Training focuses on dialects
By Pat Griffith, AUSA News
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY,
Calif. - Arabic is spoken
throughout the world but, like
English, there are variations of the
language from region to region.
Navy Seaman Kenneth
Wilkerson is training at the
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center in the
Arabic dialect prominent in Iraq,
which is one of the closer ones to
Modern Standard Arabic.
It’s a far cry from the Arabic
spoken in northern African
countries. There are different
speech patterns, a lot of common
vocabulary changes to “street”
vocabulary, and in some cases
grammar usage.
Much of the curriculum has been
written in the Iraqi-Arabic dialect
so when reading text, students can
practice on how the language should
be spoken in the region.
Wilkerson took Spanish for five
years in high school and college,
but he feels he has a much better
grasp on speaking Arabic than he
ever did Spanish.
“We transitioned into a new
unit that was focused on speaking
in daily activities such as going to
the post office or birthday parties,”
Wilkerson said. “Once we started to
do some of those around week eight
or 10, it was a comfortable thing
for me to hear, and everyone sort of
found their own comfort zone.”
Adding, “At this point, 24 of 64
weeks, we’re all very comfortable,
even with things we’ve never
heard before – certain words or
expressions.”
Even away from campus and
in the town of Monterey, he finds
himself thinking in Arabic and
wanting to speak it.
“For me, I’m so completely
immersed trying to make the most
of the 64 weeks, sometimes I’m
speaking to people in Arabic, but
they don’t understand it,” he said
with a laugh.
Wilkerson ended up in the Navy
and at DLIFLC because he wanted
to work in the intelligence field. He
also feels training in Arabic will be
good for his career whether he stays
in the military or not.
“The Middle East is ever
emerging in our politics,”
Wilkerson said.
And simply, Arabic is also
“more enjoyable.”
the entire existence of the GLOSS
project we have been continuously
adding new capabilities and
refining our methodological, as
well as pedagogical, approaches in
the development of online lessons,”
said Global Language Online
Learning System (GLOSS)
Project Chief, Natalia Anthokin.
Some of the criteria which must
be fulfilled in order to win the
award include innovative course
design, cost savings, rapid fielding
of dL courses, and implementation
and streamlining of processes.
Currently, there are 4,449
online GLOSS lessons (proficiency
level 1, 1+, 2, 2+, and 3) in 34
languages. These lessons are used
by DLIFLC students as well as by
military linguists in the field for
sustainment and enhancement of
their language skills. The program
is open to the public and can be
found at http://gloss.dliflc.edu/
Published by Association of the United States
Army News, Aug. 2010
DLIFLC wins TRADOC
Distance Learning
Maverick Award
By Natela Cutter,
Strategic Communications
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY,
Calif. - The Defense Language
Institute Fore ign Language
Center won the prestigious annual
TRADOC-wide Distributed
Learning (dL) Maverick award in
March 2010.
The award was received
by DLIFLC’s Curriculum
Development team.
“The award is given to those
who think and do things using an
‘out-of-the-box’ approach. During
GLOSS Project Chief, Natalia Antokhin,
receives the prestigious annual TRADOC-wide
Distributed Learning (dL) Maverick award
from Associate Provost of Language Science
and Technology, Dr. Christine Campbell.
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