1. The Bureau for International Language Coordination
Good morning distinguished guests, dear hosts and dear delegates!! It is my honour and pleasure to be providing you with the BILC Opening briefing.
Before I do, I would like to begin by thanking our gracious hosts, once again, a lovely welcome party last night, especially Ingrida who has been organizing the and preparing so many details. We well understand how difficult it can be to get so many people together logistically, and we are grateful for your efforts.
I will say that my motto “Work Hard – Play Hard!!!” is being lived up to quite respectably… And at the risk of repeating myself, I will say that after an evening of playing, we indeed are now ready to begin our work.
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Julie J. Dubeau
BILC Chair
Opening Briefing
Stockholm, Sweden
14 October, 2013

2. Outline What is BILC? Seminar Theme : Design Updates
Membership, Secretariat, Mandate
Programme of work
Seminar Theme : Design
Updates
This morning, my presentation will be three-fold: I will begin by saying a few words about our BILC organisation and programme of work; then I will briefly address this year’s theme, before moving on to the BILC updates.
I will also be happy to answer your questions at the end of the briefing.
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3. BILC BILC was established in 1966 as an advisory body to NATO.
The founding members are France, Germany, Italy, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
1967: Belgium, Canada, Netherlands
1975: SHAPE and IMS/NATO (non-voting members)
1978: Portugal
1983: Turkey
1984: Denmark and Greece
1985: Spain
1993: Norway
1999: Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland
2004: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia
2008: Albania, Croatia
Partner countries routinely participate. All nations are welcome to attend and/or observe.
The BILC Chair presides over the Steering Committee which meets at the spring conference.
Voting members are the heads of NATO delegations.
Since you will have these slides to take home with you, I need not spend too much time on the details of BILC’s background.
I will say that BILC has been NATO’s advisory body for language training and testing since But we are more than an advisory body to NATO, we are a conglomerate, or a consortium of sorts -- of language professionals, language generalists and specialists, as well as administrators.
The BILC secretariat is accountable to its steering committee, which meets in person every year, but is informed and consulted year round through . The heads of the NATO nations can vote at the steering committee, but all nations are welcome to attend and observe these meetings.
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4. Chair GRB (1966-1981) DEU (1982-1996) USA (1997-2008) CAN (2008-2014)
BILC
Steering Committee
Chair
J. Dubeau
GRB ( )
DEU ( )
USA ( )
CAN ( )
XXX (2014-
Senior Advisor
Dr. R. Clifford
Secretary
J. Vasilj-Begovic
As a technical reporting mechanism, BILC situates itself under the ACT – the Allied Command Transformation and reports tto NATO through that organization.
This is the current secretariat. Our American colleagues, the two associate secretaries, are responsible for two important programme, the Assistance to language Testing programme and the Cooperative Language Training programme.
As you see from the slide, and as you know, Canada will not continue chairing and running the secretariat beyond In Tbilisi last may, Germany tentatively proposed to take over the secretariat if no other nation was able to take it, but unfortunately we are not certain if this will still be the case since as some of you may have heard, our dear colleague Dr Christopher Huellen is leaving the BILC family. That is all the info I have at the moment, but rest assured that we will keep you informed as the developments unfold.
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Associate
Secretaries
Language
Testing Programmes
P. Garza
Language
Training Assessments
K. Wert 4

