DLI Courses vs FSI

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tacerto1018
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DLI Courses vs FSI

Postby tacerto1018 » Thu Sep 17, 2020 12:14 am

Hello all,

What is the difference between DLI and FSI courses?

Also, what is the difference between all of the DLI courses available. For instance, Flamric, Modular, military texts, SOLT, etc.

Thanks!
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Re: DLI Courses vs FSI

Postby Cainntear » Thu Sep 17, 2020 11:45 am

There's so much variation in both that it's hard to say any differences that really set FSI and DLI apart other than the obvious one: DLI courses are full of military terminology and situations, FSI courses are far more generally useful.
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Re: DLI Courses vs FSI

Postby iguanamon » Thu Sep 17, 2020 12:57 pm

Cainntear wrote:... DLI courses are full of military terminology and situations, FSI courses are far more generally useful.

In my experience, having done two DLI Basic Courses (Portuguese and Haitian Creole), this is absolutely not true for the courses with which I am familiar. The Portuguese Basic course has no military terminology or lessons.The Haitian Creole Basic course has only a few, I think 3 out of 80, lessons, with a military focus.

I am not familiar wth the FLAMRIC (Forscom Language Maintenence Refresher & Improvement Course), the modular courses, or the SOLT courses. I took a glance at some of them. FLAMRIC is as described- it's for after having used a more basic course. "Modular" seems to have been the replacement for the "Basic" courses. SOLT is "Special Operations Language Training". Special Operations units are in front of the lines and forward operating units that have to depend on local resources to perform their missions. Basically, they aren't there to "chat". These are heavily weighted to practical military needs in these type situations for special ops troops.

What I can say about the two DLI Basic courses I did was that they were the most thorough, most complete and best courses I have ever done in any language. Before choosing them, I looked at the FSI courses which, as has been discussed here before, are quite matter of fact, drill based courses. DLI has plenty of drills too, but also has a dialog- structured with pauses for a simulated duplex (two-sided) conversation- followed by drills to reinforce the concepts/vocabulary in the dialog. Each lesson also has a reading with comprehension questions. There is a grammar review of the main points of the lesson and a glossary of the vocabulary in the lesson. The course has minimal English- almost monolingual instruction. In the beginning of the courses, phonology is emphasized. As I said, the courses are very thorough and complete.

Both DLI and FSI courses follow the "audio-lingual" method of instruction, which fell out of favor many years ago. In order to follow this method, a learner must have self-discipline and a tolerance for "not fun at first". As I learned more and more by doing the lessons, the "boring" drills became "fun" for me as I knew how they were helping me to learn the language.

The courses are now almost or even over 50 years old. Yes, there will be some outdated language and patterns, however, people from that era are still alive today. The outdated bits are not an issue as long as a learner also gets input from more modern sources / resources.

As I've said, I am only familiar with the two courses I have done. Things to keep in mind are that FSI stands for "Foreign Service Institute". The Foreign Service is the US diplomatic corps. DLI stands for "Defense Language Institute" and is intended for military personnel and civilian personnel working for the military. Some courses are more about working with foreign military allies of the US (in the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's. Some are more about being stationed longterm in another country. Some are focused on personnel who need to gather intelligence from certain countries. Always check out a course first. These courses are free and legal to download. Download a volume or two of a textbook and check out for yourself what is taught, how it's taught. You can be the judge of whether or not it's the right course for you. Myself, I would do any of the DLI Basic Courses.

*I wish speakeasy and Iron Mike were still here. I am sure they would have much more to add to this discussion.
Last edited by iguanamon on Sat Dec 05, 2020 12:28 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: DLI Courses vs FSI

Postby cjareck » Thu Sep 17, 2020 1:31 pm

I did FSI Hebrew, which had one lesson on military topics out of forty. I still struggle with DLI MSA, and I did about 10%, so it is difficult to say something sure. Nevertheless, most of the vocabulary is not military - I learned a few words (military ranks). I also printed the DLI French course and, there is an addition to it, called "Basic military situations". As a military historian, I expected more focus on military topics. Maybe it will happen later in the course?

Based on 10% of DLI MSA and observations of DLI French, I think that they are more comprehensible, they have many more pages - a few thousand each! And have many more drills and the audio is longer.
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tacerto1018
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Re: DLI Courses vs FSI

Postby tacerto1018 » Thu Sep 17, 2020 10:56 pm

iguanamon wrote:
Cainntear wrote:... DLI courses are full of military terminology and situations, FSI courses are far more generally useful.

In my experience, having done two DLI Basic Courses (Portuguese and Haitian Creole), this is absolutely not true for the courses with which I am familiar. The Portuguese Basic course has no military terminology or lessons.The Haitian Creole Basic course has only a few, I think 3 out of 80, lessons, with a military focus.

