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entitled 'Language and Culture Training: Opportunities Exist to 
Improve Visibility and Sustainment of Knowledge and Skills in Army and 
Marine Corps General Purpose Forces' which was released on October 31, 
2011. 

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United States Government Accountability Office: 
GAO: 

Report to Congressional Committees: 

October 2011: 

Language and Culture Training: 

Opportunities Exist to Improve Visibility and Sustainment of Knowledge 
and Skills in Army and Marine Corps General Purpose Forces: 

GAO-12-50: 

GAO Highlights: 

Highlights of GAO-12-50, a report to congressional committees. 

Why GAO Did This Study: 

The Department of Defense (DOD) has emphasized the importance of 
developing language skills and knowledge of foreign cultures to meet 
current and future needs and is investing millions of dollars to 
provide language and culture predeployment training to its general 
purpose forces. DOD has also noted that such training should be viewed 
as a long-term investment and that training and personnel systems 
should better account for the knowledge and skills of service members 
acquired through training to help manage its forces. The committee 
report accompanying a proposed bill for the National Defense 
Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 (H.R. 5136) directed GAO to 
review language and culture training for Army and Marine Corps general 
purpose forces. For this report, GAO evaluated the extent to which 
these services (1) captured information in training and personnel 
systems on the completion of language and culture predeployment 
training and proficiency gained from training and (2) developed plans 
to sustain language skills acquired through predeployment training. 
GAO analyzed service documents and interviewed cognizant officials. 

What GAO Found: 

The Army and Marine Corps have documented some information at the unit 
level for service members who completed language and culture 
predeployment training, but the services have not fully captured 
information within service-level training and personnel systems on 
service members who completed training or their corresponding 
proficiency. DOD and service guidance require the services to document 
language and culture training completion and proficiency gained from 
training in service-level systems. However, GAO identified several 
factors that limited the services’ ability to implement this guidance. 
For example, the Army’s primary training system did not have data 
fields for all mandatory language and culture tasks and, as a result, 
units were unable to document the completion of this training. In 
addition, while the Army collects some language proficiency data 
within its primary personnel system, the Army considers these data 
unreliable because of weaknesses in its approach to collecting them. 
To improve the accuracy of information within this system, the Army 
established a task force in January 2011, which has identified a 
number of key tasks and is at varying stages of completing its work. 
The Marine Corps did not document language and culture predeployment 
training completion in any servicewide training or personnel system 
and a system has not been designated for this purpose. Further, the 
Marine Corps had not required marines who completed significant 
language training to take formal proficiency tests and, therefore, the 
service did not have language proficiency data for these marines. By 
not capturing information within service-level training and personnel 
systems on the training that general purpose forces have completed and 
the language proficiency gained from training, the Army and Marine 
Corps do not have the information they need to effectively leverage 
the language and culture knowledge and skills of these forces when 
making individual assignments and assessing future operational needs. 

The Army and Marine Corps have not developed plans to sustain language 
skills already acquired through predeployment training. The services 
have made considerable investments to provide some service members 
with extensive predeployment language training. For example, as of 
July 2011, over 800 soldiers have completed about 16 weeks of Afghan 
language training since 2010 at a cost of about $12 million. DOD and 
service guidance address the need to sustain language skills and the 
DOD strategic plan for language, regional, and culture skills calls 
for the services to build on existing language skills for future 
needs. However, GAO found that the services had not yet determined 
which service members require follow-on language training to sustain 
skills, the amount of training required, or appropriate mechanisms to 
deliver the training. Although informal follow-on training programs 
were available to sustain language skills, such as computer-based 
training, these programs were voluntary. In the absence of formal 
sustainment training programs to maintain and build upon service 
members’ language skills, the Army and Marine Corps may miss 
opportunities to capitalize on the investments they have already made 
to provide predeployment language training for ongoing operations. 

What GAO Recommends: 

GAO made recommendations intended to improve the availability of 
information on training completion and proficiency and help DOD plan 
for sustainment training. DOD generally agreed with the 
recommendations, but stated that the definition of significant 
language training was not intended to describe training for initial 
skills. However, DOD noted that current guidance does not preclude 
language proficiency testing at this stage. 

View [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-12-50]. For more 
information, contact Sharon Pickup at (202) 512-9619 or 
pickups@gao.gov. 

[End of section] 

Contents: 

Letter: 

Background: 

Army and Marine Corps Have Captured Limited Information on Language 
and Culture Predeployment Training for Ongoing Operations: 

Army and Marine Corps Have Not Developed Plans to Sustain Language 
Skills Already Acquired through Predeployment Training: 

Conclusions: 

Recommendations for Executive Action: 

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation: 

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology: 

Appendix II: Comments from the Department of Defense: 

Appendix III: GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments: 

Tables: 

Table 1: Selected Army and Marine Corps Training and Personnel Systems 
and Other DOD Information Systems: 

Table 2: Selected Afghan Language Training Program Enrollments and 
Costs Since 2009: 

Figures: 

Figure 1: Selected Strategic Documents that Emphasize the Need for 
Language and Culture Knowledge and Skills: 

Figure 2: Language Training Detachments Intended for General Purpose 
Forces on Army and Marine Corps Installations: 

Figure 3: Examples of Limitations in the Army's Ability to Capture 
Information within Training and Personnel Systems on Completion of 
Language and Culture Predeployment Training and Corresponding Language 
Proficiency: 

Abbreviations: 

DOD: Department of Defense: 

[End of section] 

United States Government Accountability Office: 
Washington, DC 20548: 

October 31, 2011: 

The Honorable Carl Levin:
Chairman:
The Honorable John McCain:
Ranking Member:
Committee on Armed Services:
United States Senate: 

The Honorable Howard P. "Buck" McKeon:
Chairman:
The Honorable Adam Smith:
Ranking Member:
Committee on Armed Services:
House of Representatives: 

Due to changes in the global security environment and operational 
experiences in Afghanistan and Iraq, the Department of Defense (DOD) 
has emphasized the importance of developing language skills and 
knowledge of foreign cultures to meet the needs of current and future 
military operations. It is DOD's policy that language and culture 
training be embedded in initial military training, professional 
military education, and predeployment training and integrated across 
the total force.[Footnote 1] DOD has emphasized that it should better 
account for the language and culture knowledge and skills of service 
members within the department's personnel management systems. These 
systems, which include training and personnel systems, are used at the 
service level to manage individual assignments and also provide senior 
leaders at the service and department level with visibility over the 
capabilities of military personnel. DOD has also stated that language 
and culture training must be valued as a long-term investment and is 
investing millions of dollars to provide such training to general 
purpose forces for ongoing military operations and to prepare these 
forces for future missions. For example, in December 2009, the Office 
of the Secretary of Defense directed the Army to include a total of 
about $160 million in its budget submissions for fiscal years 2011 
through 2015 to establish and maintain language training detachments 
on selected military installations across the services to teach 
foreign languages to military and civilian personnel including those 
who are preparing for deployments to Afghanistan. 

In prior reports, we have identified various management challenges 
that DOD faces in developing language and culture capabilities, and 
made several related recommendations.[Footnote 2] In June 2009, we 
recommended that DOD develop a strategic plan that includes measurable 
performance goals and objectives and investment priorities and a 
validated methodology for identifying language and regional 
proficiency requirements, including cultural awareness, and in May 
2011, we recommended that DOD establish a defined planning process to 
align the services' language and culture training efforts. DOD has 
taken some steps to address our recommendations. For example, in 
February 2011, DOD published the Department of Defense Strategic Plan 
for Language Skills, Regional Expertise, and Cultural Capabilities 
(2011-2016), but stated that a more detailed implementation plan would 
be issued separately. In particular, DOD noted that its implementation 
plan will include a clearly defined planning process for working with 
the military departments to coordinate and synchronize plans with the 
department's strategic goals and resources. As of September 2011, DOD 
is continuing to develop the implementation plan. 

The committee report accompanying a proposed bill for the National 
Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 (H.R. 5136) directed us 
to review a number of issues related to language and culture training 
for Army and Marine Corps general purpose forces.[Footnote 3] As 
discussed above, our May 2011 report examined the Army's and Marine 
Corps' strategic planning efforts for language and culture 
capabilities and the department's approach for identifying language 
and culture training requirements for Army and Marine Corps general 
purpose forces deploying to the U.S. Central Command area of 
responsibility.[Footnote 4] For this report, we evaluated the extent 
to which the Army and Marine Corps have (1) captured information in 
service-level training and personnel systems on the completion of 
language and culture predeployment training and proficiency gained 
from this training and (2) developed plans to sustain language skills 
acquired through predeployment training. 

