U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

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Speakeasy
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U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

Postby Speakeasy » Sat May 14, 2016 1:40 am

Over the past couple of years, in response to requests for resources covering some of the less-well-covered languages, I have occasionally mentioned the series of short "language orientation" courses that I believe were developed by the Defense Language Institute (DLI) for the United States Special Operations Command (SOC) for which I believe the official title is "U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses." Having examined a few of the courses, I find them to be very-well conceived and somewhat similar to the "DLI Headstart" courses in scope. In addition, they cover a wide range of languages, including those for which commercial resources are scarce. The sources that I have been able to locate for these low-priced introductory courses are listed below:

iTunes
https://itunes.apple.com/us/author/united-states-special-operations/id615153466?mt=11

Filmsdocs (via EBay)
http://www.ebaystores.ca/Filmsdocs/_i.html?submit=Search&_nkw=special+forces+language&_sid=2468364&

Copyright Issues / Public Domain?
I haven't the faintest idea!

This "general" information might have been mentioned by others in the past and, if so, please forgive my duplicating it.

EDITED:
Updated the link to "Filmdocs"
Last edited by Speakeasy on Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:07 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Speakeasy
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Re: U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

Postby Speakeasy » Thu Jul 26, 2018 5:53 pm

Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarization Language Courses - Update 1
Recently, I purchased a grab-bag of eight different U.S. Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarization Language Courses. As I found these materials rather interesting, it occurred to me that some members might appreciate having more information on the series. Although they are unavailable via the FSI-Languages-yojik website, it is possible that someone may wish to launch a project leading to their eventual hosting on the website.

A. Description and Assessment
As French is my adopted language, with a view to developing a baseline appreciation of the materials in the series, I decided to conduct an in-depth examination of the Special Forces’ French course and, based on my review, as well as a quick survey of seven other courses in the series, offer the following description and assessment.

Languages
The two resellers on iTunes and eBay list the following language courses under the U.S. Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarization Language series: Albanian, Amharic, Arabic, Armenian, Bengali, Burmese, Cantonese, Dari, English, French (Mali), Georgian, German, Hindi, Ilokano, Indonesian, Javanese, Khmer, Kurdish, Kurmanji, Nepalese, Pashto, Polish, Punjabi, Russian, Sinhala, Somali, Spanish, Sudanese, Swahili, Tagalog, Tajiki, Tamil, Tausug, Thai, Turkish, Turkmen, Uzbek. It should be noted that some of the languages are available only as part of a collection of courses and, in these cases, it is possible that the actual materials were drawn from the SOLT, DLI Refresher, Peace Corps, or other courses.

Materials
The materials that are available from the current resellers include: (a) a course manual, in PDF format, ranging from approximately 210 pages through 330 pages in length, (b) audio recordings in MP3 format, and (c) a set of HTMLs which lead to the electronic/computerized versions of courses. The audio files are incomplete for some of the SOLT courses.

Scope and Depth of Coverage
The U.S. Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarization Language Courses cover the basic communication needs of someone who will be living in a region where the target language predominates. Although these courses were designed for the language instruction of members of the U.S. Special Forces, as illustrated by the Lesson Titles, the focus is on daily life in a non-military setting: (1) People and Geography, (2) Living and Working, (3) Days of the Week, Numbers, Ages of People, (4) Daily Activities, (5) Meeting the Family, (6) Around Town, (7) Shopping, (8) Eating Out, (9) Holidays, Customs, and Cultural Traditions, (10) Around the House, (11) Weather and Seasons, (12) Personal Appearance, (13) Transportation, (14) Travel, (15) At School, (16) Recreation and Leisure, (17) Health and the Human Body, (18) Political and International Events, (19) The Military, (20) In the Hospital.

