Transcript Slide 1

1
Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center
BILC 2008
Trainers: Educators With an Objective
Presenter: Donald Fischer, PhD
Provost, DLIFLC
Colonel Sue Ann Sandusky, USA
Commandant, DLIFLC
2
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this presentation
are that of the presenter and do not
necessarily represent the views of the
Defense Language Institute Foreign
Language Center; its staff, faculty or
students; the Department of Defense; the
United States; and probably the world in
general.
3
Educators
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Everyone wants to be an educator, not a trainer
Educators get to teach neat subjects
Educators get to prescribe their curricula
Educators get sabbaticals
Educators get to go to conferences
Educators have great titles
Educators are not generally held accountable by
someone else (unless Ray Clifford is their boss)
4
But…
• Trainers also teach for the limited, near and far transfer
– We train how to change oil, clean rifles, et al..
– We train non-commissioned and commissioned officers to be
leaders
– We train people how to be Chief Executive Officers
– We train people to be linguists
– We train people to be culturally aware
– Trainers work toward automaticity through practice, use of rubrics,
demonstrated competencies
– And trainers are accountable through assessment
and evaluation means
•
Who would want to be a trainer?
5
Training and Education
• What is the difference?
• Maybe who is responsible, particularly the
individual’s role, probably degree of
accountability
• Maybe Education is our source of values and
training forms how we express those values
• Maybe Training is what we do when we want to
make sure objectives are achieved…
• Such as teaching language to a high
proficiency in a very short time
6
Languages Taught
• Cat I, 26 weeks: Spanish, Portuguese, Italian,
French
• Cat II, 36 weeks: German, Indonesian
• Cat III, 47 weeks: Russian, Persian-Farsi, PersianAfghan (Dari), Pashto, Turkish, Kurmanjae, Sorani,
Uzbek, Urdu, Hindi, Thai, Tagalog, Hebrew
• Cat IV, 64 weeks: Chinese, Korean, Arabic,
Japanese
• About 55 other low demand languages organized in
the National Capital Region through the Foreign
Service Institute and various contractors.
7
Proficiency vs. Time/Difficulty
• 0+: Immediate survival needs
• 1: Limited practical capability,
simple courtesies and greetings
• 1+: Satisfy limited social
situations, can read simple
materials, gets some main ideas
• 2: Gets the main idea and most
details, able to satisfy routine
social and limited working
environments
• 2+: Able to satisfy most work
requirements, can understand most
factual material, capabilities can
deteriorate under pressure or in
unfamiliar domain areas
• 3: General professional
proficiency, able to ‘read between
the lines’, can discuss areas of
interest and special fields with
ease, can accurately follow the
conversations of native speakers
8
The Task
In terms of Interagency Language Roundtable
Guidelines:
Moving from 80% 2/2/1+
to achieving 80% 2+/2+/2 in Fiscal Year 2009
with career linguist goal of 3/3/3 and
beyond
S5
S4
With no addition to course length
S3
Examples: Speaking Levels
S2+
S2
S1
S1+
9
Speaking Proficiency Levels
•
S2: Limited working
proficiency, gets the main
idea and most details, able to
satisfy routine social and
limited working environments
10
The How
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Training mentality (defined competencies, measurement of
accomplishment)
Collaboration
Extensive Support and Resources
–Curriculum Innovation
–Technology Integration
–Reduced Class Size
Diagnostic Assessment
Formative Testing
Summative Assessment
Teacher and Student Participation and Development
Situated Research/Community of Practice
11
Training Mentality
• Education is like an integral
• Training leads to the competencies, skills,
experiences that are the differentials that make up
the integral
• Training consists of skill definition (including higher
levels on the Bloom Taxonomy), needs analysis,
design, assessment, and evaluation
• DLIFLC output is measured. Leadership, faculty,
military service, and students are accountable
• Methods, structure, resources are continually
evaluated and made subjects of research
12
Collaboration
•
•
•
•
•
•
•
Diverse faculty from everywhere
Diverse educational backgrounds
Military command structure
Union
Academic Senate
Academic-Military Task Force
Military-civilian-student
13
Curriculum
• Move from highly structured classes to flexible and creative
approaches. Create a high level training and education environment
--Lesson plans
--Authentic materials
• Technology
--Interactive White Boards
--MP3 Devices
--Tablet PCs
--Commercial software to reflect what is being used in government
agencies
--SCOLA
--Learning and Knowledge Management Systems
•
•
•
•
Emerging connectivity/wireless/Virtual Private Networks
Student Learning Center and Faculty Development
Tailored instruction
4+2 (Creating learning independently of the prepared curriculum)
14
Formative Testing
• ACTFL OPIc (Oral Proficiency Interview,
Computerized)
• Computerized telephonic/web-based oral
proficiency assessment