For the first objective, we focused on Army and Marine Corps language 
and culture training programs administered since 2009 to prepare 
general purpose forces for ongoing operations in Afghanistan and Iraq. 
Therefore, for this review, we excluded training programs for language 
and regional experts (e.g., foreign area officers and intelligence 
specialists) and special operations forces. We reviewed information 
available in service-level training and personnel systems and 
department-level information systems on service members' completion of 
language and culture training and the corresponding acquisition of 
skills--specifically, the time frame when this training occurred and 
the proficiency service members gained from training. We defined 
"proficiency" using DOD's agreed-upon method for measuring it. 
[Footnote 5] We conducted interviews with Army and Marine Corps 
officials who are responsible for developing predeployment training 
programs and documenting information on training completion in service-
level training and personnel systems. We also discussed the extent to 
which the services used these systems to record service members' 
proficiency gained from this training, in particular the training that 
meets DOD's definition of significant language training.[Footnote 6] 
We also interviewed officials with Army and Marine Corps units that 
were participating in predeployment training and units that were 
deployed in Afghanistan at the time of our review to discuss the 
extent to which they used service-level training and personnel systems 
and other processes to document the completion of language and culture 
training and any proficiency gained from training. We assessed the 
Army's and Marine Corps' efforts in light of DOD guidance that 
requires that the services document all language and regional 
proficiency training, education, and experience in training and 
personnel systems and Army and Marine Corps documents that note that 
language and culture training completion and corresponding proficiency 
should be documented in service-level systems[Footnote 7].: 

For the second objective, we interviewed Army and Marine Corps 
training officials to discuss the extent to which the services had 
developed plans and specific training programs for general purpose 
forces to sustain language skills acquired through predeployment 
training. We interviewed officials with Army and Marine Corps units 
that were participating in predeployment training and units that were 
deployed in Afghanistan at the time of our review to discuss any 
formal programs used by service members to sustain skills acquired 
through language training. We also discussed other informal training 
programs that were available to service members to sustain language 
skills. To gain an understanding of the investments already made in 
predeployment language training, we collected information from service 
training officials on the number of soldiers and marines completing 
predeployment language training from January 2009 through July 2011, 
the amount of time spent in training, and the cost of these training 
programs. To ensure the reliability of our data, we interviewed 
knowledgeable officials about the data and internal controls on the 
systems that contain them. We determined that the data were 
sufficiently reliable for the purposes of this audit. We reviewed Army 
and Marine Corps training programs and plans in light of DOD and 
service guidance that address the need to sustain language skills and 
the DOD strategic plan for language, regional, and culture skills that 
calls for the services to build on existing language skills for future 
needs.[Footnote 8] 

We conducted this performance audit from June 2010 to October 2011 in 
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 
Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain 
sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe 
that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our 
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. A more 
detailed discussion of our scope and methodology can be found in 
appendix I. 

Background: 

Today, and in the foreseeable future, military operations require U.S. 
personnel, in particular Army and Marine Corps ground forces, to 
communicate and interact with multinational partners and local 
populations. DOD, and the Army and Marine Corps, have emphasized the 
need to build and sustain language and culture knowledge and skills in 
the general purpose forces. The Army and Marine Corps are providing 
language and culture predeployment training in support of ongoing 
operations. DOD relies on formal tests to measure service members' 
proficiency in a foreign language. Various training and personnel 
systems exist within DOD at the service and department level. 

DOD and Service-Level Guidance on Building and Sustaining Language and 
Culture Knowledge and Skills: 

Departmentwide and service-level strategic plans and operating 
concepts emphasize the need to build and sustain language and culture 
knowledge and skills in the general purpose forces (see figure 1). 

Figure 1: Selected Strategic Documents that Emphasize the Need for 
Language and Culture Knowledge and Skills: 

[Refer to PDF for image: illustration] 

Selected Departmentwide Strategies: 

2010 Quadrennial Defense Review: 
“U.S. forces would be able to perform their missions more effectively—-
both in the near-term and against future adversaries—-if they had more 
and better key enabling capabilities at their disposal. These enablers 
include...foreign language expertise...” 

2010 Strategic Plan for the Next Generation of Training for the 
Department of Defense: 
Establishes 17 training focus areas, one of which is to markedly 
increase language, regional, and cultural capabilities and capacities 
including developing an education and training capability that 
contributes to a culturally aware and linguistically adept total force. 

Army and Marine Corps Operating Concepts: 

Army: 
The United States Army Operating Concept 2016-2028 states that the 
Army will provide combatant commands with regionally aligned and 
specially trained forces with competence in the languages, cultures, 
history, governments, security forces, and threats in areas where 
conflict is likely. 

Marine Corps: 
Marine Corps Operating Concepts notes that the Marine Corps is 
examining regionalization of major headquarters and force provider 
commands by focusing them on the combatant commands with individual 
marines and specific units developing intellectual focus, cultural 
knowledge, and operational expertise on a specific geographic region. 

Specific Language and Culture Strategies: 

DOD: 
Department of Defense Strategic Plan for Language Skills, Regional 
Expertise, and Cultural Capabilities (2011-2016) states that the plan 
is an important cornerstone in building a comprehensive, integrated 
approach toward increasing and sustaining language skills, regional
expertise, and cultural capabilities within DOD. 

Army: 
Army Culture and Foreign Language Strategy provides a strategy for 
present and future culture and foreign language education and training 
programs needed to close gaps in capabilities with an end state to 
build and sustain an Army with the right blend of culture and foreign 
language capabilities to facilitate full spectrum operations. 

Marine Corps: 
Marine Corps Language, Regional and Culture Strategy: 2011-2015 seeks to
institutionalize current Marine Corps efforts to grow and sustain the
language, regional, and culture capability as an enduring, steady-state
requirement throughout the service. 

Source: GAO analysis of DOD data. 

[End of figure] 

In particular, referring both to the near-term needs of current 
operations and the long-term efforts to prepare military forces for 
future conflicts, DOD concluded in the 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review 
that U.S. forces would be able to perform their missions more 
effectively with more and better key enabling capabilities, including 
language expertise. The Army and Marine Corps have also developed 
concepts to align headquarters and forces with geographic commands 
around the world and plan to provide them with specialized language 
and culture training prior to deployment to conduct security force 
assistance and irregular warfare missions, among others. In addition, 
the services are implementing strategies to build and reinforce 
language and culture knowledge and skills through training at various 
points of a service member's career through formal service 
institutions, such as professional military education schools, and 
during predeployment training. For example: 

* Beginning in 2009, the Army Command and General Staff College began 
offering language courses to soldiers in targeted languages, such as 
Arabic, Chinese, and French, which consist of resident instruction, 
self-study, and distance learning in a modified year-long program. In 
addition, the Army updated its Captains Career Course in 2010 to 
include 13 hours of training in the areas of cross-cultural skill 
building and negotiations. 

* The Marine Corps has begun implementing the Regional, Culture, and 
Language Familiarization career development program for all marines 
that begins when marines enter military service and continues 
throughout their career. As part of the program, marines are assigned 
to 1 of 17 regions around the world and will be assigned an associated 
language. The program is organized into three broad areas of training 
(culture general, culture specific, and language familiarization) and 
functionally organized within a block structure that builds and 
reinforces knowledge and skills over a marine's career. 

Language and Culture Predeployment Training and Proficiency Testing 
for General Purpose Forces Preparing for Ongoing Operations: 

As we have previously reported, the Army and the Marine Corps have 
established service-specific predeployment training requirements and 
are providing their respective general purpose forces with language 
and culture training that is focused on the particular area to which a 
unit will deploy.[Footnote 9] Given that over the past 10 years Army 
and Marine Corps forces have experienced continual operational 
deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan with limited time to prepare 
between deployments, most language and culture training efforts have 
focused on predeployment training for ongoing operations. 

For example, since July 2010, the Army has required that all soldiers 
deploying to Afghanistan and Iraq complete a 4-to 6-hour online 
training program that provides basic language and culture training. 
[Footnote 10] In addition, commanders are required to designate at 
least one leader per platoon who will have regular contact with a 
local population to complete 16 weeks (at least 480 hours) of on-site 
training at one of five language training detachments on Army 
installations. If the designated leader does not have access to a 
language training detachment, that soldier is required to complete 
approximately 100 hours of computer-based training. Since February 
2010, the Marine Corps has required that all deploying marines 
complete culture training which, for Afghanistan deployments, service 
officials reported typically consists of 1 day of training, and 
selected marines have been required to complete language training with 
the amount determined by a mission analysis.[Footnote 11] Selected 
marines can complete this training at one of two language training 
detachments on Marine Corps installations or through programs at a 
local community college and university. Language training detachments 
on Army and Marine Corps installations provide predeployment training 
that includes role playing, classroom instruction, and self-directed 
learning (see figure 2). 

Figure 2: Language Training Detachments Intended for General Purpose 
Forces on Army and Marine Corps Installations: 

Refer to PDF for image: illustrated U.S. map and 3 photographs] 

Army installations: 
Fort Bragg, North Carolina; 
Fort Campbell, Kentucky; 
Fort Drum, New York; 
Schofield Barracks, Hawaii. 

Marine Corps installation: 
Camp Lejeune, North Carolina; 
Camp Pendleton, California. 

Types of language training: 
Role playing; 
Classroom instruction; 
Self-directed learning. 

Source: GAO; U.S. Army (photos); Map Resources (map). 

[End of figure] 

DOD relies on the Defense Language Proficiency Test system of tests to 
measure an individual's proficiency in a foreign language. The test is 
administered in a Web-based format to measure proficiency in the 
listening and/or reading modalities. The speaking modality is tested 
in person or by telephone. Test scores are reported as Interagency 
Language Roundtable skill levels measured on a scale from 0 (no 
proficiency) to 5 (functionally native proficiency). DOD guidance also 
establishes broad regional proficiency skill level guidelines[Footnote 
12]. These guidelines include culture knowledge and skills and are 
intended to provide DOD components with benchmarks for assessing 
regional proficiency needs, for developing initial and sustainment 
regional proficiency curricula at service and professional military 
education schools, and for assessing regional proficiency 
capabilities. Our prior work has found that DOD has not yet 
established a way to test or otherwise evaluate the culture knowledge 
and skills of service members in accordance with these guidelines. 
[Footnote 13] 

Various Service-and Department-Level Training and Personnel Systems 
Exist: 

The Army and Marine Corps maintain a number of service-level training 
and personnel systems. At the department level, DOD maintains several 
additional information systems that draw upon or provide data to the 
services' training and personnel systems. Table 1 provides information 
on key Army and Marine Corps training and personnel systems and other 
DOD information systems. 