In my initial post, I suggested that the U.S. Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarization Language courses might be similar to the DLI Headstart courses in depth-of-coverage and, having since examined the Special Forces’ French course, I find that the comparison stands as to the materials themselves. All the same, the DLI Headstart courses were designed for self-instruction whereas the Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarization courses, which could just as easily be used for self-instruction, seem to have been prepared as the basic materials supporting “200 hours” of classroom instruction, most likely delivered in a intensive manner, over a seven-to-eight week period. I am left with the impression that, upon successful completion, students would have achieved at least a CEFR A1 level of competency and perhaps even higher given the likely intensive nature of the language training in a military setting (hut, hut, hut!).

Course Structure
The courses begin with a description of the host country’s location, climate, geography, population statistics, government, history, economy, religion, culture, ethnic groups, food, art, languages, and writing systems. Thereafter, each lesson focuses on the vocabulary necessary for basic communications in a variety of predictable situations drawn from daily civilian life (refer to the lesson titles above). The language is introduced through the presentation of stock phrases and short dialogues for repeated practice and for use in role-playing with other students. The role of the instructor is not specified.

The phrases and dialogues are presented in the target language’s own writing system, in a somewhat Romanised version to assist English-speaking students grasp and reproduce these elements, and in an English translation. The underlying grammatical issues deployed in the exercises and dialogues are explained in clear and concise notes which appear throughout the lessons. Cultural notes, pictograms, and photographs are included to assist the student visualize himself interacting with native-speakers in the described situations. I would imagine that, in a classroom setting, additional visual aids were available. A very useful feature of these materials for use in an independent-study context is that there is an Answer Key for many of the exercises.

Audio Recordings
The audio recordings were prepared with the assistance of native-speakers of the target language whose speech is clear, well-articulated, and delivered at a measured space that does not quite match that of a normal conversation between local inhabitants.

Example Materials 1
I have appended, below, a couple of images drawn from the Special Forces Burmese course.
Special Forces Burmese Course Ex.1.PNG

Special Forces Burmese Course Ex.2.PNG

Special Forces Burmese Course Ex.3.PNG


Example Materials 2
HTML to the Special Forces French course. Darn, the html leads back to my personal computer! Can anyone advise me how I can provide a "public" link to these files? Bon, okay, d'abord! Incapable of providing a link to the "HTML" version of the course, I have provided below a couple of images from my computer. Note carefully the blue text of the target language (second image). Clicking on the blue text invokes the MP3 recording which accompanies the text. Witchcraft, pure witchcraft!
Special Forces Familiarization Course HTML 1.PNG

Special Forces Familiarization Course HTML 2.PNG


Assessment
The U.S. Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarization Language Courses appear to have been published in the period from around the late-1990’s through the middle-2000’s. The approach to teaching in the course manuals is quite conventional. Nevertheless, the materials have been prepared with great care, they include sufficient examples and exercises as well as an Answer Key and they could very easily serve in an independent-learning context. An additional point in favour of these courses is that they cover a broad range of less-frequently-studied languages for which substantial materials are often difficult to find. A CEFR A1 level is likely possible with these materials.

B. Current Sources / Resellers
I have located two resellers of these materials, one on iTunes and one on eBay. A few comments …

iTunes
Recently, member kanewai reported a disappointing experience that he had with the iTunes version of the above courses: “… I bought the Special Forces Burmese book on iTunes. It's a nice find! Though there are major formatting issues. The audio is one continuous file, so it's hard to find the right spot in the book. In addition, the book is formatted as one continuous chapter, so it's impossible to jump back and forth unless you place your own bookmarks on the pages, and keep track of what they are...” I am not at all conversant on how iTunes functions. It is possible that a third party is using iTunes as a window to market a sub-standard version of these courses (i.e., massive files that are difficult to use). Caveat emptor!

Filmdocs
Subsequent to kanewai’s reported experience, I purchased from Filmdocs first a copy of (a) the Burmese course and, subsequently (b) a package of courses covering seven European languages: Albanian, English French, Georgian, German, Polish, Russian, and Spanish. I can confirm that, in the Filmdocs' version of the Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarization Language Courses, all of the MP3 audio files have been segmented into short tracks and filed in individual folders by lesson number. Likewise, the course’s printed lesson materials have been separated into individual PDFs by lesson number for easy consultation. By the way, the standard disclaimer applies here: I am not a representant of this company, I have no relationship of any kind with this company, and I will not benefit in any manner whatsoever from the sales of any of this company’s products or services.

