The Defense Language Institute (DLI) is a
United States Department of Defense
The United States Department of Defense (DoD, USDOD or DOD) is an executive branch department of the federal government charged with coordinating and supervising all agencies and functions of the government directly related to national sec ...
(DoD) educational and research institution consisting of two separate entities which provide linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense, other federal agencies and numerous customers around the world. The Defense Language Institute is responsible for the Defense Language Program, and the bulk of the Defense Language Institute's activities involve educating DoD members in assigned languages, and international personnel in English. Other functions include planning, curriculum development, and research in
second-language acquisition.
Overview
The two primary entities of the Defense Language Institute are the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) and the Defense Language Institute English Language Center (DLIELC). DLIFLC is located at the Presidio of Monterey in Monterey, California, and DLIELC is located at Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland Air Force Base, Texas.
Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center
The institute offers foreign language instruction in more than two dozen languages to approximately 3,500 students on a schedule that extends throughout the year. Courses are taught seven hours per day, five days a week, with the exception of federal holidays and training holidays. The duration of courses range between 36 and 64 weeks, depending on the difficulty of the language.
The military also uses private language programs such as
CL-150.
Defense Language Institute English Language Center
The Defense Language Institute English Language Center manages the Department of Defense English Language Program (DELP), and is designated the 637th Training Group in 2015. The over 300 civilian members of the staff include the instructors who are qualified in the area of
English as a second language
English as a second or foreign language is the use of English by speakers with different native languages. Language education for people learning English may be known as English as a second language (ESL), English as a foreign language (EFL ...
.
DLIELC is accredited by the
Commission on English Language Program Accreditation
The Commission on English Language Program Accreditation (CEA) is a specialized accrediting agency that accredits post-secondary English language training programs. CEA states that its purpose is to provide a systematic approach by which programs ...
, which is recognized by the
US Department of Education
The United States Department of Education is a Cabinet-level department of the United States government. It began operating on May 4, 1980, having been created after the Department of Health, Education, and Welfare was split into the Department ...
.
DLIELC is divided into three resident academic training sections: General English, Specialized English, and Instructor Development. Depending on the needs of the students, training can range from nine weeks (in Specialized English, for example) to 52 weeks in General English. Some students arrive with only minimal English capabilities, then train to a predetermined English comprehension level (ECL) in General English. Annually, students from over 100 countries enroll in the DLIELC resident training programs. Training is paid by the host country (Foreign Military Sales) or through US grant assistance programs such as International Military Education and Training Programs. In addition to DLIELC's mission to train international students, DLIELC is responsible for providing English language training to US military service members whose primary language is not English. The DLIELC campus is located on the southwest quadrant of
Lackland AFB
Lackland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located in Bexar County, Texas. The base is under the jurisdiction of the 802d Mission Support Group, Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and an enclave of the city of Sa ...
.
History
The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) traces its roots to the eve of United States entry into
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
, when the U.S. Army established a secret school at the Presidio of San Francisco with a budget of $2,000 to
teach the Japanese language. Classes began 1 November 1941, with four instructors and 60 students in an abandoned airplane hangar at
Crissy Field.
Gen.
Joseph Stilwell
Joseph Warren "Vinegar Joe" Stilwell (March 19, 1883 – October 12, 1946) was a United States Army general who served in the China Burma India Theater during World War II. An early American popular hero of the war for leading a column walking o ...
and Gen.
George Marshall
George Catlett Marshall Jr. (December 31, 1880 – October 16, 1959) was an American army officer and statesman. He rose through the United States Army to become Chief of Staff of the United States Army, Chief of Staff of the US Army under Pre ...
studied Chinese as officers stationed in China and understood the need to provide language training for enlisted troops, establishing a language program in 1924 to teach U.S. soldiers and officers in Asia the rudiments of spoken Chinese. Recognizing the strained relations between Japan and the U.S. in the build up to the war, a small group of officers with previous tours of duty in Japan saw the need for an intelligence unit, which would be able to understand the Japanese language. This group of officers was headed by Lt. Col. John Weckerling and Capt Kai E. Rasmussen. Japanese American Maj
John F. Aiso and Pfc Arthur Kaneko, were found to be qualified linguists along with two civilian instructors, Akira Oshida and Shigeya Kihara, and became MISLS's first instructors.