Table 1: Selected Army and Marine Corps Training and Personnel Systems 
and Other DOD Information Systems: 

Entity: Army. 

Training systems: 

System: Digital Training Management System; 
Description: A customized training management system that facilitates 
an organization's ability to plan, schedule, resource, record, and 
report individual and collective training in units, brigade and below. 

System: Army Training Requirements and Resources System; 
Description: The system of record for management of personnel input to 
training for the active component, Army National Guard, Army Reserve, 
and Army civilian and other government agencies and civilian users. It 
is the repository for training requirements, programs, personnel data, 
and training costs for use by training managers to schedule classes, 
fill seats, and train soldiers. 

System: Unit Tracking Tools; 
Description: Army: A number of spreadsheets, paper rosters, and other 
informal processes to capture training information at the unit level. 

Personnel systems: 

System: Total Army Personnel Database; 
Description: The official automated personnel records for all soldiers 
that include personal identifiers, awards, and training. 

System: Officer and Enlisted Record Briefs; 
Description: Records stored within the Total Army Personnel Database 
primarily used by personnel managers and promotion selection boards 
that contain data from individual soldier personnel files. 

Entity: Marine Corps. 

Training systems: 

System: Marine Corps Training Information Management System; 
Description: A system used to manage enrollment and completion of 
institutional training and professional military education. 

System: Unit Tracking Tools; 
Description: A number of spreadsheets, paper rosters, and other 
informal processes to capture training information at the unit level. 

Personnel systems: 

System: Marine Corps Total Force System; 
Description: The single, integrated, personnel and pay system that 
includes data fields for individual marines such as personal 
identifiers, awards, and training. 

System: Service Record Books and Officer Qualification Records; 
Description: Records stored within the Marine Corps Total Force System 
that provide a summary of basic events in a marine's career that 
includes a basic training record with test scores, weapons 
qualifications, and service school attendance. 

Entity: DOD. 

Other information systems: 

System: Defense Manpower Data Center; 
Description: A central repository of personnel and manpower data. 

System: Language Readiness Index; 
Description: A Web-based tool within the Defense Readiness Reporting 
System that is intended to provide senior decision makers with 
information from service personnel systems and DOD databases on the 
inventory of military and civilian personnel with language proficiency. 

Source: GAO analysis of DOD data. 

[End of table] 

Army and Marine Corps Have Captured Limited Information on Language 
and Culture Predeployment Training for Ongoing Operations: 

The Army and Marine Corps have captured some information at the unit 
level for those service members who completed language and culture 
predeployment training for ongoing operations. DOD guidance requires 
that the services document all language and regional proficiency 
training, education, and experience, which includes culture, in 
service training and personnel systems and use this information in 
force management processes.[Footnote 14] Service documents also note 
that language and culture training completion and corresponding 
proficiency should be documented in service-level systems.[Footnote 
15] However, we identified several factors that limited the Army's and 
Marine Corps' ability to capture information within service-level 
training and personnel systems on service members' completion of 
language and culture training and their corresponding proficiency 
gained from this training. 

Army and Marine Corps Capture Information at the Unit Level on the 
Completion of Language and Culture Predeployment Training: 

Officials with Army and Marine Corps units we spoke with who were 
preparing for deployments or who were deployed in Afghanistan at the 
time of our review reported that they documented which service members 
completed language and culture predeployment training on spreadsheets 
and paper rosters that were stored at the unit level. For example: 

* Officials with an Army brigade deployed in Afghanistan in December 
2010 reported that its subordinate battalions recorded soldiers who 
completed mandatory language and culture training tasks on unit 
attendance rosters. 

* Officials from an Army brigade preparing for deployment to 
Afghanistan in March 2011 stated that companies and battalions within 
the brigade documented an individual soldier's completion of required 
language and culture predeployment training on manually completed 
computer spreadsheets. During predeployment training, companies and 
battalions reported summaries of the status and completion of critical 
training tasks, including language and culture tasks, on a weekly 
basis to the brigade headquarters. 

* Officials from Marine Corps battalions preparing for deployment to 
Afghanistan in November and December 2010 stated that units used 
manually completed computer spreadsheets to document the number of 
marines who completed language and culture predeployment training 
requirements and unit training completion percentages were routinely 
reported to the regiment headquarters. 

Army and Marine Corps training officials reported that the approaches 
used to capture information on the completion of predeployment 
training provided unit commanders with some visibility over the number 
of soldiers and marines who completed language and culture 
predeployment training. 

Army Training and Personnel Systems Do Not Contain Complete 
Information on Language and Culture Predeployment Training Completion 
and Corresponding Proficiency: 

The Army requires that all of its units use the Digital Training 
Management System to document soldiers' completion of individual 
soldier training and collective training conducted at the unit level. 
[Footnote 16] Moreover, in July 2010, the Army released specific 
guidance that directed units to input language and culture 
predeployment training in the Digital Training Management System. 
[Footnote 17] According to an Army regulation and a Digital Training 
Management System information paper, the intent of capturing training 
information in electronic soldier records is to enable decision makers 
at the service level to track and monitor soldiers, ensure that 
training records are automatically transferred with a soldier when he 
or she is reassigned to another unit, and provide visibility to senior 
leaders that can inform force management decisions. 

Units we interviewed reported, however, that they did not record the 
completion of all mandatory language and culture predeployment 
training tasks within the Digital Training Management System. Although 
the system provides a single data field for units to record 
information for basic language and culture training, the Army has 
multiple, mandatory language and culture predeployment training 
requirements. Because only one field exists, units we spoke with 
stated that inconsistent information was recorded in that field. In 
some cases, units recorded basic culture training in the field but did 
not record predeployment language training. For example, officials 
with battalions preparing to deploy to Afghanistan in March 2011 
reported they did not record information in this field for soldiers 
who completed mandatory language training at an on-site language 
training detachment. At the time of our review, the Army had not yet 
established data fields within the Digital Training Management System 
that would allow training officials to document soldiers' completion 
of all mandatory language and culture training tasks. In bringing this 
fact to the attention of the Army, service headquarters officials 
stated that the Army has considered adding new data fields within the 
Digital Training Management System for all required language and 
culture predeployment training tasks, but as of July 2011, had not 
done so. Without data fields available that are clearly aligned with 
all mandatory training tasks, units have been unable to document which 
soldiers completed language and culture training. 

We also found that the Army had not recorded language proficiency in 
its primary training systems, despite the fact that these systems have 
data fields to record this information. In December 2010, the Army 
reinforced its prior guidance that directed that units record training 
in the Digital Training Management System and also stated that units 
should record training within the Army Training Requirements and 
Resources System to enable tracking of cultural knowledge and foreign 
language proficiency.[Footnote 18] Service officials reported that, as 
of July 2011, nearly 100 percent of the more than 800 soldiers who 
completed training at a language training detachment met the Army 
standard for language proficiency in the speaking and listening 
modalities.[Footnote 19] However, information on the language 
proficiency of these soldiers was unavailable in either of these 
systems. Unit officials we spoke with reported that they did not 
record soldiers' language proficiency gained from training at a 
language training detachment within the Digital Training Management 
System, but rather tracked the number of soldiers who met the Army's 
language proficiency standard on unit spreadsheets. Training managers 
responsible for inputting data in the Army Training Requirements and 
Resources System also reported that they did not record language 
proficiency data for soldiers who completed this training. Officials 
stated that information on language proficiency is typically 
documented within the Army's personnel system. 

The Army's primary personnel system (the Total Army Personnel 
Database) has the capability to capture language proficiency. While 
the Army collects some language proficiency data within this system, 
the Army considers these data unreliable because of weaknesses in its 
approach to collecting them. For all soldiers, including those who 
complete training at a language training detachment, the Army utilizes 
a paper form to document soldiers' language proficiency. Upon 
completing training at a language training detachment, the Army has 
provided soldiers with a test to determine proficiency in the 
listening and speaking modalities and a testing official records the 
corresponding proficiency on this form. The form should then be passed 
on to a soldier's local training manager and to the Army Human 
Resources Command.[Footnote 20] The Army Human Resources Command is 
required to ensure that language proficiency data are current and 
accessible to the Department of the Army staff and personnel managers. 
According to Army officials, the command updates these data in 
soldiers' personnel records within the Total Army Personnel Database. 
However, Army officials described several weaknesses in this process 
that result in unreliable data. For example, the Army relies on hand-
delivered hard copy forms, which introduce multiple opportunities for 
these forms to be lost or human error in data entry.[Footnote 21] 
Depending on the type of language test, language proficiency data are 
also reported to the Defense Manpower Data Center, which maintains 
personnel and manpower data for all service members, including 
language test scores. For Web-based tests, test scores are 
automatically transferred to the Defense Manpower Data Center. For in-
person or telephone tests, a testing official records the test score 
and sends the results to the Defense Manpower Data Center. Army 
officials explained that a data link does not currently exist to 
transfer data between the Defense Manpower Data Center and the Total 
Army Personnel Database and therefore language proficiency data have 
not been routinely documented in soldiers' personnel records. Because 
the Total Army Personnel Database is also intended to provide data on 
soldiers' language proficiency for the department's Language Readiness 
Index, officials responsible for managing the Language Readiness Index 
reported that departmentwide visibility over service members' language 
proficiency is limited by the lack of accurate and timely service data. 

To better understand examples of limitations in the Army's ability to 
capture information within the Army's training and personnel systems 
on the completion of language and culture predeployment training and 
corresponding language proficiency, see figure 3. 

