BUREAU FOR INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE COORDINATION BUREAU DE COORDINATION LINGUISTIQUE INTERNATIONALE Closing Briefing Julie J. Dubeau BILC Chair Tbilisi, Georgia, 9 May 2013

Bled, 2012 Czech Republic, 2012

NATOSPEAK: ENGLISH IN MULTINATIONAL SETTINGS NATO speak: Acronyms, abbreviations, lingo, jargon, Specific meanings, expressions A discourse community, but context dependent, several domains Non-standardized uses Complexity of context Procedures, approaches

NATOSPEAK: ENGLISH IN MULTINATIONAL SETTINGS Implications and challenges: Blending general and specific language Deployment lessons learned Military culture and intercultural awareness Culture literate soldiers High stakes –Language as powerful tool for ‘good’: Obama to Iran –Consequences of miscommunications Crimean war Yugoslavia

NATOspeak = WMC Weapon of Mass Confusion

NATOSPEAK: ENGLISH IN MULTINATIONAL SETTINGS Getting the message across: Lingua franca –EFL, ESL, LFE or ELF & English native speaker –Plain Language, readability formulas –Graded language, two-way communication –Accents, pronunciation, stress, intonation, etc…

NATOSPEAK: ENGLISH IN MULTINATIONAL SETTINGS Standards: Implications for training and testing –Time on task –STANAG 6001 across all languages –English Native Speaker reference Who else? Whose English, Spanish, French, etc. –Test specifications –Capability database

STEERING COMMITTEE BILC Sec 2014: TBC Military terminology LNA ToR IS EQ Tbl : Letter Future Conferences & Seminars

STUDY GROUP - Recommendations 1.What is NATO Speak? 2.Enhancing Cross-cultural Communication within Multi- National Settings 3.On-line Language Maintenance Best Practices 4.Standardizing Application of STANAG 6001 Across Foreign Languages 5.Questionnaire on Deployment Lessons Learned

Contacts “Language is Wine Upon the Lips”