5. BILC’s Mandate
Mission: To promote and foster interoperability among NATO and PfP nations by furthering standardization of language training and testing. To support the Alliance's operations through the exchange of knowledge and best practices, IAW established procedures and agreements.
Vision: To achieve levels of excellence where progress made by one is shared by all.
You are probably familiar with our vision and mission statements.
BILC endeavours to live up to these ideals in concrete and practical ways. Our context is unique and it is complex – in fact both complex and complicated.
Mission: To promote and foster interoperability among NATO and PfP nations by furthering standardization of language training and testing. To support the Alliance's operations through the exchange of knowledge and best practices, IAW established procedures and agreements.
As our mission and vision statements capture, our primary mission is to promote interoperability through standardization of training and testing practices. Our goal is to foster the exchange of knowledge and best practices.
The BILC vision is to share progress made with member nations, partner nations and any nation who wishes to advance in the field of language training for military purposes.
As you know, our context is unique in the language training and testing world.
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6. NATO Language Context: Complicated and Complex!
Each nation is responsible for own training / testing program
No common tests - only a common standard - STANAG 6001
Nations certify their military with SLPs based on own STANAG–based tests.
Varying interpretations of standard?
SLPs of job descriptions may not reflect actual language requirements
Language is #1 shortfall on deployments: 2010 JALLC Report
Why? Well we must first acknowledge that in the language training and testing world, the military testing environment is somewhat of an anomaly.
Each nation is responsible for its training / testing programme. There is no overarching language training/testing authority – all is done nationally – and in good faith. BILC is an advisory body only - we certainly suggest, but we do not prescribe.
There are no common tests - only a common standard - and BILC is the custodian of that standard, the STANAG Still, this is atypical in the language testing world whereby a central authority normally controls language testing and accuracy of results. Each nations certifies its own military members and give Standardized Language Profiles (SLPs) based on national STANAG– based tests. Many tests or testing instruments may lead to variance.
Despite testing seminars, workshops, assistance programmes, there are still a few nations who simply have not developed professional testing programmes and their interpretation of the standard may be producing unreliable SLPs.
Another piece of the NATO language puzzle is the fact that SLPs of job descriptions may or may not reflect actual language requirements. Our BILC POC at the IMS briefed us at SHAPE in September confirming that 60% of IMS posts are asking for full 4s and 12% 2/4 L 4 digits in so-called passive skills.. Furthermore, BILC has argued for a number of years that it may even be the case that not all positions in all HQs require level 3 skills across the board, and that it might be useful for nations to know which ones do. A rigorous Language Needs Analysis (LNAs) of positions would be informative. More on that topic in the updates.
And last but not least, we know that despite our best efforts, there are still huge gaps in the interoperability of troops – and the now infamous JALLC report of 2010 outlined these quite clearly. Those of you who were in Tbilisi got to hear about and discuss this topic in more depth.
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7. BILC Programme of Work Plan the 3 annual main events :
- Annual BILC Conference,
- BILC Professional Seminar, and
- STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop;
Organize & deliver specialized seminars & workshops;
Conduct research / special projects, & support nations;
Lead cooperative assistance visits to requesting NATO & Partner countries (language training & testing programmes);
Report to NATO HQ, NTG, ACT and others as required.
So how does BILC concretely try to bridge this interoperability gap? What do we do?
First, we work on the planning of the content of the events which are hosted by volunteer nations. More details on past and future events will follow….
At the request of nations, BILC can organize & deliver specialized and tailored seminars & workshops;
Etc..
All of these are the standardizing efforts that provide nations, testers, teachers and admin staff with support in language training and testin.

8. BILC Main Events BILC Annual Conference in Spring:
2013 hosted in Tbilisi by Georgia
“NATO speak: English in Multinational Settings”
Steering Committee met daily
68 participants, 23 presentations + 5 Study groups
SG #1 - What is NATO Speak?
SG #2 - Enhancing Cross-Cultural Communication within Multi- National Settings
SG #3 - On-line Language Maintenance
SG #4 - Standardizing the Application of STANAGs Across Foreign Languages
SG #5 - Questionnaire Deployment Lessons Learned
The Conference in the Spring and The Professional Seminar in the fall each offer opportunities for language teachers, testers, managers and military language stakeholders to learn and contribute to the collective effort.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank Georgia once again for a wonderful conference and all of their efforts in hosting us in their beautiful country.
Last conference concentrated on English language from the perspective of the lingua franca, and the specialized language used in NATO. We acknowledged that there is a discourse community inherent to military, but that there isn’t one single military English. In an attempt to define NATO Speak, SG 1 came up with this definition:
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9. Definitions What is NATO Speak? What should it be?
It is the language used in each NATO location which encompasses the acronyms, abbreviations and terminology used, an understanding of the organizational mission and culture and the jargon appropriate to that location.
What should it be?
It should be clear communication in plain English which facilitates interoperability and effective accomplishment of NATO missions.
It was also acknowledged that language can be used as a means to exclude, to control information and that native speakers or any speakers accustomed to the ‘lingo’ are not always even aware of the way they speak. Simple, direct and clear language or plain language should be the chosen communicative style.
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11. BILC Main Events
BILC Annual Conference in Spring:
Next Conference in Bruges, Belgium, 4-9 May 2014
Theme: “Forging Effective Partnerships to Optimize Operational Success”
Some sub-themes (list to be expanded):
- Micro Level Civilian and Military Collaborations
- Harmonizing Performance and Proficiency Training
- Collaborative Educational Frameworks
- Civilian and Military Instructional Partnership
The next Spring Conference will be in Bruges, Belgium, 4-9 May, For the next conference, we have opted for a broad umbrella once again –
We have come up with the following theme: “Forging Effective Partnerships to Optimize Operational Success”
which we felt represented the approach many countries are have been using in order to fill gaps in funding, staffing, resources etc.
Sub-themes (list to be expanded):
- Micro Level Civilian and Military Collaborations
-Harmonizing Performance and Proficiency Training
-Collaborative Frameworks
-Civilian and Military Instructional Partnership
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12. BILC Main Events BILC Professional Seminar in Fall
2012 hosted in Bled by Slovenia
“BACK TO BASICS: RECIPES FOR INSTRUCTIONAL SUCCESS”
73 Delegates, 28 Presentations + Daily Panels
Next Professional Seminar will be hosted by Germany in Ellwangen, October 2014, Theme TBD
I would like to take this opportunity to also thank last years’ hosts for the Bled seminar, which everyone will always fondly remember. The them was classroom oriented focusing on tried and proven recipes for success.
Our next Professional Seminar will be held in Germany October The theme will be determined later this year.
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13. BILC Professional Seminar, Bled, Slovenia October 21-25, 2012