The students were primarily second generation
Japanese Americans
are Americans of Japanese ancestry. Japanese Americans were among the three largest Asian American ethnic communities during the 20th century; but, according to the 2000 census, they have declined in number to constitute the sixth largest Asi ...
(Nisei) from the West Coast, who had learned Japanese from their first-generation parents but were educated in the US and whose Japanese was somewhat limited, the "Kibei", Japanese-Americans who had been educated in Japan and spoke Japanese like the Japanese themselves, along with two Caucasian students who were born in Japan as the sons of missionaries. Even for the native Japanese speakers, the course curriculum featured ''heigo'' (兵語) or military specific terminology that was as foreign to the Japanese speakers as
US military slang is to the average American civilian.
During the war, the
Military Intelligence Service Language School (MISLS), as it came to be called, grew dramatically. After the attack on
Pearl Harbor
Pearl Harbor is an American lagoon harbor on the island of Oahu, Hawaii, west of Honolulu. It was often visited by the Naval fleet of the United States, before it was acquired from the Hawaiian Kingdom by the U.S. with the signing of the R ...
Japanese-Americans on the West Coast and the
Hawaii Territory
The Territory of Hawaii or Hawaii Territory (Hawaiian language, Hawaiian: ''Panalāʻau o Hawaiʻi'') was an organized incorporated territories of the United States, organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from Ap ...
were moved into
internment camps
Internment is the imprisonment of people, commonly in large groups, without charges or intent to file charges. The term is especially used for the confinement "of enemy citizens in wartime or of terrorism suspects". Thus, while it can simpl ...
in 1942. Because of anti-Japanese sentiments the Army did a nationwide survey for the least hostile environment and moved the school to a former
Minnesota
Minnesota () is a state in the upper midwestern region of the United States. It is the 12th largest U.S. state in area and the 22nd most populous, with over 5.75 million residents. Minnesota is home to western prairies, now given over to ...
WPA
WPA may refer to:
Computing
*Wi-Fi Protected Access, a wireless encryption standard
*Windows Product Activation, in Microsoft software licensing
* Wireless Public Alerting (Alert Ready), emergency alerts over LTE in Canada
* Windows Performance An ...
camp named
Camp Savage. By 1944 the school had outgrown those facilities and moved to
Fort Snelling close by. There the school grew to 125 classrooms with over 160 instructors. Over 6,000 of its graduates served in the
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
during the war and occupation of Japan.
Nisei Hall, along with several other buildings, is named to recognize those WWII students honored in the institute's Yankee Samurai exhibit. The
John Aiso Library is named for the former MISLS director of academic training, Munakata Hall is named for the former MISLS instructor Yutaka Munakata, and the Hachiya, Mizutari, and Nakamura Halls are named for Frank Tadakazu Hachiya, Yukitaka "Terry" Mizutari, and George Ichiro Nakamura, who were killed in action in Leyte, New Guinea, and Luzon.
In 1946 Fort Snelling was deactivated and the school moved back to the
Presidio of Monterey
The Presidio of Monterey (POM), located in Monterey, California, is an active US Army installation with historic ties to the Spanish colonial era. Currently, it is the home of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLI-FLC). ...
. There it was renamed as the Army Language School. The
Cold War accelerated the school's growth in 1947–48. Instructors were recruited worldwide, included native speakers of thirty plus languages. Russian became the largest program, followed by Chinese, Korean, and German.
The Defense Language Institute English Language Center (DLIELC) traces its formal beginning to May 1954, when the 3746th Pre-Flight Training Squadron (language) was activated and assumed responsibility for all English language training. In 1960, the Language School, USAF, activated and assumed the mission. In 1966, the DoD established the Defense Language Institute English Language School (DLIELS) and placed it under US Army control although the school remained at Lackland AFB. In 1976, the DoD appointed the US Air Force as the executive agent for the school and redesignated it the Defense Language Institute English Language Center.
Cold War language instruction
The U.S. Air Force met most of its foreign language training requirements in the 1950s through contract programs at universities such as
Yale
Yale University is a private research university in New Haven, Connecticut. Established in 1701 as the Collegiate School, it is the third-oldest institution of higher education in the United States and among the most prestigious in the wor ...
