Commander Andy Cropley Royal Navy

Commanding OfficerDefence School of Languages

United Kingdom

Proficiency v Context Sensitivity

Exploiting the Creative Tension

BILC 2008

Defence School of Languages (DSL)

• Commanding Officer– Cdr Andy Cropley RN

• Officer Commanding Arabic Language Wing– Maj Paul Martin AGC(ETS)

• Officer Commanding English Language Wing– Lt Cdr Alex Panic RN

In the Rain of San Antonio

• Challenges of Very Difficult Languages• Competing Output Standards

– STANAG v Operational Requirement

• Culture Shock• Sterility of Proficiency based Courses• Task Based Language Teaching• Simulation Exercises• Implications for Assessment• Teaching Teams

Difficult Languages• Still just as difficult• Teacher Skills

– Understanding the requirement• Proficiency & Context

– Training– Shared Experience– Peer review and challenge

• Enhanced Resources– Realia– Realistic Scenarios– Electronic Media

Competing Output Standards

STANAG

Non-essential breadth

DuressHostilityContext

OperationalRequirement

Competing Output Standards

STANAG

Non-essential breadth

DuressHostilityContext

OperationalRequirement

Competing Output Standards

STANAG

Non-essential breadth

DuressHostilityContext

OperationalRequirement

• Detailed analysis of both standards– by linguists and non-linguists

• Much mutual enhancement• Some tension or contradiction

– Exercise in itself very useful– Revisit standards

• Emphasises need for common interpretation

• Development of single set of objectives– Meeting both standards

Competing Output Standards

Culture Shock – Task Based Training

• Evidence of some success– Enhanced confidence– Students want more– Start earlier in the course– Expand beyond Theatre Linguists

• Limitations– Expensive to run– Suspension of reality– Reliance on role players– Little and often

Assessment

• Still Proficiency Based• But......

– First combined output derived course currently underway

– In house assessment– Proficiency at core– Shaped by Operational Requirement– Scope to design individual assessment

to test individual needs– Nationally Recognised Qualifications

Joining it All Up

• Focus on Training over Assessment• Gradual but fundamental redesign• Responsibility placed upon staff• Responsibility placed upon

Command

Focus on Training over Assessment

• Training serials become assessment evidence– Core Framework provided by STANAG– Operational Requirement provides the

context

• Demands tight quality assurance– Enhanced role for senior teaching staff– Customer feedback essential

• External review– MOD owned but outside DSL– National Bodies

Gradual but Fundamental Redesign

• Focus on needs of learner and future employer– Remove obsession with vocabulary lists– Remove exam practice– Realism wherever possible

• Underpinned by STANAG• Some compromise essential

– Huge variety of students• Backgrounds and futures

• Exploit opportunities for integration

Responsibility placed upon staff

• Understand output standards– STANAG

• Attendance at Language Testing Seminar

– Operational Requirement– Interaction of the two– Internal training– Ongoing Comparative Review

• Assess students objectively against standards

• Challenge accepted norms– Exams no longer an excuse

Responsibility on Command• Foster an atmosphere of challenge

– Remove fear and personalisation– Enhance through academic study

• Ensure consistency– Shared understanding– Rigorous cross-language comparisons– Enhanced Customer engagement– Overcoming culture of praise

• Enable staff development– Academic– Practical– Internal

Examples

• New debate on teaching of Listening• Active consideration of enhanced

learner autonomy• Consideration of enhancing practical

skills of linguists– Listening skills– Summarising

• Full and coherent integration of cultural awareness

Anticipated Benefits

• Saving Time– 8 weeks of 37 week French L4 course

spent in exam preparation and execution

• Ability to respond to changing demands

• Ability to adapt to individual demands• Real staff ownership of courses• Ability to exploit customer feedback• Positive cycle of continuous

improvement

Major Paul Martin

Officer Commanding Arabic Language Wing (ALW)

Defence School of Languages (UK)

ALW and IILW

• Arabic Language Wing (ALW)• Indo-Iranian Language Wing (IILW)

Aim

• Example of current Tasked Based Training for Operational Languages in ALW and IILW

• Example of the Operational Language context for DSL Linguists

Competing Output Standards

STANAG

Non-essential breadth

DuressHostilityContext

OperationalRequirement

Tasked Based Training

• Operational Linguists to Level 3• 15 months course followed by

Military Training• Arabic – MSA followed by Iraqi

Dialect Phase• Pashto, Dari, 15 month course to

Level 3

Recent News Clip about DSL

• British Forces Broadcasting Service (BFBS)

Tasked Based Training

• Continuous throughout the Courses• Exercise Big Brother - ALW• Exercise Flashman - IILW