14. BILC Main Events STANAG Testing Conference
New name!! STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop
Last hosted 3-5 September, 2013 by Mike!! (SHAPE) in Mons
STANAG 6001 TESTING: INTEGRATING TEST DEVELOPMENT STAGES
Next STANAG 6001 Testing Workshop will be hosted by Austria at Castle Rothschild at Reichenau/Rax
8-12 September 2014
A new event has been added in ePRIME and is now included as an ACT event.
As you notice, Jana and I have decided to change the name from a testing conference to a STANAG 6001 Testing workshop. We felt we needed to distinguish more clearly from the conferences and seminars. Attending conference requires a number of extra layers of approvals in some countries, whereas a workshop is understood by many to be intended for a specific professional group. In this case, the STANAG Testing Workshop is intended specifically for testing professionals and the next event will be a hands-on workshop for testers, so attendance will be limited to testing professionals who are there to participate in that capacity. You will be provided with more detailed info on the workshop on the last day.

15. BILC Main Events 15

16. BILC Programmes Assistance to National Testing Programmes:
Planned: Russia Nov 2013
Potential: Algeria, Uzbekistan, Mongolia, Greece
Language Testing Seminar (LTS): 2 weeks, 2X per year
Advanced Language Testing Seminar (ALTS): 3 weeks,
2X per year - Offered to graduates from the LTS
NEW! Language Standards and Assessment Seminar (LSAS)
Cooperative Language Training Assessments
Planned: Russia June 2014
So what else does BILC do?
BILC runs two programmes:
The first is called the Assistance to National Testing Programmes – organized by Peggy Garza, who works at the Marshall Center.
The Goal of this programme is to assist nations in establishing, restructuring or improving their testing systems. As always, these visits are done at the request of nations.
The Language Testing Seminars and Advanced Language Testing Seminars continue to provide real hands-on opportunities for language testers to acquire the professional skills and to standardize their interpretation of the STANAG 6001 descriptors.
I am pleased to announce that BILC has been offering a new seminar called the Language Standards and Assessment Seminar, designed for language teachers and language program managers. The other two existing BILC testing seminars are intended specifically for STANAG 6001 testers. Now, other language teaching professionals, who are not STANAG testers, can participate in a seminar that will cover STANAG 6001 familiarization, classroom assessment and guidelines for building language proficiency consistent with the STANAG 6001 descriptors. The LSAS took place last July 2013 at the Partner Language Training Center Europe, Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, the same location as the LTS and ALTS and was a huge success.
The second programme is run by Keith Wert, and currently the only planned visit is for next spring in Russia.
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17. I also wanted to mention that BILC has been working with Russia under the aegis of the NATO Russia Council work plan. The BILC is positioned within the EGT – the Expert Group on Terminology, the NRC(PREP-EGT) 17

18. BILC / Russia - NRC Work Plan
Our last meeting with Russian authorities to discuss language-related training and education took place in Brussels last month.
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I’ve embedded the link here to the NRC website so you can access the brief summary of the event. BILC collaboration with Russia is on-going. Our colleagues recently had the opportunity to visit some of our BILC member nations’ institutions, for example, Bulgaria who graciously hosted them in Varna.
And now, let’s move to the second phase of my not so brief brief – the theme of our seminar. 18

19. What is design? And why do we care?
Engineering, medicine, business, architecture and painting are concerned not with the necessary but with the contingent - not with how things are but with how they might be - in short, with design. Herbert Simon
Design is the method of putting form and content together. Design, just as art, has multiple definitions; there is no single definition. Design can be art. Design can be aesthetics. Design is so simple, that's why it is so complicated.
And why do we care?