,
Cornell
Cornell University is a private statutory land-grant research university based in Ithaca, New York. It is a member of the Ivy League. Founded in 1865 by Ezra Cornell and Andrew Dickson White, Cornell was founded with the intention to teach a ...
, and
Syracuse and the U.S. Navy taught foreign languages at the Naval Intelligence School in Washington, D.C., but in 1963 these programs were consolidated into the Defense Foreign Language Program. A new headquarters, the Defense Language Institute (DLI), was established in Washington, D.C., and the former Army Language School commandant, Colonel James L. Collins Jr., became the institute's first director. The Army Language School became the DLI West Coast Branch, and the foreign language department at the Naval Intelligence School became the DLI East Coast Branch. The contract programs were gradually phased out. The DLI also took over the English Language School at
Lackland Air Force Base
Lackland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located in Bexar County, Texas. The base is under the jurisdiction of the 802d Mission Support Group, Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and an enclave of the city of S ...
, Texas, which became the DLI English Language Center (DLIELC).
During the peak of American involvement in
Vietnam
Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...
(1965–73), the DLI stepped up the pace of language training. While regular language training continued unabated, more than 20,000 service personnel studied
Vietnamese
Vietnamese may refer to:
* Something of, from, or related to Vietnam, a country in Southeast Asia
** A citizen of Vietnam. See Demographics of Vietnam.
* Vietnamese people, or Kinh people, a Southeast Asian ethnic group native to Vietnam
** Overse ...
through the DLI's programs, many taking a special eight-week military adviser "survival" course. From 1966 to 1973, the institute also operated a Vietnamese branch using contract instructors at Biggs Air Force Base near
Fort Bliss, Texas
Fort Bliss is a United States Army post in New Mexico and Texas, with its headquarters in El Paso, Texas. Named in honor of LTC William Bliss (1815–1853), a mathematics professor who was the son-in-law of President Zachary Taylor, Ft. Bliss h ...
(DLI Support Command, later renamed the DLI Southwest Branch). Vietnamese instruction continued at DLI until 2004.
Consolidation
In the 1970s the institute's headquarters and all resident language training were consolidated at the West Coast Branch and renamed the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC). In 1973, the newly formed
U.S. Army Training and Doctrine Command (TRADOC) assumed administrative control, and in 1976, all English language training operations were returned to the U.S. Air Force, which operates DLIELC to this day.
![San Francisco Public Health Service Hospital](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fa/San_Francisco_Public_Health_Service_Hospital.jpg)
The DLIFLC won academic accreditation in 1979 from the
Western Association of Schools and Colleges
The Western Association of Schools and Colleges (WASC) was an organization providing accreditation of public and private universities, colleges, secondary and elementary schools in California and Hawaii, the territories of Guam, American Sam ...
, and in 1981 the position of academic dean (later called provost) was reestablished. In the early 1980s, crowding and living conditions at the Monterey location forced the institute to open two temporary branches: a branch for air force enlisted students of Russian at
Lackland Air Force Base
Lackland Air Force Base is a United States Air Force (USAF) base located in Bexar County, Texas. The base is under the jurisdiction of the 802d Mission Support Group, Air Education and Training Command (AETC) and an enclave of the city of S ...
, Texas (1981–1987), and another for army enlisted students of German, Korean and Spanish at the
Presidio of San Francisco (1982–1988) in the former Public Health Service Hospital. There were only enlisted male and female students at the Presidio of San Francisco, primarily from the
Military Occupational Specialties
A United States military occupation code, or a military occupational specialty code (MOS code), is a nine-character code used in the United States Army and United States Marine Corps to identify a specific job. In the United States Air Force, a sy ...
of
Military Intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
and
Military Police
Military police (MP) are law enforcement agencies connected with, or part of, the military of a state. In wartime operations, the military police may support the main fighting force with force protection, convoy security, screening, rear rec ...
with a small number of
Army Special Forces
The United States Army Special Forces (SF), colloquially known as the "Green Berets" due to their distinctive service headgear, are a special operations force of the United States Army.
The Green Berets are geared towards nine doctrinal mis ...
