Examine Ways to Decrease Training Duration While Maintaining Training Objective
Abstract
This report provides United States Special Operations Command (USSOCOM) with insights into the elements of foreign language training that must be considered if tasked with one of two scenarios: (1) decreasing the current duration of Special Operations Forces (SOF) initial acquisition training (IAT), while maintaining the current training objective (i.e., ILR Level 1/1 on the two-skill Oral Proficiency Interview), or (2) maintaining the current duration of SOF IAT, while increasing the training objective. This report synthesizes information across three sources: (1) the current literature, (2) the perspectives of experts (i.e., academicians, researchers) and SOF language program stakeholders, and (3) an original empirical study investigating the relationship between training duration and post-training language proficiency in the SOF environment. The four main elements of foreign language training that can be leveraged to increase the efficiency and effectiveness of SOF IAT are as follows: (1) student individual differences, (2) instructor qualifications, (3) course factors, and (4) training environment factors. Overall recommendations for both scenarios include the following: (1) conducting a needs assessment to create alignment between all training elements in the SOF IAT, (2) leveraging existing SOFLO research on training elements to optimize SOF IAT efficiency and effectiveness, and (3) ensuring stakeholder's' buy-in from the beginning of the change process.
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Sep 01, 2012
- Accession Number
- ADA585076
Entities
People
- Cristina Lambert
- David Fried
- Eric A. Surface
- Gwendolyn Good
- Jennifer L. Mcginnis
- Lindsey Jeralds
- Matthew Borneman