadian School of Public Service mentioned earlier. Btw, I can't help comparing this to the three terms of German I took at university. At our school, a "term" was 12 to 13 weeks of lectures, followed by a two to three week exam period. Classes met for one hour, three times a week. In fact, classes were only 50 minutes long, to give students time to travel between classes. So all told, we had 2.5 hours of classroom instruction in German per week, for a total of about 30 hours over the term. Hmmm... so, in one week at CFSI, they have as much contact with their instructor as we would have had over an entire term... sigh... 3 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Cainntear Pentaglot Senior Member Scotland linguafrankly.blogsp Joined 6013 days ago 4399 posts - 7687 votes Speaks: Lowland Scots, English*, French, Spanish, Scottish Gaelic Studies: Catalan, Italian, German, Irish, Welsh | Message 12 of 35 14 July 2011 at 3:54pm | IP Logged |
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I've never heard anything specific in the UK.
I suspect the big thing about the FSI that they built their system around tape decks and repetition, and so had to produce lots of material. I think most countries were probably happy with classroom instructors and blackboards.... 4 persons have voted this message useful | |
| Ericounet Senior Member France yojik.euRegistered users can see my Skype Name Joined 5437 days ago 157 posts - 414 votes Studies: English, German, Russian | Message 13 of 35 17 July 2011 at 9:57am | IP Logged |
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Hi,
in France, I found an institut in Strasbourg: CFIAR (Ecole interarmées du renseignement et des études linguistiques). But nothing about the learning methods :(:( 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| palfrey Senior Member Canada Joined 5275 days ago 81 posts - 180 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, French | Message 14 of 35 18 July 2011 at 3:04am | IP Logged |
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Britain: The British Foreign Office did have a language school, giving instruction in some 41 languages. But according to this 2007 article in the Guardian, Government axes Foreign Office language school, it was to be closed to save money. Instead, the training would be contracted out to private companies.
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| Zwlth Super Polyglot Senior Member United States Joined 5228 days ago 154 posts - 320 votes Speaks: English*, German, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Arabic (Written), Dutch, Swedish, Portuguese, Latin, French, Persian, Greek | Message 15 of 35 20 July 2011 at 4:59am | IP Logged |
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Thank you Palfrey, Cainntear, and Ericonet for the input.
To sum up so far: The Canadians seem to have institutes that parallel the functions of the American FSI and DLI, whereas the British apparently only had one but shut it down four years ago. Another sign of how much society at large values languages! As for the French, the CFIAR clearly parallels the DLI and, in this further description, it sounds as if it is limited to that, i.e., that if they have a FSI, it is somewhere else. At the CFIAR itself, it sounds as if they, too, offer support for around 40 languages, but with a core of 10 or so. And, it appears, none of these intitutes ever produced their own material and made it available in the fashion of the FSI DLI. What about Germany, Russia, etc. Anybody? 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| roadrunner Newbie United States secretstoimprovememo Joined 7165 days ago 15 posts - 16 votes Speaks: English* Studies: German, Italian | Message 16 of 35 20 July 2011 at 6:20pm | IP Logged |
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Does the US Gov't make DLI course material available in the public domain? I've seen the Barron's versions of the FSI courses, but never a DLI course.
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