. As a result of these conditions, the institute began an extensive facilities expansion program on the Presidio. In 2002 the
Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges
The Accrediting Commission for Community and Junior Colleges (ACCJC) is an accrediting organization in the United States. It accredits private and public colleges that provide students two-year education programs and confer the associate deg ...
accredited the institute as an
associate degree-granting institution.
Base Realignment and annexation
In the spring of 1993, the Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) Commission rejected suggestions that the institute be moved or closed, and recommended that its mission be continued at the present location. In summer of 2005, the commission reopened the issue, to include the closure of the
Naval Postgraduate School. Supporters of the closure believed that due to the rising property values and cost of living in the Monterey Bay area, taxpayers would save money by moving both schools to a less expensive location in
Ohio
Ohio () is a state in the Midwestern region of the United States. Of the fifty U.S. states, it is the 34th-largest by area, and with a population of nearly 11.8 million, is the seventh-most populous and tenth-most densely populated. The sta ...
. Opponents argued that it would be difficult (if not impossible) to replace the experienced native-speaking faculty at DLI, as the cultural centers of San Francisco and California's Central Coast offer a more diverse pool from which to recruit local instructors, and that the
military intelligence
Military intelligence is a military discipline that uses information collection and analysis approaches to provide guidance and direction to assist commanders in their decisions. This aim is achieved by providing an assessment of data from a ...
community would suffer as a result. The BRAC commission met in Monterey on 8 August 2005, to hear arguments from both sides. On 25 August 2005, the commission's final vote was unanimous to keep DLI at its current location in Monterey.
Schools and locations
English Language Center (DLIELC)
The DLIELC is a Department of Defense agency operated by the
U.S. Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...
's
37th Training Wing, and is responsible for training international military and civilian personnel to speak and teach English. The agency also manages the English as a Second Language Program for the
US military
The United States Armed Forces are the Military, military forces of the United States. The armed forces consists of six Military branch, service branches: the United States Army, Army, United States Marine Corps, Marine Corps, United States N ...
, and manages overseas English training programs. International students must be sponsored by an agency of the Department of Defense, and commonly include personnel from
NATO
The North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO, ; french: Organisation du traité de l'Atlantique nord, ), also called the North Atlantic Alliance, is an intergovernmental military alliance between 30 member states – 28 European and two No ...
member countries. Over 100 countries are represented among the student body at DLIELC at any given time. The main campus is currently located on the grounds of
Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland Air Force Base, in
San Antonio, Texas
("Cradle of Freedom")
, image_map =
, mapsize = 220px
, map_caption = Interactive map of San Antonio
, subdivision_type = Country
, subdivision_name = United States
, subdivision_type1= State
, subdivision_name1 = Texas
, subdivision_t ...
. DLIELC acculturates and trains international personnel to communicate in English and to instruct English language programs in their country, trains United States military personnel in English as a second language, and deploys English Language Training programs around the world in support of the Defense Department.
Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC)
The DLIFLC at the
Presidio of Monterey, California
The Presidio of Monterey (POM), located in Monterey, California, is an active US Army installation with historic ties to the Spanish colonial era. Currently, it is the home of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLI-FLC). ...
(DLIFLC & POM) is the DoD's primary foreign language school. Military service members study foreign languages at highly accelerated paces in courses ranging from 24 to 64 weeks in length. In October 2001, the Institute received Federal degree-granting authority to issue
Associate of Arts in Foreign Language degrees to qualified graduates of all basic programs. As of 2022, DLIFLC also offers bachelor's degrees to graduates of DLI accredited Intermediate and Advanced courses.
Although the property is under the jurisdiction of the
United States Army
The United States Army (USA) is the land warfare, land military branch, service branch of the United States Armed Forces. It is one of the eight Uniformed services of the United States, U.S. uniformed services, and is designated as the Army o ...
, there are
U.S. Navy
The United States Navy (USN) is the maritime service branch of the United States Armed Forces and one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. It is the largest and most powerful navy in the world, with the estimated tonnage o ...
,
U.S. Marine Corps, and
U.S. Air Force
The United States Air Force (USAF) is the air service branch of the United States Armed Forces, and is one of the eight uniformed services of the United States. Originally created on 1 August 1907, as a part of the United States Army Sign ...
presences on post, and all four branches provide students and instructors. Members of other Federal agencies and military services of other countries may also receive training, and members of other
law enforcement agencies
A law enforcement agency (LEA) is any government agency responsible for the enforcement of the laws.