Figure 3: Examples of Limitations in the Army's Ability to Capture 
Information within Training and Personnel Systems on Completion of 
Language and Culture Predeployment Training and Corresponding Language 
Proficiency: 

[Refer to PDF for image: illustration] 

Army training systems: 

Digital Training Management System: 
Limitation: data fields do not exist for all mandatory language and 
culture training tasks and units are not recording language 
proficiency. 

Information recorded in unit training tracking tools. 

Soldier completes language and culture training: 
Limitation: training officials not recording language proficiency. 

Army Training Requirements and Resources System. 

DOD and Army personnel systems: 

Soldier completes language and culture training: 

Score recorded in Defense Manpower Data Center test database: 
Limitation: direct data feed to Total Army Personnel Database does not 
exist. 

Language training detachment graduate completes language test. 

Score recorded on Army form: 
Limitation: hand-carried form can be lost or not filed. 

Form submitted by hand to Army Human Resources Command. 

Recorded in Total Army Personnel Database. 

Source: GAO analysis of DOD data. 

[End of figure] 

In January 2011, the Army established a task force to improve the 
accuracy of information on service members' language proficiency 
available within the Total Army Personnel Database. At the time of our 
review, the Army Language Tracking Task Force had identified a number 
of key tasks and was at varying stages of completing its work. For 
example, the task force is working to establish a direct data link 
between the Defense Manpower Data Center where language test scores 
are recorded and the Total Army Personnel Database. According to a 
task force official, the Army plans to complete this link by early 
2012. 

Marine Corps Training and Personnel Systems Lack Information on 
Language and Culture Predeployment Training Completion and 
Corresponding Proficiency: 

According to Marine Corps Order 3502.6, units are required to track 
and report information about the status of predeployment training in 
accordance with guidance provided by the unit's chain of command. 
[Footnote 22] As discussed earlier in this report, Marine Corps units 
we spoke with reported that the completion of language and culture 
predeployment training for ongoing operations in Afghanistan was 
captured and tracked at the unit level using informal approaches, such 
as spreadsheets and paper rosters. Officials also explained that no 
Marine Corps service-level system is used to record the completion of 
predeployment training tasks. In its January 2011 strategy, the Marine 
Corps noted that no mechanism exists within the service to track 
regional and cultural skills obtained through operational experience 
on a servicewide basis, but that the timely identification of marines 
with these skills could assist the service in making force management 
decisions. The strategy also identifies the need for the service to 
develop a tracking mechanism to readily identify and leverage regional 
and cultural skills.[Footnote 23] As presently structured, the Marine 
Corps Training Information Management System enables servicewide 
tracking of the completion of institutional training and professional 
military education.[Footnote 24] During our review, Marine Corps 
officials stated that the service was in the process of developing a 
new module within this system that, when fully implemented, would 
allow units to document individual and unit predeployment training. 
However, according to officials, the Marine Corps has not determined 
if this new module or another system would be used to track language 
or culture predeployment training tasks. 

We also found that the Marine Corps had not provided formal language 
tests to marines who completed significant language training for 
ongoing operations in Afghanistan and, therefore, had not documented 
their language proficiency within its primary personnel system (the 
Marine Corps Total Force System) or any other system. According to 
officials, most marines selected for Afghan language training (about 
30 marines per battalion) received approximately 40 hours of training 
that primarily focused on basic rapport building and memorization of 
survival phrases. Due to the limited number of hours of training, 
Marine Corps officials stated that these training programs were not 
designed to produce measurable language proficiency. In discussions 
with units preparing for deployments to Afghanistan and with training 
providers, we found that some marines completed more extensive 
language training. For example, Marine Corps officials estimated that 
about 15 percent of marines selected for language training completed 
an advanced language training program that consisted of 160 hours of 
live instruction at a language training detachment on Camp Lejeune or 
Camp Pendleton, which also included a minimum of an additional 72 
hours of self-directed learning via computer-based language training. 
In addition, our analysis found that about 1,000 marines attended 
training programs at a local community college and university since 
2009 that ranged from 160 to 320 hours of Afghan language training. 

In cases where service members complete a significant language 
training event as defined by DOD and service guidance, the Marine 
Corps is responsible for administering the Defense Language 
Proficiency Test system of tests to measure language proficiency. 
[Footnote 25] However, although several language training programs met 
the criteria established in DOD and service guidance, we found that 
the Marine Corps had not required marines who completed significant 
language training to take a Defense Language Proficiency Test system 
of tests to measure their language proficiency. Therefore, the Marine 
Corps does not have language proficiency data for these marines. 
Marine Corps officials told us that they are reviewing the potential 
applicability of using a new Defense Language Proficiency Test that 
has been specifically designed to assess lower levels of language 
proficiency, but formal decisions on whether to use this test for 
general purpose force marines who completed significant Afghan 
language training have not yet been made.[Footnote 26] 

By not capturing information within service-level training and 
personnel systems on the training that general purpose forces have 
completed and the proficiency they gained from training, the Army and 
Marine Corps do not have the information they need to effectively 
leverage the language and culture knowledge and skills of these forces 
when making individual assignments and assessing future operational 
needs. 

Army and Marine Corps Have Not Developed Plans to Sustain Language 
Skills Already Acquired through Predeployment Training: 

DOD and service guidance address the need to sustain language skills 
and the DOD strategic plan for language, regional, and culture skills 
calls for the services to build on existing language skills for future 
needs. The Army and Marine Corps have made considerable investments in 
time and resources to provide some service members with extensive 
predeployment language training, but have not developed plans to 
sustain language skills already acquired through this training. We 
found that the Army and Marine Corps had not yet determined which 
service members require follow-on training, the amount of training 
required, or appropriate mechanisms for delivering the training. 

DOD and Service Guidance on Sustainment Training for Language Skills: 

DOD guidance instructs the services to develop sustainment language 
and regional proficiency training and education plans for language 
professionals and language-skilled personnel.[Footnote 27] Likewise, 
service documents reinforce the need to sustain language skills. For 
example, according to the Army's December 2010 Culture and Foreign 
Language Strategy Execution Order, the Army will sustain the language 
skills of soldiers who achieve low levels of language proficiency. 
[Footnote 28] Additionally, the Marine Corps Language, Regional and 
Culture Strategy: 2011-2015 notes that without an effective 
sustainment program, the war-fighting benefits from language training 
will be lost, which minimizes the service's return on investment for 
this training.[Footnote 29] Consequently, the strategy states that the 
Marine Corps must explore and leverage all cost-effective solutions to 
sustain language capabilities. Moreover, the Marine Corps has 
published guidance that states that mission accomplishment and 
efficiency can be enhanced if marines attain and maintain language 
proficiency, even at the lowest levels of proficiency.[Footnote 30] 

Additionally, a DOD strategy calls for the services to build on 
existing language skills for future needs. The Department of Defense 
Strategic Plan for Language Skills, Regional Expertise, and Cultural 
Capabilities (2011-2016) notes that in order to meet the requirements 
generated by an expanding global role, it is incumbent on the 
department to build on current language skills and invest in basic and 
continuing language, regional, and culture training and 
education.[Footnote 31] The strategy also states that by identifying 
language, regional, and cultural requirements and building these 
capabilities, DOD will be able to more effectively engage with not 
only partners and allies, but also with the indigenous populations in 
order to build rapport and establish trusting relationships. 

Army and Marine Corps Have Made Considerable Investments in 
Predeployment Language Training: 

The Army and Marine Corps have made considerable investments in time 
and resources to provide some service members with extensive 
predeployment language training in order to prepare them for ongoing 
operations in Afghanistan. For example, according to Army documents, 
the Army spent about $12.3 million through August 2011 to establish 
and maintain language training detachment sites for Afghan language 
training. The Army estimated that it will spend an additional $31.6 
million from fiscal year 2012 through fiscal year 2015 to maintain 
these sites. The Marine Corps has also funded Afghan language training 
courses at San Diego State University and Coastal Carolina Community 
College. Table 2 summarizes the number of soldiers and marines who 
completed selected language training programs since 2009, the length 
of the training, and the estimated cost of training. 

Table 2: Selected Afghan Language Training Program Enrollments and 
Costs Since 2009: 

Language training: Army language training detachment; 
Number trained[A]: 848; 
Length of training (hours): At least 480; 
Estimated cost of training[B]: $12,334,400. 

Language training: Marine Corps language training detachment; 
Number trained[A]: 639; 
Length of training (hours): Between 40 and 160; 
Estimated cost of training[B]: $1,288,600. 

Language training: San Diego State University; 
Number trained[A]: 258; 
Length of training (hours): 320; 
Estimated cost of training[B]: [C]. 

Language training: Coastal Carolina Community College; 
Number trained[A]: 770; 
Length of training (hours): 160; 
Estimated cost of training[B]: $134,750. 

Source: GAO analysis of DOD data. 

[A] Data as of July 2011. 

[B] Data for Army and Marine Corps language training detachments as of 
August 2011. Data for Coastal Carolina Community College as of July 
2011. 

[C] The Marine Corps does not pay a cost per student for the San Diego 
State University language training program. If entitled, a marine is 
reimbursed for travel and per diem costs to attend training. Marine 
Corps officials were unable to provide us with the number of marines 
who received travel and per diem payments and, as a result, we were 
unable to estimate the total cost of this training. 

Note: Additional soldiers and marines were enrolled in these training 
programs at the time of our review. For example, as of July 2011, 225 
soldiers were participating in training at Army language training 
detachments. 

