Experienced Military English Instructors Leave PLTCE With Even Greater Confidence

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Experienced Military English Instructors Leave PLTCE With Even Greater Confidence

Experienced Military English Instructors Leave PLTCE With Even Greater Confidence

By Roxane Harrison
George C. Marshall European Center for Security Studies

GARMISCH-PARTENKIRCHEN, Germany (April 27, 2018) – National defense language programs in 11 NATO and partner nations have sent 13 experienced English language teachers to PLTCE’s latest Faculty Development Workshop (FDW) to improve their confidence and competence in teaching speaking and writing in a military context.

The FDW was created to fill a need identified by NATO’s Bureau for International Language Coordination for language teachers in defense-related institutions to refresh or upgrade their teaching skills. This would in turn lead to more effective instruction and eventually improve linguistic interoperability throughout the NATO and partner alliance.

A curriculum development working group with members from six nations planned and created the course in 2014, and the course was validated in 2015.

In the workshop, participants prepare practical, communicative learning activities that will enable their students to achieve higher levels of proficiency in speaking and writing English. The participants are video recorded conducting their micro-teaching sessions. The course facilitators, peers and the teachers themselves then evaluate the sessions and reflect on the level of success achieved and ways to implement activities in their own contexts.

Subject matter experts from Bulgaria, Portugal, Slovenia and Sweden conducted this iteration of the FDW.

Now entering its third year, the FDW is delivered three times a year; once at each of the NATO Partnership Training and Education Centers (PTEC) for language. The NATO PTECs for language are PLTCE (Partner Language Training Center Europe) in Garmisch, Germany; Foreign Languages Department in Shumen, Bulgaria; and PfP Language Training Center in Poljce, Slovenia.

The 13 graduates in April, 2018, brings the total number of English Teaching Faculty Development Workshop graduates to 131. The next Faculty Development Workshop will take place in Bulgaria in July.