I am not familiar wth the FLAMRIC (Forscom Language Maintenence Refresher & Improvement Course), the modular courses, or the SOLT courses. I took a glance at some of them. FLAMRIC is as described- it's for after having used a more basic course. "Modular" seems to have been the replacement for the "Basic" courses. SOLT is "Special Operations Language Training". Special Operations units are behind the lines and forward operating units that have to depend on local resources to perform their missions. Basically, they aren't there to "chat". These are heavily weighted to practical military needs in these type situations for special ops troops.

What I can say about the two DLI Basic courses I did was that they were the most thorough, most complete and best courses I have ever done in any language. Before choosing them, I looked at the FSI courses which, as has been discussed here before, are quite matter of fact, drill based courses. DLI has plenty of drills too, but also has a dialog- structured with pauses for a simulated duplex (two-sided) conversation- followed by drills to reinforce the concepts/vocabulary in the dialog. Each lesson also has a reading with comprehension questions. There is a grammar review of the main points of the lesson and a glossary of the vocabulary in the lesson. The course has minimal English- almost monolingual instruction. In the beginning of the courses, phonology is emphasized. As I said, the courses are very thorough and complete.

Both DLI and FSI courses follow the "audio-lingual" method of instruction, which fell out of favor many years ago. In order to follow this method, a learner must have self-discipline and a tolerance for "not fun at first". As I learned more and more by doing the lessons, the "boring" drills became "fun" for me as I knew how they were helping me to learn the language.

The courses are now almost or even over 50 years old. Yes, there will be some outdated language and patterns, however, people from that era are still alive today. The outdated bits are not an issue as long as a learner also gets input from more modern sources / resources.

As I've said, I am only familiar with the two courses I have done. Things to keep in mind are that FSI stands for "Foreign Service Institute". The Foreign Service is the US diplomatic corps. DLI stands for "Defense Language Institute" and is intended for military personnel and civilian personnel working for the military. Some courses are more about working with foreign military allies of the US (in the 1960's, 70's, 80's and 90's. Some are more about being stationed longterm in another country. Some are focused on personnel who need to gather intelligence from certain countries. Always check out a course first. These courses are free and legal to download. Download a volume or two of a textbook and check out for yourself what is taught, how it's taught. You can be the judge of whether or not it's the right course for you. Myself, I would do any of the DLI Basic Courses.

*I wish speakeasy and Iron Mike were still here. I am sure they would have much more to add to this discussion.


This is exactly what I was looking for. Thank you so much for your insight
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Re: DLI Courses vs FSI

Postby thevagrant88 » Fri Sep 25, 2020 11:53 am

To piggyback on this thread, can the DLI courses be done without having the accompanying .pdf on hand? I used the FSI Basic Spanish course after completing Assimil With Ease and while I did need to reference the text occasionally, it was more than functional without it for the majority of the time. I'm looking at doing either FSI or DLI to supplement my Assimil German With Ease studies. Also not sure whether to start with the Basics courses of these or not.
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Re: DLI Courses vs FSI

Postby iguanamon » Fri Sep 25, 2020 12:28 pm

thevagrant88 wrote:To piggyback on this thread, can the DLI courses be done without having the accompanying .pdf on hand? I used the FSI Basic Spanish course after completing Assimil With Ease and while I did need to reference the text occasionally, it was more than functional without it for the majority of the time. I'm looking at doing either FSI or DLI to supplement my Assimil German With Ease studies. Also not sure whether to start with the Basics courses of these or not.

I can only speak for the DLI Baisc Course generations that I have done. In my experience, the drills can most certainly be done without the accompanying pdf. The dialogs are a bit more tricky in that you listen to the whole dialog once and then do each side of the dialog (always between two speakers) in a sort of "conversation". This is where having the pdf is essential. I put the whole course on my tablet and could play the audio while I read along.
The drills are not dependent on the pdf.
Last edited by iguanamon on Fri Sep 25, 2020 6:04 pm, edited 1 time in total.
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Re: DLI Courses vs FSI

Postby thevagrant88 » Fri Sep 25, 2020 3:44 pm

Ok perfect, I’ll try it out.
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Re: DLI Courses vs FSI

Postby exa4u » Fri Dec 04, 2020 4:06 pm

iguanamon wrote:
Cainntear wrote:... DLI courses are full of military terminology and situations, FSI courses are far more generally useful.

I personally like DLI courses, I'm halfway through DLI French Basic and I've improved a lot, I downloaded the FSI French Basic as well but I felt it doesn't explain everything as the DLI does, just went through the pages quickly.
And the same comment as @iguanamon, they are not very "military", they just have a few scenarios talking about the colonel or tapes to do homework but in general the other 98% of the vocabulary it's still very useful.
Once I finish french I'll go for either DLI German Basic or DLI Chinese Modular Course.
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Re: DLI Courses vs FSI

Postby MorkTheFiddle » Fri Dec 04, 2020 6:35 pm

iguanamon wrote:*I wish speakeasy and Iron Mike were still here. I am sure they would have much more to add to this discussion.

An enlightening survey of DLI etc, to say the least. Thank you for taking the time.
As for speakeasy, I have seen his name pop up recently on HTLAL.
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