Command Profile: Air Force Culture and Language Center
Written by Marty Kauchak
“But how do you prepare for an expeditionary career when you don’t know where the next crisis will be, or where you’re going next?” asked Dr. Brian Selmeski, director of Cross-Cultural Competence at the Air Force Culture and Language Center (AFCLC). “An airman may be generating sorties in Kandahar today, planning a convoy to Kirkuk tomorrow and dropping off supplies in Kenya next month.”
The Air Force’s answer is cross-cultural competence, or 3C: the ability to quickly and accurately comprehend, then appropriately and effectively act, in a culturally complex environment to achieve the desired effect. This will prepare airmen for an uncertain operational future, helping them achieve success anytime, anywhere. Developing 3C airmen is the mission of AFCLC.
SCOPE
The center was created in 2006 after the Air Force Chief of Staff directed that additional cultural, regional and foreign language and negotiations abilities be developed through the professional military education system (PME). Over the next few years, the AFCLC, ensconced at Air University, Maxwell Air Force Base, will assist in the synchronization of curriculum across PME schools by providing support and assessing programs that will enhance student learning across the continuum of education.
Dr. Dan Henk, the center director, has been at the forefront of Air Force and Department of Defense initiatives to build cross-cultural competence among service personnel. “The Air Force is using its education system to transform capabilities of airmen to work in culturally-complex environments,” said Henk. “We are helping airmen be better leaders in their own institutions.”
MISSION
The AFCLC’s mission is to define, implement and synchronize cultural, regional and foreign language education efforts for the airman through Air University (AU). AFCLC will be a one-stop shop for officers, enlisted and civilian personnel through AU’s residential and distance learning curriculum. AFCLC’s total force team comprises highly qualified individuals from a variety of backgrounds, both military (active, Reserve and National Guard) and civilians (academics, civil servants and contractors).
WEBSITE
The AFCLC has enhanced its Website to assist a larger demand of airmen seeking to maximize their global reach. The new Website contains current text, photos, articles, interviews and streaming video as it relates to education, training, policy and doctrine.
The Website serves as an anchor for the burgeoning outreach program. “The enhanced Website is more user-friendly and intuitive,” said Wendy Micke of the AFCLC IT support team. “The additional information on the introduction to culture class will help guide current and prospective Community College of the Air Force (CCAF) students.” The URL is being overhauled in spring of 2009 to necessitate the increased audience. You can access the URL at http://www.culture.af.edu/introculture.html.
LANGUAGE SCOPE
The Culture and Language Center’s language portfolio is rapidly expanding. By spring of 2009, the center will have a full-time operations officer as well as a liaison officer from the Defense Language Institute (DLI) Foreign Language Center in Monterey, Calif. The center also plans to increase its capacity to educate and train airmen with support from the National Guard and Reserves.
“We will stand up a language lab by August 2009 to supplement visiting DLI instructors who already teach foreign language at Air War College and Air Command and Staff College,” said Deputy Director Jay Warwick. “Ultimately, we hope to have DLI instructors permanently stationed within a “language training detachment” as part of a semi-autonomous language center within the CLC.”
LANGUAGE EDUCATIONAL DESIGN
Among those who recently taught foreign language and culture at Air War College this term was Russian linguist/instructor Aida Rasulova. “The students were very interested in learning language and culture,” said Rasulova. “My first experience teaching at Maxwell Air Force Base has been professionally enriching and rewarding—I look forward to teaching here again.”
The recent direction for the Air Force with respect to foreign language is to assist the Air Force’s senior leadership establish a comprehensive language learning strategy and program for helping line airmen—those who are not professional linguists, but would have their career field enhanced by developing a moderate capability to speak a foreign language. The Air Force refers to this group of airmen as “language-enabled.” These airmen would be identified early on in their career in conjunction with an extensive language immersion training event to acquire a foreign language and be provided sustainment opportunities at regular intervals throughout their careers. This will help ensure that they not only learn, but also maintain, sustain and enhance their foreign language capabilities.
The primary challenge to tackle is the complex nature of language learning. Not only is a foreign language difficult to master, but it is extremely easy to forget.