[End of table] 

Army and Marine Corps Have Not Developed Formal Sustainment Plans for 
Language Skills Already Acquired through Predeployment Training: 

While informal language training programs exist, the Army and Marine 
Corps have not developed formal plans to sustain language skills 
acquired through predeployment training for ongoing operations. 
Officials with Army and Marine Corps units preparing for deployment 
and those deployed in Afghanistan reported that some informal follow-
on training programs were available to service members to sustain 
language skills, for example, utilizing self-directed learning tools 
such as computer-based training programs. However, the use of informal 
training options to refresh and maintain language skills was voluntary 
and left to service members' personal initiative. The Defense Language 
Institute Foreign Language Center has reported that although personal 
initiative is necessary, it is almost never sufficient for maintenance 
of such a complex skill as foreign language proficiency.[Footnote 32] 

We found that the Army and Marine Corps had not yet determined which 
service members require follow-on training to sustain language skills, 
the amount of training required, or appropriate mechanisms for 
delivering the training. Army officials stated they recognized the 
need to sustain language skills acquired through predeployment 
training with a formal training program, particularly in light of the 
number of service members who already received language training that 
will have multiple deployments to the same region. At the time of our 
review, the Army was evaluating various sustainment training options, 
but had not yet developed a formal plan or identified the resources 
required to provide the training. The Marine Corps is not planning to 
sustain the Afghan language skills of marines that were acquired 
through predeployment training with a formal training program. Marine 
Corps officials cited several reasons as the basis for this approach, 
for example because of the turnover of personnel within the Marine 
Corps from one deployment to the next. Additionally, according to 
current plans, the service will provide language training for a 
variety of languages as part of its career development program. 
[Footnote 33] However, we found that this program is not intended to 
maintain or build upon language skills already acquired by some 
marines through extensive predeployment Afghan language training. In 
the absence of formal sustainment training to maintain and build upon 
service members' language skills acquired for ongoing operations at 
considerable expense in time and resources, the Army and Marine Corps 
may miss opportunities to capitalize on the investments they have 
already made to provide predeployment language training. 

Conclusions: 

DOD has recognized that its ability to identify general purpose forces 
that have language and culture knowledge and skills will be critical 
to managing these forces in the future. However, by not capturing 
information within service-level training and personnel systems on the 
completion of language and culture training and corresponding 
proficiency gained from training, the Army and Marine Corps do not 
have the information they need to effectively leverage the language 
and culture knowledge and skills of these forces when making 
individual assignments and assessing future operational needs. 
Further, the Army and Marine Corps face competing demands for limited 
training time and resources and, in this context, not all service 
members who acquired skills through predeployment language training 
may require follow-on training. Despite the fact that the Army and 
Marine Corps have made considerable investments to provide some 
service members with extensive predeployment language training, the 
services have not determined which service members require follow-on 
training to sustain language skills, the amount of training required, 
or appropriate mechanisms for delivering the training. As a result, 
the Army and Marine Corps may not fully maximize the return on 
investment already made for predeployment language training for 
current operations. 

Recommendations for Executive Action: 

We recommend the Secretary of Defense take the following five actions. 

To provide decision makers with greater visibility on the language and 
culture knowledge and skills of Army and Marine Corps general purpose 
forces that could inform force management processes, we recommend that 
the Secretary of Defense direct the Secretary of the Army to: 

* Establish clearly defined data fields for all mandatory language and 
culture training tasks within the Digital Training Management System 
and update Digital Training Management System records for soldiers who 
completed training prior to these fields being established. 

* Document the language proficiency for soldiers completing 
predeployment language training within the Digital Training Management 
System and the Army Training Requirements and Resources System. 

We further recommend that the Secretary of Defense direct the 
Secretary of the Navy, in consultation with the Commandant of the 
Marine Corps, to: 

* Designate which training and/or personnel systems the Marine Corps 
should use to document the completion of marines' language and culture 
training. 

* Administer formal tests to marines completing a significant language 
training event using DOD's agreed-upon method to measure proficiency, 
and ensure the results of these tests are documented in marines' 
personnel records within the Marine Corps Total Force System. 

To capitalize on the investments in time and resources made in 
providing language training to service members, we recommend that the 
Secretary of Defense direct the Secretary of the Army and the 
Secretary of the Navy, in consultation with the Commandant of the 
Marine Corps, to: 

* Determine which soldiers and marines with language skills require 
follow-on training, the amount of training required, and appropriate 
mechanisms for delivering the training, and make any adjustments to 
training programs that may be needed. 

Agency Comments and Our Evaluation: 

In written comments on a draft of this report, DOD concurred with two 
recommendations and partially concurred with three recommendations. 
DOD's comments are reprinted in their entirety in appendix II. DOD 
also provided technical comments, which we incorporated into the 
report as appropriate. 

In addition to providing detailed responses to our recommendations, 
DOD provided two general comments about our report. First, DOD pointed 
out that our report noted the extent to which the Army and Marine 
Corps used service-level training and personnel systems to record 
service members' proficiency gained from predeployment training that 
meets DOD's definition of "significant language training." DOD stated 
that, since it believed the current definition in the report may have 
taken the definition out of context, it would like to clarify what 
constitutes a "significant language training event," noting that DOD 
Instruction 5160.71 defines such an event as "at least 150 hours of 
immersion training or 6 consecutive weeks of 5-hours-a day classroom 
training, or other significant event as defined by the Secretaries of 
the Military Departments and the Heads of Defense Agencies and DOD 
Field Activities."[Footnote 34] DOD stated that this definition was 
not intended to be associated with the initial acquisition of a 
language, but rather is associated with modifying the retesting 
interval for someone who has already achieved a measured proficiency. 
In a follow-up discussion, DOD officials clarified that language 
training offered during predeployment training falls into the category 
of initial acquisition of a language, and therefore, under the 
instruction, testing for proficiency is not required. These officials 
noted, however, that the military services are not precluded from 
testing for language proficiency at this stage, and therefore have the 
option of administering tests. As we noted in our report, the Army has 
decided to exercise this option and is in fact testing the proficiency 
of its service members upon completing extensive predeployment 
training. Given the considerable investments that the Marine Corps is 
making to provide some marines with extensive language training prior 
to deploying to Afghanistan, we continue to believe it is prudent for 
the Marine Corps to take a similar approach to testing. In the absence 
of such action, we continue to believe that DOD may be missing an 
opportunity to gain greater visibility of the language skills of its 
forces and therefore effectively leverage this capability when making 
individual assignments and assessing future operational needs. 

Second, DOD acknowledged our recommendation to develop sustainment 
training programs to maintain and build upon service members' language 
skills. The department noted that DOD Instruction 5160.70 emphasizes 
the importance of sustainment language and regional proficiency 
training and education programs for language professionals and 
language-skilled personnel.[Footnote 35] DOD stated that with an 
increasing number of general purpose forces attending predeployment 
language training at language training detachments, the department 
will examine ways to capitalize on the investments already made to 
ensure that it builds, enhances, and sustains a total force with a mix 
of language skills, regional expertise, and cultural capabilities to 
meet existing and emerging needs. 

DOD also provided detailed comments on each of our recommendations. 
DOD concurred with our recommendation that the Secretary of Defense 
direct the Secretary of the Army to establish clearly defined data 
fields for all mandatory language and culture training tasks within 
the Digital Training Management System and update Digital Training 
Management System records for soldiers that completed training prior 
to these fields being established. DOD stated that deficiencies within 
the Digital Training Management System have been identified and that 
the Army, in a December 2010 order, had directed the development of 
solutions to address these deficiencies. As stated in our report, we 
recognize that the Army directed that units record training in the 
Digital Training Management System. However, its direction did not 
include requiring that adjustments be made in the system. 
Specifically, it did not call for action to be taken to add new data 
fields for all required language and culture predeployment training 
tasks that would allow training officials to document soldiers' 
completion of these tasks. Therefore, because the Army has not 
directed this action, we continue to believe that our recommendation 
has merit. 

DOD concurred with our recommendation that the Secretary of Defense 
direct the Secretary of the Army to document the language proficiency 
for soldiers completing predeployment language training within the 
Digital Training Management System and the Army Training Requirements 
and Resources System. DOD stated that most predeployment language 
training is of such short duration that language proficiency will not 
be measurable and that the department's emphasis will be to document 
language proficiency for general purpose forces completing 
predeployment foundational language training (usually 16 weeks or 
longer) conducted at language training detachments. DOD also noted 
that the Total Army Personnel Database will remain the primary system 
for recording language proficiency of Army personnel. DOD further 
noted that the Army Training Requirements and Resources System already 
facilitates the requirement for tracking and reporting certain 
language and culture training courses. For example, DOD noted that the 
Army has, within the system, assigned specific codes for all language 
and culture training courses; modified functions to require a 
proficiency score for these courses; and assigned codes to each of the 
courses for a specific language. However, in its comments, DOD did not 
state whether the Army plans to take any actions to document language 
proficiency within the Digital Training Management System, as we also 
recommended. We continue to believe this action is needed to provide 
decision makers with better information on the language and culture 
knowledge and skills of soldiers to make individual assignments and 
assess future operational needs. 

DOD partially concurred with our recommendation that the Secretary of 
Defense direct the Secretary of the Navy, in consultation with the 
Commandant of the Marine Corps, to designate which training and/or 
personnel systems the Marine Corps should use to document the 
completion of marines' language and culture training. DOD stated that, 
as outlined in our report, current Marine Corps systems, such as the 
Marine Corps Training Information Management System, are designed to 
track the completion of institutional training and professional 
military education, not the completion of individual and unit-level 
training. DOD stated that although efforts are being pursued that may 
eventually allow for this capability, the Marine Corps believes that a 
comprehensive cost-benefit analysis needs to be conducted beforehand 
in order to accurately capture the costs in time, fiscal resources, 
and infrastructure enhancements associated with implementation and 
determine whether those costs necessary to track the completion of 
language and culture training at the individual and unit levels are 
warranted, particularly when prioritized against other validated 
operational requirements in a fiscally-and time-constrained 
environment. We agree that the Marine Corps should consider the costs 
associated with documenting the completion of language and culture 
training beyond those already incurred at the unit level to record 
this information and determine whether the benefits are warranted. As 
part of its analysis, we would expect that the service would also 
consider the potential opportunity cost of not recording this 
information, such as how it might affect the ability of decision 
makers to make timely and informed decisions on assigning forces or 
assessing future operational needs if they do not have complete 
information on the knowledge and skills of their forces. 

