Danish army
students attend
DLIFLC for Dari language
training
By Pat Griffith, AUSA News
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY,
Calif. – Danish army 1st Lt. Soren
Vase is among several international
students, including three of his
countrymen, taking classes at the
Defense Language Institute Foreign
Language Center.
“It is believed that Dari will be
more useful in the future and that
is why they have started this new
cooperation with [DLI’s] Dari
department,” Vase said.
“We can meet these challenges
beforehand so we are not caught off
guard. We have very limited Dari
capacity right now.”
The four Danes are going through
at a faster pace than normal because
two of them are deploying in August.
Vase and the fourth Danish soldier
will deploy in February, and they
are trying to stay at DLIFLC for a
longer period of time.
“This place focuses a lot on reading
and listening,” he said. “Since we’re
going to be speaking a lot, talking to
people, we would like to have some
more emphasis on speaking.”
Vase learned English as a child
mostly because of a heavy influence
of movies and music from the
United States and Great Britain,
but nevertheless, it’s still a second
language, which can be confusing
sometimes trying to learn Dari with
English as the only binding language
between him and his instructors.
“Especially in translation if you
have to find a certain expression, it
might be difficult,” Vase said. “It takes
that much longer for us to have to
translate, or we might have to rewrite
something that would be easier if we
were working in our native language.”
Vase lauded the learning
atmosphere at DLIFLC, especially
the integration of electronics such
as SmartBoards, laptop computers
and iPods.
“The cornerstone of this place is
the computer and the network and
the servers,” he said. “It’s basically
where everything is.”
Adding, “Our teaching team
has been very good at finding
supplemental material for us so we
could move on to something else.
We talk a lot about current events
and news.”
Published by Association of the United States
Army News, Aug. 2010
DLIFLC to roll
out Very Low
Range tests for
servicemembers
By Natela Cutter,
Strategic Communications
PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY,
Calif. – The Defense Language
Institute Foreign Language Center
will begin rolling out Very Low
Range foreign language tests early
in the calendar year, in response to
Department of Defense needs to
assess a greater number of personnel
at the lowest proficiency levels.
“The first (languages) to be rolled
out will be tests in Dari, Pashto,
and Urdu, to respond to the urgent
needs of the Af-Pak Hands project
and our troops in Afghanistan,”
said DLIFLC Provost Dr. Donald
Fischer, speaking about the new
Afghanistan-Pakistan Hands
program that calls for language and
culture training for servicemembers
and continuity of deployment
assignments, so as to build trust
with the local populations.
Historically, the Defense
Language Proficiency Test
(DLPT) was intended for the
testing of language professionals,
those who studied or learned a
language which they are using
currently in their careers. The test,
composed of reading and listening
comprehension sections, can last
up to three hours for each skill, and
does not contain a large number of
proficiency questions below level
2, according to the Interagency
Language Roundtable scale.
“The Very Low Range DLPT
was designed to address service
needs within a shorter length of time
and with lower-level test questions.
The exam should be able to test
examinees with proficiency levels
below 2 accurately, without making
them try to guess at large numbers
of items well above their level,”
explained Dr. Mika Hoffman, dean
of Test Development at DLIFLC.
“In summer of 2011, VLR
tests will be rolled out in French,
Spanish, Korean, Chinese, Persian
Farsi, and Iraqi,” said Hoffman, who
added that Baluchi, Chavacano,
and Cebuano are also planned to be
developed.
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