It’s a need the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center is working to fill.
A Specialized School
Located at California’s historic Presidio of Monterey, some 60 miles south of San Francisco, the DLIFLC produces linguist for the Department of Defense and, in smaller numbers, for other federal agencies and certain foreign governments.
The DLIFLC teaches 22 languages, which are categorized by their degree of difficulty. The basic course for such Category I languages as French and Italian lasts 25 weeks, while those for Arabic and other extremely challenging Category IV languages last 63 weeks.
DLIFLC courses are taught by civilians, most of whom are college-educated native speakers of the languages they teach. Military linguists teach the military-specific language skills the students will need in their duty assignments. DLIFLC has about 1,000 faculty and 300 civilian staff members, supported by some 400 military personnel drawn from each of the services.
The departments within DLIFLC’s nine resident and continuing-education schools are based on the team-teaching concept, with each team of six instructors handling three sections of up to 10 students each. The classes are small in comparison to those in civilian schools, and instructors use such high-tech aids as satellite TV and Smart Board electronic “chalkboards” that can access the Internet. Each student is issued an MP3 audio player which to record and play back key material.
The Best and the Brightest
“Students entering DLIFLC don’t get to pick the language they’ll study,” said Dr. Stephen Payne, the school’s senior vice chancellor. That determination is made based on the “needs of the service,” and on the candidate’s scores on the Defense Language Aptitude Battery.
The DLAB indicates each person’s relative aptitude for languages, and students are assigned a language based on the scores, Payne Said. Individuals with the highest scores, indicating the greatest aptitude, end up in one of the Category IV programs.
Because Arabic is such a challenging language, it takes a special kind of student to tackle it, Payne said.
“The Soldiers and others who come into the Arabic program have gone through a very challenging selection process just to get here, and they are truly the best and the brightest,” he said.
Among them is SPC Brad Robertson, whose long-time interest in Arabic and his zeal for the program are typical of many students.