DOD partially concurred with our recommendation that the Secretary of 
Defense direct the Secretary of the Navy, in consultation with the 
Commandant of the Marine Corps, to administer formal tests to marines 
completing a significant language training event using DOD's agreed- 
upon method to measure proficiency, and ensure the results of these 
tests are documented in marines' personnel records with the Marine 
Corps Total Force System. DOD stated that the Marine Corps' 
predeployment language training programs are not specifically designed 
to produce a measurable language proficiency score using DOD's agreed- 
upon method for measuring it. Rather, the programs are focused on the 
military/tactical domain, and are designed to provide marines with the 
communication skills necessary to accomplish a specific mission-
related task/skill. DOD stated, however, that the Marine Corps is 
assessing the feasibility of incorporating metrics into its 
predeployment language training programs that would produce a 
proficiency score, such as using the Very Low Range series of Defense 
Language Proficiency Tests and oral proficiency interviews. DOD also 
restated the need for clarification in our report over what 
constitutes "significant language training," noting that the current 
definition was not intended to represent initial acquisition of a 
language but rather is associated with modifying retesting intervals. 
As discussed previously, DOD officials clarified that the military 
services are not precluded from testing proficiency following the 
completion of courses that fall into the category of initial 
acquisition of a language, such as predeployment training. As we noted 
in our report, the Marine Corps has made considerable investments to 
provide some marines with extensive predeployment language training 
prior to deploying to Afghanistan. To date, the Marine Corps has not 
required these marines to take a Defense Language Proficiency Test 
system of tests to measure their language proficiency. Without this 
information, we continue to believe that DOD may be missing an 
opportunity to gain greater visibility of the language skills of its 
forces and therefore effectively leverage this capability when making 
individual assignments and assessing future operational needs. 

DOD partially concurred with our recommendation that the Secretary of 
Defense direct the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the 
Navy, in consultation with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, to 
determine which soldiers and marines with language skills require 
follow-on training, the amount of training required, and appropriate 
mechanisms for delivering the training, and make any adjustments to 
training programs that may be needed. DOD stated that the Army is 
formulating a plan for sustainment of language skills acquired at Army 
language training detachments and that such a plan would rely heavily 
on existing distributed learning resources. We would expect that as 
the Army develops this plan, it would specifically address which 
soldiers require additional training, the amount of training required, 
appropriate mechanisms for delivering the training, and whether any 
adjustments to existing training programs would be made. DOD also 
stated that the Marine Corps has made a decision to formally build and 
sustain language, regional, and culture skills via the Regional, 
Culture, and Language Familiarization program for general purpose 
forces that specifically targets its officer corps and enlisted ranks 
starting at sergeant and above. DOD noted that given high attrition 
rates for first-term enlisted marines, applying this program or other 
deliberate institutional programs designed to target the first-term 
enlisted population group have been deemed cost prohibitive. For these 
marines, language, regional, and culture skills are provided through 
predeployment training programs and common skills training, and 
sustained via informal mechanisms by providing access to language 
learning software and other computer-based technologies. We recognize 
that the Marine Corps has developed the Regional, Culture, and 
Language Familiarization program that is focused on its career force. 
However, as we stated in our report, the Marine Corps has made a 
considerable investment in time and resources to provide some marines 
with extensive predeployment language training in order to prepare 
them for ongoing operations in Afghanistan, but at this point, the 
Regional, Culture, and Language Familiarization program is not 
intended to maintain or build upon the language skills already 
acquired by these marines. In the absence of formal training to 
sustain these language skills, DOD may miss opportunities to 
capitalize on the investments already made to provide predeployment 
language training. 

We are sending copies of this report to the Secretary of Defense, the 
Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness, the Secretary 
of Army, the Secretary of the Navy, and the Commandant of the Marine 
Corps. This report also is available at no charge on the GAO Web site 
at [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov]. If you or your staff have any 
questions about this report, please contact me at (202) 512-9619 or 
pickups@gao.gov. Contact points for our Offices of Congressional 
Relations and Public Affairs may be found on the last page of this 
report. Key contributors to this report are listed in appendix III. 

Signed by: 

Sharon L. Pickup: 
Director: 
Defense Capabilities and Management: 

[End of section] 

Appendix I: Scope and Methodology: 

To address our objectives, we met with officials from the Office of 
the Secretary of Defense, the Army, and the Marine Corps. To evaluate 
the extent to which the Army and Marine Corps captured information 
within service-level training and personnel systems on the completion 
of language and culture training and proficiency gained by personnel 
through training, we focused on Army and Marine Corps language and 
culture predeployment training programs administered since 2009 to 
prepare general purpose forces for ongoing operations in Afghanistan 
and Iraq. Therefore, for this review, we excluded service training 
programs for language and regional experts (e.g., foreign area 
officers and intelligence specialists) and special operations forces. 
We reviewed information available in service-level training and 
personnel systems and department-level information systems on service 
members' completion of language and culture training and the 
corresponding acquisition of skills--specifically, the time frame when 
this training occurred and the proficiency service members had 
achieved. We defined "proficiency" using the Department of Defense 
(DOD) agreed-upon method for measuring it.[Footnote 36] We conducted 
interviews with Army and Marine Corps officials who are responsible 
for developing predeployment training programs and documenting 
information on training completion in service-level training and 
personnel systems. We also discussed the extent to which the services 
used these systems to record any proficiency gained from training, in 
particular the training that meets DOD's definition of a significant 
language training event--at least 150 hours of immersion training or 6 
consecutive weeks of 5-hour-a-day classroom training.[Footnote 37] We 
also interviewed officials with Army and Marine Corps units that were 
participating in predeployment training and units that were deployed 
in Afghanistan at the time of our review to discuss the extent to 
which they used service-level training and personnel systems and other 
processes to document the completion of language and culture 
predeployment training and proficiency gained from this training. In 
identifying Army and Marine Corps unit personnel to speak with, we 
selected an illustrative nongeneralizable sample of units that were 
deployed for contingency operations or preparing to deploy during the 
time frame of October 2010 through June 2011. We assessed the Army's 
and Marine Corps' efforts in light of DOD guidance that requires that 
the services document all language and regional proficiency training, 
education, and experience in training and personnel systems and Army 
and Marine Corps documents that state that language and culture 
training completion and corresponding proficiency should be documented 
in service-level systems.[Footnote 38] For our review, we focused on 
language and culture-related training, which DOD includes in its 
description of regional proficiency skills. We also discussed with 
Office of the Secretary of Defense and Army officials the content and 
status of ongoing departmental and Army efforts, such as the Army's 
Language Tracking Task Force, which are intended to improve the 
accuracy of information on the language proficiency of service members 
available in personnel systems. 

To evaluate the extent to which the Army and Marine Corps have 
developed plans to sustain language skills acquired through 
predeployment training, we interviewed Army and Marine Corps training 
officials to discuss the extent to which the services had developed 
specific training programs for general purpose forces to sustain 
language skills. We interviewed officials with Army and Marine Corps 
units that were participating in predeployment training and units that 
were deployed in Afghanistan at the time of our review to discuss 
formal programs used by service members to sustain skills acquired 
through language training. We also discussed other informal training 
programs that were available to service members to sustain language 
skills. In identifying Army and Marine Corps unit personnel to speak 
with, we selected an illustrative nongeneralizable sample of units 
that were deployed for contingency operations or preparing to deploy 
during the time frame of October 2010 through June 2011. To gain an 
understanding of the investments associated with predeployment 
language training, we collected information from service training 
officials on the number of soldiers and marines completing training 
from January 2009 through July 2011, the amount of time spent in 
training, and the cost of these training programs. To ensure the 
reliability of our data, we interviewed knowledgeable officials about 
the data and internal controls on the systems that contain them. We 
determined that the data were sufficiently reliable for the purposes 
of this audit. We reviewed Army and Marine Corps training programs and 
plans in light of DOD and service guidance that emphasize the need to 
sustain language skills and the DOD strategic plan for language, 
regional, and culture skills that calls for the services to build on 
existing language skills for future needs.[Footnote 39] 

To gain insights on Army and Marine Corps units' perspectives on 
capturing information on language and culture training in service-
level training and personnel systems and discuss any steps taken to 
sustain skills acquired through language training, we interviewed 
officials with Army and Marine Corps units that were participating in 
predeployment training and that were deployed in Afghanistan at the 
time of our review. Specifically, we met with officials with one Army 
brigade combat team preparing for deployment and five subordinate 
combat arms and support battalions, three Marine Corps combat arms and 
one support battalion preparing for deployment, and through formal 
requests for information from the United States Forces Afghanistan 
staff, we received written responses from three Army combat arms and 
two Army support brigades deployed in Afghanistan. The team focused on 
combat arms units because training guidance from the battlefield 
commander focused on language training for these units.[Footnote 40] 

We interviewed officials, and where appropriate obtained 
documentation, at the following locations: 

Office of the Secretary of Defense: 

* Office of the Under Secretary of Defense for Personnel and Readiness:
- Defense Language Office: 

Department of the Army: 

* Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G1: 

* Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G2: 

* Office of the Deputy Chief of Staff, G3/5/7: 

* Assistant Secretary of the Army, Manpower and Reserve Affairs: 

* Army Forces Command: 

* Army Reserve Command: 

* Army Training and Doctrine Command:
- Center for Army Lessons Learned:
- Combined Arms Center:
- Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center:
- Training and Doctrine Command Culture Center: 

* First United States Army: 

Department of the Navy: 

* Marine Corps Training and Education Command:
- Center for Advanced Operational Culture Learning: 

* Marine Corps Air-Ground Task Force Training Command: 

* Marine Corps Center for Lessons Learned: 

* Marine Corps Forces Command: 

* Marine Corps Forces, Pacific: 

* I Marine Expeditionary Force: 

* II Marine Expeditionary Force: 

* III Marine Expeditionary Force: 

Other DOD Components: 

* U.S. Central Command:
- U.S. Forces Afghanistan: 

We conducted this performance audit from June 2010 to October 2011 in 
accordance with generally accepted government auditing standards. 
Those standards require that we plan and perform the audit to obtain 
sufficient, appropriate evidence to provide a reasonable basis for our 
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. We believe 
that the evidence obtained provides a reasonable basis for our 
findings and conclusions based on our audit objectives. 

