The Adequacy of the Army's Foreign Language Program

Proficiency in a foreign language is not a skill possessed by many Americans. The geography of our country, limited exposure to non-English speaking foreigners, assimilation of immmigrants and the worldwide popularity of English as a second language have combined to make mastery of a foreign language a nonessential skill in most professions. The Army is not one of those career fields. A significant and growing number of soldiers hold a MOS in which the predominate skill is proficiency in a foreign language. Encompassing a wide variety of MOSs, these soldiers are critical to mission accomplishment in both peace and war. Unfortunately their ability to execute this critical task is suspect. Frequently, many critics point to the Defense Language Institute, Foreign Language Center DLIFLC as the sole cause of this problem, without realizing that follow-on language training and management of linguists are just as important as initial language training. Keywords Foreign languages Army personnel.