Tasked Based Training• Dealing with a wide range of

information at the camp gates and by mobile phone

• Tactical questioning with trained staff

• Meeting with local tribal leaders – Water, Electricity, Schools and Security

• Dealing with Informants through Agent Handlers

Tasked Based Training• Dealing with information about a

Kidnapping • Car Search • House Search – Distressed Females

in House• Reports of Suspicious Activity• Follow up of information received

from an informant the day before

Tasked Based Training• Medical Examination• Arrest Situation• Angry Demonstration at Main Gate• Meeting with Locally Employed

Civilians (LECs) about Pay and Conditions of Work

Pool of Linguists - Other Tasks during the Exercises

• Translations of official letters, e-mails etc

• Translating Press Releases to L2• Dealing with Mobile Calls• Media Monitoring• DVD Messages translations

Difficult Languages

Tasked Based Training Works

Extracts from a letter sent to OC ALW dated 26 April 2008

from

Sergeant “Fred Smith”

Rescue of British Journalist

Richard Butler – 15 April in Basra

After more than 40 days living and fighting alongside the Iraqi Army from a forward post during the height of the Battle for Basra, I have been evacuated to Bradley Lines Hospital with a bad gut infection.

At least I’ve got the record for longest unbroken run at the forward position in the Shatt Al Arab Hotel. I’ve been able to work with the best kind of people and seen and learned things that I will never forget.

In my first morning here I used up three tourniquets and I think March 25th this year is one day that I will never forget. During a mammoth 5 hour planning conference with Iraqi Staff Officers, each hour I had a 15 minute break in which I was attached to the medics.

We went zig-zagging across a palm grove in the middle of a mortar barrage and down a tunnel strewn with moaning wounded and dead in order to treat severely wounded Iraqis.

In the RAP we came across a young Iraqi soldier with both legs torn and shredded beyond recognition by an IED blast. I can still hear him screaming in Iraqi for us to kill him!

Running back in, we were almost crushed by two ancient T55 Tanks which had been flung out to repel a ‘Jaish Al- Mardi’ Counter-attack.

The next hour we were back out to see an unconscious child with a severe head injury. She later died- I will never forget it, or the faces of her family who came around to see me night after night.

If I can make a suggestion Sir? We really need to know some Range Conduct Vocabulary including rifle drills on the range, loading/unloading and the internal components of a rifle.

Important Feedback to update DSL Task Based Training

Still Not Perfect

• Contingency Operating Base (COB) • Al-Basrah

Still Not Perfect

• Contingency Operating Base (COB) • Al-Basrah

Using English/Arabic Keyboard

• ىس

ف• خ• ح•

Lieutenant Commander Alex Panić Royal Navy

Officer Commanding

English Language Wing (ELW)Defence School of Languages

Tailored Learning

BILC 2008

Tailored Learning

• ELW overview• Course ownership• Cultural awareness• Operational Support• Ensure Consistency

ELW Overview

• General– Start with General ELT

• Specialist Training– English for the Advanced Command and

Staff Course (SLP 2-3)– Pre-Royal Military Academy Sandhurst

(SLP 1-2)– SLP preparation with Exam– Train the Trainer (normally SLP 3)– Interpreters– Medical– Aviation– Ops planning and implementation

ELW Overview• Unique training

– Immersion in military environment

– Joint Training (Military/civilian staff)

– Currency– Interaction with

front line• 300+ students pa

from >50 countries

• Military/Civil Service Training

Course Ownership

• Flexibility• Specially designed training

– Train any topic (via MoD contacts)• Full customer engagement

– OC ELW visits countries • Differing outputs/Accreditation

– Award of SLP qualifications

Cultural Awareness• Full and coherent

integration in all courses (cultural difference briefs)

• British cultural visits (museums, theatre, historic places)

• Military visits

Cultural Awareness• Military cultural

training (reception, Mess Dinner)

• British Military Personnel ‘Plain English’ briefs

• British Military Personnel ‘English Structure’ briefs

Operational Support

• ELW deploys (Iraq, Afghanistan, Congo)

• Provide in-theatre training

• Provide support to operations

• Train deploying staff

Ensure Consistency• Validate all courses

– Students/instructors/Special to Arms Schools

– Discuss with clients• External auditing• Promote Staff Development• Positive cycle of continuous improvement• Enhanced Resources

Contact

Tel: (+44-1494) 683207

Email: oc-elw-dsl@agctg.mod.uk

Website: www.mod.uk/DefenceInternet/AboutDefence/WhatWeDo/TrainingandExercises/DSL/

(Accessible July 08)