Last modified: Tuesday, April 2, 2013
Indiana University awarded federal grants to expand military language and culture training
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 2, 2013
BLOOMINGTON, Ind. -- Indiana University has been awarded two federal grants totaling more than $600,000 to continue expanding access to training in critical languages and cultures for the Reserve Officers' Training Corps and active duty military personnel through the Summer Language Workshop.
The grants, from the U.S. Department of Defense's Defense Language and National Security Education Office, provide $249,696 to support Project GO scholarships for ROTC students studying domestically at the Summer Language Workshop and in programs abroad, and $360,731 to support a pilot Language Training Center for high-proficiency Arabic- and Russian-speaking foreign area officers, linguists and intelligence analysts.
The grants were awarded to the Summer Language Workshop, part of the School of Global and International Studies at IU Bloomington.
"These grants enable the School of Global and International Studies at Indiana University to focus our strong institutional expertise in the teaching of critical languages on the training of junior and career military personnel," said Maria Bucur-Deckard, associate dean for international programs in the College of Arts and Sciences. "We are delighted that the school's educational resources in area studies and languages will be of service to the federal government and look forward to further opportunities for collaboration."
This is the sixth year IU has received funding for the competitive Project GO grant program, and the first year for the Language Training Center grant program. IU is one of a handful of Language Training Center sites nationwide. Both grants are administered by the Institute of International Education.
Project GO
Funding for Project GO will support at least 23 domestic scholarships for students to study at the Summer Language Workshop. Domestic scholarships of up to $6,500 are offered at various proficiency levels in Arabic, Dari, Kazakh, Persian, Russian, Turkish, Tatar, Uyghur and Uzbek. Scholarships include tuition and fees, housing and a modest stipend.
At least 20 study-abroad scholarships are available for IU ROTC students and Summer Language Workshop Project GO alumni. These scholarships cover eight weeks of immersive, overseas language and culture training and are valued at up to $10,000.
Language Training Center
Up to 30 domestic scholarships in Arabic (for a five- to nine-month program) and Russian (four and eight weeks) are available for foreign area officers, linguists and intelligence analysts. This program is being offered to personnel from the Army, Air Force, Navy and Marines in collaboration with the Defense Language and National Security Education Office.
The development of a nationwide pilot language sustainment program allows ROTC and military students to continue developing language proficiency after completing Project GO and Language Training Center programs. Participants will have access to customized language modules, coaching and a variety of materials offered in partnership with the Naval Postgraduate School FAOWeb Program. IU's Center for Language Technology and Instructional Enrichment will provide technical and consultative support.
The Language Training Center grant formalizes the training that the Summer Language Workshop has provided to foreign area officers in recent years.
Offering intensive summer language training at the Bloomington campus of Indiana University since 1950, the Summer Language Workshop provides more than 200 participants in Slavic, East European, Middle Eastern and Central Asian languages the opportunity to complete a full year of college language instruction through intensive summer study. It is the largest such program in the United States.
The Center for Language Technology and Instructional Enrichment aims to provide leadership and technological expertise to support excellence in language teaching, learning and research at Indiana University. CeLTIE strives to create a cutting-edge language educational environment in fostering faculty collaboration and improving research and instructional capabilities with innovative tools and pedagogy.