C. Hosting on FSI-Languages-yojik?
At present, the “Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarization Language Courses” are unavailable on the FSI-Languages-yojik website. However, as these materials were “Developed by I Corps Foreign Language Training Center, Fort Lewis, WA, for the Special Forces Language Office, United States Operations Command” and as they appear to be in the public domain, I believe that they are a candidate for addition to the large collection of courses which have already been made freely-available to the public via Ericounet’s website.

At first glance, it might seem both tempting and reasonable to purchase a set of the Special Forces courses from one of the above-named resellers and host them on the FSI-Languages website. However, as these vendors’ copies are, apparently, covered by copyright as “derivative work (i.e., change in media, by compilation) from underlying U.S. Government public domain / public release data …”, doing so would incur the risk of a copyright challenge not only to the materials themselves, but to the entire contents of the website. A more certain approach would be to acquire the original documents from the U.S. Government or from some other entity that does not claim to enjoy copyright protection on their materials. This implies the launching of a project of sorts. Now then, …

Recently, in a separate discussion of what-turned-out-to-be three pages that are missing from the FSI Hebrew Basic course, there was talk of submitting a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request for a copy of the original materials or of downloading them from various websites. I wonder if this or some other approach might be used to acquire copies of the original Special Forces language courses for subsequent uploading to the FSI-languages website?

Any thoughts on how to proceed with such a project?

Any volunteers?

EDITED:
Attached a couple of images of the Special Forces Burmese course.
Could not attach an HTML to the Special Forces French course.
Attached a couple of images of the HTML version.
You do not have the required permissions to view the files attached to this post.
Last edited by Speakeasy on Tue Jul 31, 2018 12:35 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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eido
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Re: U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

Postby eido » Fri Jul 27, 2018 8:08 pm

How long ago did you get your Burmese course? I followed the link to the website where you could buy them, and it says the listing has 'ended'. Ended like, 7 years ago. Just an FYI for those looking to buy.
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Speakeasy
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Re: U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Jul 27, 2018 9:20 pm

Hello, eido. Thank you for your message.

Although the link to Filmdocs that I included in my initial post in May, 2016 was valid at the time, and although it continues to lead to eBay and to Filmdocs' list of products, I have to agree that, for whatever reason, it is no longer operative for placing orders. To set matters straight, I have just updated the link in my original post.

In passing, I ordered all of my Special Forces courses over the past couple of weeks by using the corrected link above.
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zenmonkey
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Re: U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

Postby zenmonkey » Tue Jul 31, 2018 10:11 am

Is this what you are looking for?

https://www.google.de/search?q=Corps+Fo ... ms&tbm=bks
(click on more, books if the books don't show up...)

---

Some of this material is already available at livelingua.

For example: https://www.livelingua.com/course/dli/R ... s_Manuals/

And this might be the source of some: http://www.jblmflc.com/

Before filing an FOIA, I'd suggest that you look into the Library of Congress (https://catalog.loc.gov/), WorldCat (http://www.worldcat.org/), Hathi (https://www.hathitrust.org/) and American universities on-line libraries (particularly Michigan and UC systems) for what is already on file.

I'd also take a look at google books - for example (Burmese Special Forces book : https://books.google.de/books?id=N7hEDwAAQBAJ)
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Speakeasy
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Re: U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

Postby Speakeasy » Tue Jul 31, 2018 12:09 pm

Zenmonkey, thank you very much for having taken the time to research this question and for having assembled the information. A self-described techno-peasant, I am quite incapable of conducting searches beyond eBay, Amazon, and AbeBooks. Vielen, vielen Dank!
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zenmonkey
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Re: U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

Postby zenmonkey » Tue Jul 31, 2018 12:16 pm

Speakeasy wrote:Zenmonkey, thank you very much for having taken the time to research this question and for having assembled the information. A self-described techno-peasant, I am quite incapable of conducting searches beyond eBay, Amazon, and AbeBooks. Vielen, vielen Dank!


