Job Discussion Forums

[mongrelcat]

I see in some of the ads for ESL teachers in KSA, Kuwait, UAE etc. that 'a candidate who has a DLI' is preferable, or whatever.

What is it? International Drivers License?

[justme]

The only DLI know is the 'Defense Language Institute,' where the military does intense language training for future spies...

But that doesn't quite make sense...

[thrifty]

The DLI is the Defense Language Istitute at Lackland Airforce Base in Texas. Forget that nonsense about spies. The DLI produces the American Language Course which is still widely used amongst military schools in Gulf countries like Saudi, UAE and Kuwait. The ALC is only available by license from the DLI and is not published. It is basically thirty year old audio lingual military orientated English. It consists of thirty books ranging from beginner to advanced and it contains a full package of exams and suplementary material.

The DLI also runs year long courses for military English instructors, typically from Gulf countries.

[scot47]

And it is the most boring stuff imaginable to teach - especially at lower levels and doubly so if your students are Arabs.

The texts are all about life on Fort Swampy. AAAAAAAARGGGGHHHH !

[justme]

Hmm. There is more than one DLI campus. The one I've been to is the DLI Foreign Langauge Center on the Presidio in Monterey, California, where they do mainly foreign language teaching for American soldiers preparing to work in foreign posts or gather intelligence abroad. Maybe they won't all be spies in the exciting sense-- most of them will spend their days recording number codes from intercepted radio transmissions. They also train Americans and foreigners as English teachers.

http://www.monterey.army.mil/index.asp
http://www.dliflc.edu/index.asp


But I'm still not sure it's the DLI mongrelcat is talking about...

[thrifty]