BUREAU FOR INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE COORDINATION BUREAU DE COORDINATION LINGUISTIQUE INTERNATIONALE...

BUREAU FOR INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE COORDINATION

BUREAU DE COORDINATION LINGUISTIQUE INTERNATIONALE

NATOSPEAK: ENGLISH IN MULTINATIONAL SETTINGS

Julie J. Dubeau, BILC Chair Opening Briefing

Tbilisi, Georgia, 6 May 2013

Outline• What is BILC?

– Membership, Secretariat, Mission

• Programme of work:– Events– Cooperative Language Training Assessments– Assistance to Testing Programmes

• NATO Language Context– Conference Theme

• Updates

BackgroundBILC was established in 1966 as an advisory body to NATO. The founding members are France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.

1967: Belgium, Canada, Netherlands1975: SHAPE and IMS/NATO (non-voting members) 1978: Portugal 1983: Turkey 1984: Denmark and Greece1985: Spain 1993: Norway 1999: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland2004: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia2008: Albania, Croatia

Partner countries routinely participate. All nations are welcome to attend and/or observe. The BILC Chair presides over the Steering Committee which meets at the spring conference. Voting members are the heads of NATO delegations.

Senior AdvisorDr. R. Clifford

SecretaryJ. Vasilj-Begovic

LanguageTraining Assessments

K. Wert

LanguageTesting Programmes

P. Garza

BILCSteering Committee

ChairJ. Dubeau

AssociateSecretaries

BILCSecretariat

As of May 2013

GRB (1966-1981)DEU (1982-1996)USA (1997-2008)CAN (2008-2014)

BILC Mission & Vision

Mission: To promote and foster interoperability among NATO and PfP nations by furthering standardization of language training and testing. To support the Alliance's operations through the exchange of knowledge and best practices, IAW established procedures and agreements.

Vision: To achieve levels of excellence where progress made by one is shared by all.

Two Main Events:BILC Conference in Spring

May 2012 was hosted by the Czech Republic –“Lifelong Language Learning, Enhancing Educational Effectiveness”

The 2013 Conference will be hosted by Belgium-Theme & dates TBD

BILC Professional Seminar in Fall

October 2012 was hosted by Slovenia– “Back to Basics: Recipes for Instructional Success ”

Hosted by Sweden in Stockholm: 13-18 Oct 2013 “ Diligent Design: Building Blocks to Maximize Learning”

BILC Programmes

• Assistance to National Testing Programmes – Moldova May 2012, Ukraine Nov 2012

– Planned: Russia June 2013

• Language Testing Seminar (LTS): 2 weeks, 2X per year

• Advanced Language Testing Seminar (ALTS): 3 weeks, 2X per year - Offered to graduates from the LTS

NEW! Language Standards and Assessment Seminar (LSAS) 3-11 July 2013

BILC Programmes

Cooperative Language Training Assessments

Goal: To assess language training programmes and offer recommendations

2012: Russia in SeptemberGeorgia in November

2013: Russia September

STANAG 6001 Conferences - 2012 Copenhagen, 2013 SHAPE

Military / NATO Language Context:Complicated and Complex!

• Each nation is responsible for own training / testing programme

• No common tests - only a common standard - STANAG 6001 Nations certify their military and give members SLPs based on own STANAG - based tests.

• SLPs of job descriptions may or may not reflect actual language requirements

• Compatibility of NATO & national requirements

• Language “Targets”

NATO Global Partnerships

What is NATOSpeak?

• What is common to military language use?

• Acronyms and expressions?

• Is it purely lexical?

• Is it standardized?

• How do you measure it?

• How do you best learn it?

• Can we train for it? Should we?

Language Shortfall

• English skills lacking• Inadequate harmonization of req & procedures• Need for proficiency is increasing• Documents & correspondence - too lengthy,

too complex• Content/intensity of lang. trng falls short• Native speaker not always proficient in

communicating in multinational environment

ENGLISH IN MULTINATIONAL SETTINGS

• Various cultural / linguistic backgrounds impact the variant spoken –

• Native speaker ownership of language?

• English as Lingua Franca (LFE) construct?

• Is LFE separate from culture to which it predominantly belongs?

Updates

• NEW! BILC Website www.NATOBILC.org

• NEW! STANAG for Non-Specialists

• LNA – NATO SACT

• Statement from BILC re IS equivalency table

• WG on Level 4 - Final report

• WG on Translation & Terminology - ongoing

Enjoy the conference!

QUESTIONS?

Contact us:

Julie.Dubeau@forces.gc.ca

Jana.Vasilj-Begovic@forces.gc.ca

BILC@forces.gc.ca

www.NATOBILC.org