20. de·sign
Noun - an outline, sketch, or plan, as of the form and structure of a work of art, an edifice, or a machine to be executed or constructed…
Verb - to prepare the preliminary sketch or the plans for (a work to be executed), especially to plan the form and structure of: to design a new bridge…
Design is both a noun and a verb.
Noun - an outline, sketch, or plan, as of the form and structure of a work of art, an edifice, or a machine to be executed or constructed.
the combination of details or features of a picture, building, etc
the art of designing: a school of design.
a plot or intrigue, especially an underhand, deceitful, or treacherous one: His political rivals formulated a design to unseat him.
Verb - to prepare the preliminary sketch or the plans for (a work to be executed), especially to plan the form and structure of: to design a new bridge.
to plan and fashion artistically or skilfully.
to form or conceive in the mind; contrive; plan: The prisoner designed an intricate escape.
to assign in thought or intention; purpose: He designed to be a doctor.

21. good design
What is design? It's where you stand with a foot in two worlds - the world of technology and the world of people and human purposes - and you try to bring the two together. Mitchell Kapor
That’s fine for good design, but what about bad design…
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22. bad design
How do you drink out of this cool cup without staining your shirt???

23. bad design
How do you change a flat tire on a rear wheel without needing a mechanic to remove the rear panel????

24. And these… well… they are just frankly disturbing designs….
Good design is not as noticeable as bad design, and the same may be said for educational frameworks, training plans, test specifications and learning tools.
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25. Design In an educational context:
Design is the process by which instructional strategies (methods, media, environments) are selected, described (and costed for a learning event).
Development is the process by which effective instructional design materials that support the design of IT&E are produced or acquired.
Source: CAF Campus ‘Learning Without Boundaries’ Operation Framework, 2013
In the educational realm, design becomes the foundational or pivotal framework of our systems. It is the process by which instructional strategies (methods, media, environments) are selected, described (and costed for a learning event).
And :
Development is the process by which effective instructional design materials - that support the design of IT&E - are produced or acquired
These definitions are taken from the Canadian Armed Forces (CAF) Campus ‘Learning Without Boundaries’ Operation Framework, 2013 that has been recently issued by the CAF. I wanted to say a few words about its design. I will keep this aspect of my presentation quite broad and macro, only intending to target a specific issue.
On Wednesday, my colleague Jana will provide you with a specific learning design, as applied to the language training context where we work.
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26. The CAF is well known for the individual and collective performance of its personnel. However, the Individual Training and Education (IT&E) system is not without its shortcomings. Strategic gaps in the current IT&E system motivated the creation of the IT&E Modernization Strategy which led to the this new framework.
It became clear that the existing IT&E system did not generate appropriate performance and costing information to adequately track how much is actually spent on IT&E across the CAF. This new endeavour will transform the IT&E system to meet the requirements of the 21st century in accordance with four principles: recruit fast, train quickly, increase the use of Canadian civilian education system; and post to units as soon as possible.

27. We are well aware that more and more militaries are adopting performance based models that streamline training. In the Canadian Armed Forces, it was deemed that how personnel learn, what they learn and where they learn had to be realigned to ensure that the right IT&E is delivered to the right people at the right time, in the right place and in the right format. Our land is comprised of a number of geographic regions and is sparsely populated, therefore there are inherent challenges in ensuring adequate access to training and learning across vast areas. Geographic challenges and of course, costs…
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28. For an audience concerned with training design, the items within the Operational Framework that may be of interest include:
establishment of Functional Centres of Excellence for content areas (single content manager, many delivery sites) that prevent stovepiping (meaning, delivering only to specific people at predetermined times, not allocating the resources more widely), and indeed aiming to aim to cut training costs and deliver only the most essential elements of the learning required but to a wider group.
establishment of the Learning Support Centres (analysis, design, development, use of technologies, etc.) - figures 5 and 6
CAF Campus Enterprise Engine (that includes the Modernized Learning Portal)
I wanted to mention the new design of the CAF Campus because I am of the opinion that when it comes to general training and education for military skills, this approach makes sense, but it may be an altogether other issue when applied to language learning. The need to focus on specialized language, specific skills and tailored performance based language tasks is clear, but cutting time on task rarely produced well-rounded generally proficient speakers of a language, since we know that language we hear is often unexpected and does not follow the predictable pattern we learned.