“Our experience has shown that language acquisition and retention requires long-term, sustained commitment; airmen should be career-long language learners,” said Warwick. “We can’t expect airmen to be given a language card or a software program as they hop onto an airplane on their way to a deployed location and realistically expect them to retain much if they haven’t been previously exposed to the language—the earlier, the better.”
Every airman learns a language differently. Some rely primarily on aural learning, some are visual, some are demonstrative learners, some are experiential, and some use combinations of all of the above. However, there is no substitute for face-to-face, teacher-mediated language instruction. It is by far the most effective and efficient means to learn a foreign language. In effectively teaching our airmen, technology needs to be flexible enough to accommodate all learning styles and tap multiple senses.
Warwick said portability of hardware and software has become a “must-have” with respect to language learning. “This technology should be used to supplement what is taught in the classroom, not supplant it,” he said.
CULTURE PORTFOLIO
If our success is to be measured by conflicts averted as well as conflicts fought and won, then the Culture and Language Center is well on its path to victory through academic and real-time excellence. Airmen will be educated through professional military education and by expeditionary skills training.
Cross-cultural competence will infuse Air Force PME and commissioning programs with cross-cultural learning. Culture-general foundational training is delivered through officer accessions, initial PME, the enlisted pipeline, and training programs for all airmen. Culture-general is an approach that emphasizes common aspects and domains of the culture concept. Culture-specific is an approach that emphasizes detailed aspects of particular cultures.
Expeditionary skills training is refining the utility of culture-general and culture-specific training for all airmen prior to deploying to a specific place or region in the world. Culture-specific training will be delivered at the wing level for every deploying airman, tailored to operational requirements.
CULTURE EDUCATIONAL DESIGN
In Phase I, central to Air University’s accreditation, the CCAF, Officer Training School and Squadron Officer School will implement pilot programs of study for academic years 2009–2010. Phase II will integrate 3C into the Senior Non-Commissioned Officer Academy, Air Command and Staff College and the Air War College during academic years 2011–2013. The objective is to develop cross-culturally competent airmen professionals who meet the requirements of the Air Force.
Introduction to culture is the foundational course enabled by a partnership with the CCAF. This course will provide 45 contact hours with the enlisted student through distance learning. Recurring themes include ethnocentrism, cultural relativism and cross-cultural communication. Introduction to Culture will explore subjects such as elements that make up a culture, family relationships, religion, belief systems, how one makes a living, sport and other important cultural domains. Also included will be lessons on conflict resolution and negotiation reinforced through actual narratives of airmen’s personal and professional experience. Students will be assessed through discussion board participation, multiple-choice quizzes and two or three short, written assignments throughout the course. More information on the CCAF initiative can be found at http://www.culture.af.edu/introculture.html.
Each module will feature interactive asynchronous discussion threads as a primary component, which will allow the student to explore issues more thoroughly through faculty-guided exchanges. Approaching the objectives and teaching students about relativism and ethnocentrism via PowerPoint and Blackboard can be a challenge.
“It usually requires an extra level of complexity or effort to teach that in a classroom, said Katie Gunther, lead instructional facilitator and former Marine. “It takes good psychology and darn good instructional design where you are engaging the students, repeating the message across the course content and making sure that the student is drawing in personal experiences that match the outcomes of the course.”
The professor of record, AFCLC’s Culture Chair Dr. Robert Sands, will be augmented by top-notch instructors with experience in anthropology, psychology, sociology, archeology, cross-cultural communications and international relations.
The interactive community paired with the distance learning community will challenge the instructors to create an engaging environment for the learners. “Eventually, simulations will enhance the student learning to think and act culturally by drawing on essential skills for airmen,” said Gunther. “The goal is to put them in essential situations that they have faced and will encounter in the future.”
AFCLC embodies 3C by providing a very powerful set of instruments for airmen to develop and sustain the knowledge, learning approaches and motivation to effectively communicate, build relations and negotiate in culturally complex environments. This permits the necessary influence for mission success and institutional effectiveness—this will permit global vigilance, global reach and global power for all airmen in any environment. ♦