[End of section] 

Appendix II: Comments from the Department of Defense: 

Office Of The Under Secretary Of Defense: 
Personnel And Readiness: 
4000 Defense Pentagon: 
Washington, D.C. 20301-4000: 

October 17, 2011: 

Ms. Sharon L. Pickup: 
Director, Defense Capabilities and Management: 
U.S. Government Accountability Office: 
441 G Street, N.W. 
Washington, DC 20548: 

Dear Ms. Pickup, 

This is the Department of Defense (DoD) response to the GAO Draft 
Report, GAO-12-50, "Language and Culture Training: Opportunities Exist 
to Improve Visibility and Sustainment of Knowledge and Skills in Army 
and Marine Corps General Purpose Forces," dated September 15, 2011 
(GAO Code 351506). 

DoD concurs with most of the recommendations made in the draft report. 
Detailed responses to those recommendations are contained in the 
enclosure. In addition, we would like to offer the following comments 
on the report. 

The report noted the extent to which the Army and Marine Corps used 
Service-level training and personnel systems to record service 
members' proficiency gained from predeployment training that meets the 
DoD's definition of "significant language training." The Department 
would like to clarify what constitutes a "significant language 
training event", since the current definition being utilized in the 
report may have been taken out of context. DoD Instruction 5160.71 
defines a significant language training event as "at least I50 hours 
of immersion training or 6 consecutive weeks of 5-hours-a day 
classroom training, or other significant event as defined by the 
Secretaries of the Military Departments and the Heads of Defense 
Agencies and DoD Field Activities." This definition was not intended 
to be associated with initial acquisition of a language, but rather is 
associated with modifying the retesting interval for someone who has 
already achieved a measured proficiency. 

The Department acknowledges the report's recommendation to develop 
sustainment training programs to maintain and build upon service 
member's language skills. DoD Instruction 5160.70 currently emphasizes 
the importance of sustainment language and regional proficiency 
training and education programs for language professionals and 
language skilled personnel. However, with an increasing number of 
general purpose forces attending predeployment language training at 
Language Training Detachments, the Department will examine ways to 
capitalize on the investments already made to ensure we build, 
enhance, and sustain a Total Force with a mix of language skills, 
regional expertise, and cultural capabilities to meet existing and 
emerging needs. 

Thank you for the opportunity to comment on this draft report. We look 
forward to receiving the final report, when available. 

Sincerely, 
Signed by: 

Dr. Laura J. Junor: 
Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense (Readiness): 

Enclosure: As stated. 

[End of letter] 

GAO Draft Report Dated September 15, 2011: 
GAO-12-50 (GAO Code 351506): 

"Language And Culture Training: Opportunities Exist To Improve 
Visibility And Sustainment Of Knowledge And Skills In Army And Marine 
Corps General Purpose Forces" 

Department Of Defense Comments To The GAO Recommendations: 

Recommendation 1: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense 
direct the Secretary of the Army to establish clearly defined data 
fields for all mandatory language and culture training tasks within 
the Digital Training Management System and update Digital Training 
Management System records for soldiers that completed training prior 
to these fields being established. 

DoD Response: Concur. The deficiencies identified within the Digital
Training Management System (DTMS) have been identified and the 
development of solutions addressing these deficiencies has been 
directed by HQ Department of Army Execution Order of December 2010 
regarding the implementation of the Army Culture Foreign Language 
Strategy. 

Recommendation 2: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense 
direct the Secretary of the Army to document the language proficiency 
for soldiers completing predeployment language training within the 
Digital Training Management System and the Army Training Requirements 
and Resources System. 

DoD Response: Concur. Most predeployment language training is of such 
short duration that language proficiency will not be measurable. 
Rather, emphasis will be to document language proficiency for general 
purpose forces (GPF) completing predeployment foundational language 
training (usually sixteen weeks or longer) conducted at Language 
Training Detachments. The Total Army Personnel Database will remain 
the primary system for recording language proficiency of Army 
personnel. 

The Army Training Requirements and Resources System (ATRRS) already 
facilitates the requirement for tracking and reporting language and 
culture training through completion of ATRRS managed training courses. 
ATRRS has assigned a specific "select code" for all identified 
Language Culture Training Courses for reporting purposes. ATRRS has 
modified Input and Graduate functions to require a proficiency score 
for Language Culture Training Courses. Additionally, ATRRS has 
assigned a Language Identification Code to each of the Language Culture
Training Courses for a specific language. Finally, reports can be 
requested within ATRRS to track/analyze the above actions. ATRRS 
routinely provides training completion transactions to the Total Army 
Personnel Database in support of its role as the Army's authoritative 
source/system of record for personnel data. 

Recommendation 3: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense 
direct the Secretary of the Navy, in consultation with the Commandant 
of the Marine Corps, to designate which training and/or personnel 
systems the Marine Corps should use to document the completion of 
marines' language and culture training. 

DoD Response: Partially concur. As outlined in the report, current 
Marine Corps systems such as the Marine Corps Training Information 
Management System (MCTIMS) are designed to track completion of 
institutional training and professional military education, not 
completion of individual/unit-level training. Though efforts are being 
pursued that may eventually allow for this capability, to include the 
possible addition of a module to MCTTMS and other efforts to track
IW-related individual skills, the Marine Corps believes a 
comprehensive cost-benefit analysis needs to be conducted beforehand 
in order to: 1) accurately capture the "real costs" in time, fiscal 
resources, and infrastructure enhancements associated with 
implementation; and 2) determine whether those real costs/additional 
expenditures in time, resources, and funding necessary to implement 
tracking completion of language and culture training at the individual 
and unit-levels is worth the cost, particularly when prioritized 
against other validated operational requirements in a fiscally and 
time constrained environment. 

Recommendation 4: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense 
direct the Secretary of the Navy, in consultation with the Commandant 
of the Marine Corps, to administer formal tests to marines completing 
a significant language training event using DOD's agreed upon method 
to measure proficiency, and ensure the results of these tests are 
documented in marines' personnel records with the Marine Corps Total 
Force System. 

DoD Response: Partially concur. The Marine Corps' predeployment language
training programs are not specifically designed to produce a 
measurable global proficiency score on the ILR scale. The program is 
focused on the military/tactical domain, and is designed to provide 
the Marine with the communication skills necessary to accomplish a 
specific mission related task/skill Developing measures of 
effectiveness that target performance based requirements, vice global 
proficiency, is what is truly needed. This is accomplished by the 
Marine Corps during mission rehearsal exercises such as Enhanced 
Mojave Viper prior to deployment. With the introduction of the Very 
Low Range series of Defense Language Proficiency Tests (DLPT) and oral 
proficiency interviews, the Marine Corps is assessing the feasibility 
of incorporating these metrics into the predeployment language 
training programs. Additionally, clarification is required to 
determine what constitutes "significant language training." There is 
concern that the current definition being utilized may have been taken 
out of context, and was not intended to represent initial acquisition 
of a language but rather is associated with modifying retesting 
intervals. 

Recommendation 5: The GAO recommends that the Secretary of Defense 
direct the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Navy, in 
consultation with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, to determine 
which soldiers and marines with language skills require follow-on 
training, the amount of training required, and appropriate mechanisms 
for delivering the training, and make any adjustments to training 
programs that may be needed. 

DoD Response: Partially concur. The Marine Corps has made a decision 
to formally build and sustain language, regional, and culture skills 
via deliberate institutional programs for the GPF that specifically 
targets its Career Force. As outlined in the report, the Regional, 
Culture, and Language Familiarization (RCLF) Program is designed to 
build, enhance, and sustain these critical enablers in a focused, 
deliberate manner for its Career Force, comprised of its officer corps 
and enlisted ranks starting at sergeant and above. Given the very high 
first term enlisted attrition rates characteristics of the Marine 
Corps, robust application of the RCLF Program, or implementation of 
other deliberate institutional programs designed to target the first 
term enlisted population group, have been deemed cost prohibitive. At 
this level, language, regional, and culture skills are provided
through training training, predeployment program and common skills and
sustained via informal mechanisms by providing access to language 
learning software and other computer based technologies. 

As for the Army, it is formulating a plan for sustainment of language 
skills acquired at the Language Training Detachments. Such a plan 
would rely heavily on existing distributed learning resources. 

[End of section] 

Appendix III GAO Contact and Staff Acknowledgments: 

GAO Contact: 

Sharon Pickup, 202-512-9619 or pickups@gao.gov: 

Staff Acknowledgments: 

In addition to the contact named above, Patricia Lentini, Assistant 
Director; Nicole Harms; Mae Jones; Susan Langley; Michael Silver; Amie 
Steele; Matthew Ullengren; and Chris Watson made significant 
contributions to this report. 

