The college’s institutional division, Concordia Language Villages, will provide iso-immersion training for the LTC. LTC is a Department of Defense (DoD) initiative established in 2011 under Section 529 of the National Defense Authorization Act of 2010. It was created to accelerate the development of foundational or higher-level expertise in strategic language and regional studies for DoD personnel by utilizing colleges and university programs to meet the existing and demonstrated training needs of DoD units, offices or agencies.
“Concordia College has made a remarkable investment in creating an unparalleled iso-immersion site in northern Minnesota,” says Concordia College President William Craft. “The creation of a Language Training Center at Concordia College fits with our long-standing mission and our extraordinary record of international study.”
The Language Villages will provide iso-immersion training for soldiers of the 300th Military Intelligence (MI) Brigade with the Utah National Guard. Programming will consist of one-week and two-week iso-immersion sessions for six to eight soldiers/linguists at a time. The LTC program is funded by the Defense Language and National Security Education Office and administered by the Institute of International Education.
Forty soldiers will receive 60 weeks of instruction from Concordia Language Villages during the 2016-17 academic year at its campus near Bemidji, Minn. The iso-immersion courses address training needs in Arabic, Chinese/Mandarin, French, Korean, Portuguese and Russian.
“Over the past 15 years, the U.S. military has increasingly recognized the value of world language and cultural competency skills and is investing significantly in training programs to provide additional tools to soldiers who interface with individuals abroad,” says Martin Graefe, senior group director for Concordia Language Villages. “It is truly rewarding that the demonstrated success of our immersion programming is valued by the U.S. government and that our teaching methods are regarded as effective preparation for the demanding work of its soldiers.”
Concordia Language Villages has a 55-year history of offering language and cultural immersion to youth, adults, and teachers and serves over 9,700 participants annually in 15 languages from all 50 states and more than 40 countries. It is that commitment, expertise and the proven track record in providing effective accelerated learning, building language skills and cultural competencies, that attracted reviewers to fund the Concordia LTC proposal.
DLNSEO held an open competition for the program this spring. The other eight institutions hosting LTCs are California State University Long Beach, North Carolina State University, San Diego State University, University of Kansas, University of Montana, University of Utah, George Washington University and George Mason University in collaboration with University of Maryland, Baltimore County.
The LTCs are partnering with the Services (Army, Air Force, Marine Corps, Navy), Special Forces community, Defense Agency (National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency), Reserve and National Guard units to support their language and culture training. For more information about the program, visit dodltc.org.
Concordia Language Villages Language Training Center Programs