• Online Diagnostic Assessment
• Achievement, Prochievement,
Proficiency/Competency based testing
• Diagnostic Assessment
15
Diagnostic Assessment
•
•
•
•
•
•
Certified speaking proficiency testers
Face to Face
Also over distance modalities
Pre- and Post- Immersion Assessment
One teacher per six person team
Diagnostic Assessment Center in
Continuing Education
16
Summative Assessment
• Defense Language Proficiency Test
(DLPT II, IV, V)
– Web delivered reading test—multiple choice,
constructed response
– Web delivered listening—multiple choice,
constructed response
• Oral Proficiency Interview—two rater, third
rater verification
17
DLIFLC Expansion:
Support to the Field
Successes
•
Language Familiarization
•
Mobile Training Teams (MTT)
•
•
•
109 MTT events provided training to 21,704 students
Training events tailored to meet unit and mission requirements
Language Familiarization Products
•
•
•
About 986,000 Language Survival Kits (LSKs) shipped to field units
16 new LSKs developed
Headstart program available in Iraqi, Pashto, and Dari
18
Teaching culture at DLIFLC
• Initial cultural training received at the Student Learning Center
(SLC) prior to class start
•
6 hours spent on cultural topics associated with target language
• Area Studies Requirements are met through the DLIFLC
developed courses now integrated into the curriculum
•
•
•
•
32 hours per semester provided in CAT IV languages
DLPT and Final Learning Objective domains addressed
Topic areas include: Military/Security, Economic/Political, Scientific/
Technical, Cultural/Social, Geography (physical, political, economic)
Outside expert sessions on area studies
• Chaplains’ Corps provides a 6-hour instructional series on the
impact of religion on military operations
19
Teaching culture at DLIFLC
•
Iso-Immersion Field Training Exercise (FTX) participation: Ord
Military Community, Seaside, CA
•
•
•
3,437 students participated in 153 FTX events
FTX length may range from 1 to 5 days
Emphasis on “learning by doing”
•
•
•
Students are immersed in language and culture
Students required to talk in their target language only and participate in
culture laden activities
Outside the US immersion experiences
•
•
•
25 programs conducted in 10 countries
233 students have participated to date
Promotes increased motivation and awareness as military linguists
20
Support to the Field
Sustainment After the Basic Program
•
Providing Post-Basic proficiency maintenance and enhancement support
to the language professional in the field
•
Extension Programs: Language Training Detachments (LTDs)
•
•
•
•
•
Established at sites with high concentration of language professionals
Seven active Language Training Detachments in CONUS and OCONUS
locations
Over 90 assigned faculty met the training needs of 1,940 students
More than 67,000 instructional hours taught in 15 languages
Distance Learning
•
•
•
•
•
Provided training to 1,258 students through 253 classes
Mobile Training Teams (MTT)
Video Tele-Training (VTT)
Online Learning (OLL)
Broadband Language Training System (BLTS)
21
Research and Evaluation
• Optimum Training Environment
–
–
–
–
•
•
•
•
•
•
Class size reduction
Use of technology
Teacher behaviors
Student behaviors
Immersions
Post-basic Curriculum
DLAB-Lite and DLAB II (new apptitude approaches)
Effect of Homework
Machine Translation
Brigham Young/ADL-CoLab evaluation of alternative
approaches to computer analyses of speaking
proficiency
22
Public Resources
• www.lingnet.org
•
•
•
•
•
Global Language Online Support System
Language Survival Kits
Countries in Perspective
Iraqi, Pashto, Dari HeadStart
Online Diagnostic Assessment (Arabic and Korean, Listening and
Reading; Chinese Reading w/listening under development; Russian
Listening and Reading under development)
• Weekly Training Events (Arabic, Korean, Chinese, Russian)
• Online Language Courses (Arabic, Chinese, Korean, Persian,
Russian, Serbian Croatian)
23
Needed from Educators
• Training in major languages
• Training in English usage and writing
• Students accustomed to a high standard of
output (as with many non-American students)
• Standards/Competency-Based testing to assess
and eventually insure readiness for high-level
learning
• Resources in early schooling to match the task
24
Are we training or educating?
•
•
•
•
A Socratic question, I hope…
What is the greater good?
Perhaps a lot of both…
Most certainly, our students are getting the
tools that will help fill up that integral…
• We need some help from the educators
25
Omar Khayyam …
“When I was young I did frequent
doctors and lawyers and heard
great argument and always came
out the same door wherein I
went.”
26
Disclaimer
The opinions expressed in this presentation
are that of the presenter and do not
necessarily represent the views of the
Defense Language Institute Foreign
Language Center; its staff, faculty or
students; the Department of Defense; the
United States; and probably the world in
general.
27
Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center
Achieving Production and Proficiency in
the Less Commonly Taught Languages
Presenter: Donald Fischer, PhD
Provost, DLIFLC
Colonel Sue Ann Sandusky, USA
Commandant, DLIFLC