Jurisdiction
LEAs which have their ability to apply their powers restricted in some way are said to operate within a jurisdiction.
LEA ...
may receive Spanish language training.
As of 2015, a number of languages are taught at the DLIFLC including Afrikaans in Washington, DC and the following in Monterey:
Modern Standard Arabic, Arabic – Egyptian, Arabic – Levantine, Arabic – Iraqi, Chinese (Mandarin), French, German, Hebrew, Hindi, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Pashto,
Persian
Persian may refer to:
* People and things from Iran, historically called ''Persia'' in the English language
** Persians, the majority ethnic group in Iran, not to be conflated with the Iranic peoples
** Persian language, an Iranian language of the ...
, Portuguese, Punjabi, Russian, Serbian / Croatian, Spanish, Filipino (Tagalog), Turkish, and Urdu.
DLI-Washington
The DLIFLC also maintains the DLI-Washington office in the Washington, D.C. area. The Washington office provides training in languages not taught at the
Presidio of Monterey
The Presidio of Monterey (POM), located in Monterey, California, is an active US Army installation with historic ties to the Spanish colonial era. Currently, it is the home of the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLI-FLC). ...
, such as "low-density languages" which do not require the same large volume of trained personnel. There is some overlap, however, as students from the
Defense Attaché System
The Defense Attaché System is an arm of the Defense Intelligence Agency tasked with representing the United States in defense and military related matters with foreign governments around the world. Defense Attache Offices (DAO) operate from U.S. ...
(DAS) are given local training in languages also available at the Monterey location.
Language training through DLI-Washington is conducted at the
National Foreign Affairs Training Center (NFATC) of the
United States Department of State
The United States Department of State (DOS), or State Department, is an United States federal executive departments, executive department of the Federal government of the United States, U.S. federal government responsible for the country's fore ...
, and at various contracted foreign language schools in the metropolitan Washington, DC area.
See also
*
Defense Language Aptitude Battery
The Defense Language Aptitude Battery (DLAB) is a test used by the United States Department of Defense to test an individual's potential for learning a foreign language and thus determining who may pursue training as a military linguist. It consis ...
*
Defense Language Office
The Defense Language Office was an office within the United States Department of Defense. It was officially established in May 2005 under the Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness to ensure a strategic focus on lang ...
*
Defense Language Proficiency Tests
The Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT) is a battery of foreign language tests produced by the Defense Language Institute and used by the United States Department of Defense (DoD). They are intended to assess the general language proficienc ...
*
Monterey Institute of International Studies
The Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (MIIS), formerly known as the Monterey Institute of International Studies, is an American graduate school of Middlebury College, a private college in Middlebury, Vermont.
Established ...
*
Joint Services School for Linguists
The Joint Services School for Linguists (JSSL) was founded in 1951 by the British armed services to provide language training, principally in Russian, and largely to selected conscripts undergoing National Service. The school closed with the en ...
*
Center for Advanced Study of Language
The University of Maryland (UMD) Center for Advanced Study of Language (CASL)—which in 2018 became part of UMD's new Applied Research Laboratory for Intelligence and Security (ARLIS)—was created to be the national laboratory for advanced resea ...
*
Language education
Language education – the process and practice of teaching a second or foreign language – is primarily a branch of applied linguistics, but can be an interdisciplinary field. There are four main learning categories for language educatio ...
*
List of Language Self-Study Programs
A ''list'' is any set of items in a row. List or lists may also refer to:
People
* List (surname)
Organizations
* List College, an undergraduate division of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America
* SC Germania List, German rugby unio ...
References
; Sources
* Cameron Binkley, ''A Pictorial History of the Defense Language Institute'' (US Army, 2011).
External links
Defense Language Institute English Language CenterDefense Language Institute Foreign Language Center
{{Coord, 36.6057, N, 121.9104, W, source:wikidata, display=title
Military education and training in the United States
United States Army Training and Doctrine Command
Universities and colleges in Monterey County, California
Language schools in the United States
1941 establishments in the United States
Schools accredited by the Western Association of Schools and Colleges
Monterey, California
Universities and colleges in California