You're welcome.
You really took the time to nicely describe the material - I wanted to see if a search helped out.
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Re: U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

Postby kulaputra » Thu Aug 02, 2018 5:29 pm

How is it possible for a Spanish DLI course of 200 hours to take you only to a A1?
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Re: U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

Postby Speakeasy » Thu Aug 02, 2018 6:30 pm

kulaputra, thank you for reviewing this discussion thread; your question is quite valid. I offer the following comments in reply:

Materials
I have reviewed the materials of seven different U.S. Army Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarisation Courses. My assessment of CEFR A1 for the materials themselves is based on my familiarity with a wide variety of materials for home-study by publishers such as Assimil, Cortina, Linguaphone, Living Language, Routledge and a host of others. In addition, I have an embarrassingly-large collection of graded materials destined for presentation in a classroom setting by publishers such as Klett, Langenscheidt, Hueber, Harcourt Brace, McGraw-Hill and so forth. More specifically, I used the following materials as my basis of comparison:

(a) DLI German Headstart,
(b) DLI German Gateway,
(c) Routledge Colloquial German,
(c) Berliner Platz Neu by Langenscheidt,
(d) Netzwerk by Langenscheidt,
(e) Menschen by Hueber.

My assessment of the materials themselves of the U.S. Army Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarisation Courses, when compared to those listed above, is that they barely meet CEFR A1. I would note further that the course title includes the specific term "Familiarisation" which does not suggest a significant depth-of-coverage.

200-Hours of Instruction
I presume that the U.S. Army Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarisation Courses were delivered in a classroom setting by a qualified instructor; furthermore, that the mention of "200-Hour" in the title reflects the number of in-class hours of instruction. The materials themselves are silent as to the role of the instructor, the availability of additional language-training materials and, apart from the brief mention of role-playing, the manner in which the TL was practised in the classroom. Nevertheless, the U.S. Army Special Forces are not reputed to be shrinking violets; that is, their training is widely-known to be quite intensive (hut, hut, hut!). This suggests to me that, in the absence of any evidence of the presence of more in-depth materials, the attendees of these courses would have truly achieved a level of CEFR A1 and not the supposedly achieved level by many college students in one-semester or two-semester introductory language courses.

Greater than CEFR A1?
Assuming 200 in-class contact hours, could an attendee have achieved a level greater than CEFR A1 for languages which are closely-related to English such as Spanish, French, and German? Although the materials themselves do not lead to such a conclusion, I certainly wouldn't argue against it. Seriously, given the relative facility of these languages for native English speakers, what could they have been doing with all that time at their disposal?

Still, if you were to consult the list of languages covered by the U.S. Army Special Forces 200-Hour Familiarisation Courses (refer to my second post, above), you would note that the vast majority of them have little-if-any relation to the English language; that is, they are, for the most part, FSI Category III and IV languages. For this reason, I suspect that the simultaneous mention in the course title of "200-Hour" and "Familiarisation" accurately reflects the scope and depth-of-coverage of the materials for the more difficult languages and that, on the average, attendees would have been able to achieve something akin to a CEFR A1 level, and no more ... meiner Meinung nach.

Private Message to follow.

EDITED:
Typos, formatting, tinkering.
And more typos!
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Speakeasy
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Re: U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses

Postby Speakeasy » Fri Dec 21, 2018 11:19 am

Member Chung has provided a link to a U.S. Government source of the “U.S. Army Special Forces 200 Hour Familiarization Courses”, once again providing proof that “Chung is King!”

JBLM-DLI “bootcamp challenge”? – LLORG – December, 2018
https://forum.language-learners.org/viewtopic.php?f=21&t=9736

Joint Base Lewis-McChord (JBLM) Language and Culture Center
http://www.jblmflc.com/

Note: Should the links to the JBLM language courses not function, please refer to Chung’s comments in the above, linked, post.

EDITED:
Expansion of the text.
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