[End of section] 

Footnotes: 

[1] DOD Directive 1322.18, Military Training (Jan. 13, 2009). 

[2] See GAO, Military Training: DOD Needs a Strategic Plan and Better 
Inventory and Requirements Data to Guide Development of Language 
Skills and Regional Proficiency, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-568] (Washington, D.C.: June 19, 
2009) and Military Training: Actions Needed to Improve Planning and 
Coordination of Army and Marine Corps Language and Culture Training, 
[hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-456] (Washington, D.C.: 
May 26, 2011). 

[3] H.R. Rep. No. 111-491 at 259 (2010). 

[4] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-456]. 

[5] DOD measures an individual's language proficiency using the 
Defense Language Proficiency Test system of tests. Service members who 
complete a test are given an Interagency Language Roundtable score for 
listening, reading, and speaking proficiency as measured on a scale 
from 0 (no proficiency) to 5 (functionally native proficiency). For 
culture, DOD has established broad guidelines for regional 
proficiency, which includes cultural awareness, but the department has 
not yet established a way to test or otherwise evaluate the culture 
knowledge and skills of service members in accordance with these 
guidelines. 

[6] DOD Instruction 5160.71, DOD Language Testing Program (Jan. 26, 
2009) defines significant language training as at least 150 hours of 
immersion training or 6 consecutive weeks of 5-hour-a-day classroom 
training. The instruction also includes an "other significant event as 
defined by the Secretaries of the Military Departments and the Heads 
of Defense Agencies and DOD Field Activities" in its definition of 
significant language training. 

[7] See, for example, Department of Defense Instruction 5160.70, 
Management of DOD Language and Regional Proficiency Capabilities (June 
12, 2007); Army Headquarters Execution Order 070-11, Army Culture and 
Foreign Language Strategy (Dec. 27, 2010); and Marine Corps Order 
7220.52E, Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (FLPP) Program (June 6, 
2006). 

[8] See, for example, Department of Defense Instruction 5160.70, 
Management of DOD Language and Regional Proficiency Capabilities (June 
12, 2007); Army Headquarters Execution Order 070-11, Army Culture and 
Foreign Language Strategy (Dec. 27, 2010); Marine Corps Language, 
Regional and Culture Strategy: 2011-2015 (January 2011); and 
Department of Defense Strategic Plan for Language Skills, Regional 
Expertise, and Cultural Capabilities (2011-2016) (February 2011). 

[9] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-11-456]. 

[10] Army Headquarters Execution Order 273-10, For Culture and 
Language Pre-deployment Training Standards (July 23, 2010). 

[11] Commandant of the Marine Corps, Culture and Language Pre- 
deployment Training Requirement (Feb. 16, 2010). 

[12] Department of Defense Instruction 5160.70, Management of DOD 
Language and Regional Proficiency Capabilities (June 12, 2007). 

[13] [hyperlink, http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-09-568]. 

[14] According to Department of Defense Instruction 5160.70, 
Management of DOD Language and Regional Proficiency Capabilities (June 
12, 2007), regional proficiency skills encompass an awareness and 
understanding of the cultural and other factors, such as historical, 
political, sociological, economic, and geographic factors of a foreign 
country or specific global region. 

[15] See, for example, Army Headquarters Execution Order 070-11, Army 
Culture and Foreign Language Strategy (Dec. 27, 2010) and Marine Corps 
Order 7220.52E, Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (FLPP) Program (June 
6, 2006). 

[16] Army Regulation 350-1, Army Training and Leader Development (Dec. 
18, 2009). Although this policy requires that all units utilize the 
Digital Training Management System, we and the Army Audit Agency have 
previously reported that Army units have not consistently used the 
Digital Training Management System to track training completion. See 
GAO, Military Training: Actions Needed to Further Improve the 
Consistency of Combat Skills Training Provided to Army and Marine 
Corps Support Forces, [hyperlink, 
http://www.gao.gov/products/GAO-10-465] (Washington, D.C.: Apr. 16, 
2010) and U.S. Army Audit Agency, Digital Training Management System, 
A-2011-0075-FFT (Mar. 10, 2011). 

[17] Army Headquarters Execution Order 273-10, For Culture and 
Language Pre-deployment Training Standards (July 23, 2010). 

[18] Army Headquarters Execution Order 070-11, Army Culture and 
Foreign Language Strategy (Dec. 27, 2010). 

[19] The Army standard is for at least one leader per platoon to 
achieve a level 0+ in speaking and listening, described as memorized 
proficiency, with a goal of a level 1, described as elementary 
proficiency. According to Army data, more than 99 percent of soldiers 
achieved a level 0+ in the speaking modality, 34 percent of soldiers 
achieved a level 1, and 5 percent of soldiers achieved a level 1+ 
(elementary proficiency, plus). 

[20] Army Regulation 11-6, Army Foreign Language Program (Aug. 31, 
2009). 

[21] An Army official cited one error in which she was listed within 
the Total Army Personnel Database as an Interagency Language 
Roundtable skill level 4 linguist whose knowledge is based on 
residency in a foreign country whereas she is a level 2 DOD-trained 
linguist. 

[22] Marine Corps Order 3502.6, Marine Corps Force Generation Process 
(Apr. 29, 2010). 

[23] Marine Corps Language, Regional and Culture Strategy 2011-2015 
(January 2011). 

[24] Apart from predeployment training, the Marine Corps has begun 
documenting language and regional proficiency training, education, and 
experience information for its regional, culture, and language 
familiarization career development program within service-level 
systems. For example, the Marine Corps is recording marines' 
assignments to specific regions within the Marine Corps Total Force 
System, and is documenting marines' completion of the program's 
mandatory computer-based language and other region and culture 
training within the Marine Corps Training Information Management 
System. 

[25] DOD Instruction 5160.71, DOD Language Testing Program (Jan. 26, 
2009), and Marine Corps Order 7220.52E, Foreign Language Proficiency 
Pay (FLPP) Program (June 6, 2006) define significant language training 
as at least 150 hours of immersion training or 6 weeks of 5 hours a 
day of classroom training. The definition also includes an "other 
significant event as defined by the Secretaries of the Military 
Departments and the Heads of Defense Agencies and DOD Field 
Activities" in the definition. 

[26] According to the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language 
Center, the Very Low Range Defense Language Proficiency Test is 
explicitly designed to make distinctions among personnel with language 
proficiency skill levels of 0+, 1, and 1+. 

[27] Department of Defense Instruction 5160.70, Management of DOD 
Language and Regional Proficiency Capabilities (June 12, 2007). 

[28] Army Headquarters Execution Order 070-11, Army Culture and 
Foreign Language Strategy (Dec. 27, 2010). 

[29] Marine Corps Language, Regional and Culture Strategy: 2011-2015 
(January 2011). 

[30] Marine Corps Administrative Message 195/11, FY2011 Marine Corps 
Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (Mar. 28, 2011). 

[31] Department of Defense Strategic Plan for Language Skills, 
Regional Expertise, and Cultural Capabilities (2011-2016) (February 
2011). 

[32] Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Pamphlet 350-
9, Guidelines, Policies and Procedures for DOD Command Language 
Programs (Nov. 1, 1995). 

[33] The language component of the Regional, Culture, and Language 
Familiarization program is intended to provide basic language 
familiarization to support general purpose force marines' ability to 
build rapport, establish credibility, and apply specific words and 
phrases in a target language necessary to conduct military missions. 

[34] DOD Instruction 5160.71, DOD Language Testing Program (Jan. 26, 
2009). 

[35] Department of Defense Instruction 5160.70, Management of DOD 
Language and Regional Proficiency Capabilities (June 12, 2007). 

[36] DOD measures an individual's language proficiency using the 
Defense Language Proficiency Test system of tests. Service members who 
complete a test are given an Interagency Language Roundtable score for 
listening, reading, and speaking proficiency as measured on a scale 
from 0 (no proficiency) to 5 (functionally native proficiency). For 
culture, DOD has established broad guidelines for regional 
proficiency, which includes cultural awareness, but the department has 
not yet established a way to test or otherwise evaluate the culture 
knowledge and skills of service members in accordance with these 
guidelines. 

[37] Department of Defense Instruction 5160.71, DOD Language Testing 
Program (Jan. 26, 2009). The instruction also includes "a significant 
event as defined by the Secretaries of the Military Departments and 
the Heads of Defense Agencies and DOD Field Activities" in its 
definition of significant language training. 

[38] See, for example, Department of Defense Instruction 5160.70, 
Management of DOD Language and Regional Proficiency Capabilities (June 
12, 2007); Army Headquarters Execution Order 070-11, Army Culture and 
Foreign Language Strategy (Dec. 27, 2010); and Marine Corps Order 
7220.52E, Foreign Language Proficiency Pay (FLPP) Program (June 6, 
2006). 

[39] See, for example, Department of Defense Instruction 5160.70, 
Management of DOD Language and Regional Proficiency Capabilities (June 
12, 2007); Army Headquarters Execution Order 070-11, Army Culture and 
Foreign Language Strategy (Dec. 27, 2010); Marine Corps Language, 
Regional and Culture Strategy: 2011-2015 (January 2011); and 
Department of Defense Strategic Plan for Language Skills, Regional 
Expertise, and Cultural Capabilities (2011-2016) (February 2011). 

[40] Commander International Security Assistance Force/U.S. Forces 
Afghanistan Memorandum, Training Guidance for Language Training (Jan. 
24, 2010). 

[End of section] 

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