29. Advanced English Course English modular courses Level B
Annex A
(CDA)
Feb 2013
MSLETP (English)
PC 401
PC 402
PC 403
English modular
courses
Level A
Advanced English Course
Level C
English modular courses Level B
PL 1
PL 2
PL 3
PL 4
PL 5
PL 6
PL 7
Refresher
B Profile
PL 8
PL 9
PL 10
PL 11
Consolidation
 10 weeks between PL
 3 weeks
24 months max (local training)
12 months max (local training)
18 months max (local training)
Continuous French Course Level B (CECLB)
Progress Levels (PL) generally include 150 hours (five weeks) of training in a classroom
PL1 / PL 2 / PL 3 / PL 4
PL 5 / PL 6 / PL 7
Posting for up to 11 months
Continuous
courses
entry points
Despite the new approach to training, the Military Second Language English Training plan – MSLETP still retains its training duration, whereby time on task or training times have NOT been shortened. It has been clear for a long time that you simply cannot reduce training times and expect the same results. This is a busy slide with a lot of internal information that is not necessarily of interest to this audience, but I want to bring your attention to a couple of points:
The first is that although the training can be delivered in modular format, there is normally an intensive block to support acquisition.
Second important information is that in our framework, it takes 11 months of full-time intensive language training to reach roughly levels 2s in either English or French as a second language. If the students come in with equivalent of level 1s, they are expected to reach L2+s/3s, (more or less), on the Public Service scale.
Continuous English Course Level C (CECLC)
Refresher A Profile
PL5 / PL 6 / PL 7
Refresher B Profile /PL 8 / PL 9/PL 10/PL 11/Consolidation
CBC Profile
Posting for up to 11 months
AAA Profile
BBB Profile

30. Conclusion: The CAF Campus positions the CAF to maintain its operational edge in the face of resource constraints and an increasingly complex and challenging security environment. It is a strategically driven, pan-CAF synchronized, performance-oriented learning architecture or learning design that supports the transformation of the CAF learning culture. But, training duration in language learning will NOT be reduced.
Last point I wanted to make about this new design is that it has required that the CAF forge effective partnerships with a number of internal and external stakeholders in order to transition to this type of learning environment.
It will be implemented in the coming year and I will have an update in May at the next conference, not on the design, but on the partnerships that were established in order to ensure a smooth transition and how these are put into effect, specifically in the language learning environment.
In the meantime, both the French and English full versions of this document have been added to the presentations you will receive, for you to consult, as you wish. Note that it does not outline specific language learning information as other training plans include those frameworks.
Now for a transition back to our BILC business.

31. Updates BILC Secretariat status Ownership of the STANAG 6001
LNA – NATO IMS/SHAPE/ACT???
Statement from BILC re IS equivalency table
IS meeting
WG on Level 4 - Final report
Will produce prototype of L4 test
WG on Translation & Terminology – ongoing
BILC Website design & ownership
We are attempting to determine a way ahead for ownership of the STANAG 6001 (as independent from custodian). It seems that (NTG) retains ownership to coord the STANAG updates via the BILC, the rationale being NSA cannot task us directly whereas the NTG can. Therefore NSA would recommend to us updates and NTG manage BILC involvement. I want to make sure we have a clear understanding of the implications of ownership vs. custodianship -- and will keep trying to sort this out for BILC.
LNA – complicated now…
Another issue that has recurred this year relates to the table of language scale equivalencies produced by the International staff and posted on the NATO website. We were made aware of this table last year and our former Chairman wrote to the IS to tell them that BILC would not recognize it as accurate.   
BILC considers such charts and tables as rough approximations and does not recognize transferability of levels and results on tests from one scale to another with the notable exception of the ILR (Interagency language Roundtable) proficiency descriptors. It is our view that certification test results acquired on a test based on a non NATO STANAG test should NOT be recognized in terms of STANAG levels. BILC has drafted and issued a formal statement to this effect. Furthermore, BILC met with IS staff directly responsible for the testing and we explained that we wanted the STANAG removed from the table. I have heard that meetings have taken place where this has been discussed and await a final decision.
Next, The WG on Level 4 has produced a Report for nations who want to know more about the complexities tied to testing at this very high level of proficiency. An executive summary is available and the full document will also be posted on the website. The group also plans to produce prototype of L4 test
Last but not least, the WG on Translation and Terminology has completed Phase 1 of their review of terms and are moving on to a next document. Our Austrian delegate will be providing you with an update of their work later this week.
Now for the website
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32. BILC Website www.natobilc.org

34. Enjoy the 2013 Professional Seminar
Enjoy the 2013 Professional Seminar!! “Diligent Design: Building Blocks to Maximize Learning” QUESTIONS ??
Thank presenters, panel leaders and organizers.