Message from the President
Calendar of Events
Off-Site Immersion Experiences - Arabic and Other
Languages
Chinese Mandarin Speech Contest
Retirements (Jan – Apr)
In Memoriam (Jan – Apr)
What’s Happening in the European and Latin American School?
Hauptmann Schnell Was Here – A Brief Account of the German
Program since the 1950s
About Reunions – How Difficult is it to Find DLI
Classmates?
It’s About Practice, Practice, Practice
- The Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI)
Romance Languages and the Russian Program Together?
E-Mail from Jon Quigg, a Chinese Graduate – An Autobiography
of Robert Tharp?
DLIAA Membership – 900 plus and Counting
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Message from the President
Welcome
to the second DLIAA Quarterly Newsletter. Alumni often request additional ways to
stay in touch with the Institute, with fellow alumni and with instructors. We
hope that this newsletter will facilitate more contact. This newsletter will
provide sporadic updates on the Institute and its alumni.
The
newsletter is not meant to be a one-way communication flow. We invite you to share your experiences and
observations as linguists after you left the Institute.
Finally,
we also welcome your referrals to classmates. Most members join the Association
as the result of personal referrals from alumni like you. So, if you have benefited from being a DLIAA
member, then please encourage others to join.
I
hope you enjoy this newsletter. I look forward to hearing from you about your
thoughts, suggestions and stories. You can write to me at president@dli-alumni.org. Benjamin De La Selva, President .
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CALENDAR OF EVENTS
* Worldwide Language
Competition – 10-14 May 04
* Language Day – 21 May 04
* Command Language Program Seminar - Sep 04
* DLI 63rd Anniversary – 1 Nov 04
* ACTFL* Conference – Nov 04 (Chicago, Ill)
* Annual Program Review –
Feb 05
* Digital Stream Conference, CSUMB – Mar 05
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Off-Site Immersion Experiences
(OSIEs)
Published
with permission from the Middle East School I Dean
DLI has
launched a new program of Off-Site Immersion Experiences (OSIEs) to enhance
students’ learning. An OSIE is a
motivational tool simulating the linguistic real world that provides students
the opportunity to:
a. Practice the
four skills (listening, reading, speaking, and writing) with an emphasis on
speaking,
b. Expand their application of
communication strategies such as guessing using context, circumlocution,
negotiating meaning, etc.
c. Bolster
their confidence in speaking, and
d. Learn in a
new setting.
While promoting an immersion environment
in the school, where the target language is used to the maximum, the schools
planned and/or conducted 11 OSIEs at the Weckerling Center (former Officers’
Club) in FY03: In Arabic, seven were
24-hr., 3-day events; one was an 8-hr., 3-day event; in Serbian-Croatian, one
was a 24-hr., 3-day event; in Hebrew, one was a 24-hr., 2-day event; one was an
8-hr., 1 day event. In FY04, several
more of varying lengths have taken place in Arabic, Hebrew, Russian, and
Korean.
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Chinese Mandarin Speech
Contest
Published
with permission from the Asian School I Dean
Once
again, DLI's Chinese departments are preparing their students to participate in
the annual Chinese Mandarin Speech Contest of California. This year’s contest will be held in UC
Berkley on Saturday, April 24. It is one
of the largest speech contests of its kind in the US. About 500 students from major universities,
colleges, DLI, high schools, middle and elementary schools compete in different
categories every year. The Chinese
Language Teachers Association of California (CLTAC), a non-profit organization,
sponsors this event. So far, 59 DLI students have been registered for this
year's competition. .
Last year’s contest, the 28th was
held on April 5, 2003. Once again, it turned out to be a huge success
for DLI students. Competing with 566 registered participants, 43 DLI students
attended the contest and 18 received prizes: 4 won 1st place; 3 won 2nd
place; 5 - 3rd place, and 6 received Honorable Mention. DLI students
again outperformed their counterparts from other colleges and universities.
In the seven competing groups that DLI students participated, DLI collected
18 awards out of 37. UC Berkley won 6 awards and Stanford University
-- 4. One of the DLI students was chosen to go to the International
Competition, scheduled to be held in China.
The Chinese departments owe their great success in the contest to their
students' motivation, and their teachers' and Chairpersons' dedication. We will keep you posted on their accomplishments.
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Retirements (01 Jan – 02 Apr 04)
Irina
Baratoff – Rusian Chair
Claudine
Benigni – French Teacher
Michael
Stogner – Academic Specialist (Russian and Serbian Croatian)
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In Memoriam (01Jan-06Apr 04)
Maria
Wilhelm (2 Jan 04) – Staff (Training
Development)
Dragisha Ristic (6 Jan 04) – Serbian Croatian Teacher
Sue Holben Popova (25 Feb
04) – Staff (Russian School)
Herbert
Hideto Matsubayashi (1 Mar 04) – Japanese Teacher
Dieter Pankow
(16 Mar 04) – Bulgarian and German Teacher
William
Merwin Bueler (6 Apr 04) – Chinese Teacher)
Vicente
Aquino (7 Apr 04) – Staff (POM Garrison)
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What’s Happening in
the European and Latin American School (ELA)?
Published
with permission from the ELA Dean
IMMERSION IN THE CLASSROOM. ELA took the lead in designing, producing, and
coordinating the use of immersion badges for all the 20+ Institute
languages. Established immersion rules
(the Ben Commandments) and badge award ceremonies for all ELA languages. The badges, which students keep after
graduation, also serve as business cards, with language department telephone
numbers and pertinent website addresses in the back. Although an immersion environment exists in
the classrooms from the very beginning, the badges are issued at mid-course
when the students possess most of the basic structures and vocabulary to
express themselves with confidence. The
use of the target language is required whenever the badges are worn in and out
of the classroom. With minor modifications, the immersion badge program is in
use in the nine DLI schools. Use of the
target languages in the schoolhouse has noticeably increased.
VIDEO NEWS. ELA
videotaped current events in AVI format and made them available to all
classrooms every morning for students’ and/or teachers’ use. ELA also upgraded the program “Noticias en
Seis Dimensiones“, videotaped by current Spanish instructors. This program exploits news items in six
different modes.
MULTI MEDIA LABS
(MMLs). ELA
continues the heavy use of multi-media labs, which bring colorful text, audio,
and video from the teacher’s console to individual students computer stations.
In these 33 station MMLs, instructors have the ability to launch individual text,
audio, and video files and send them to students for self-paced work. ELA
instructors have been able to give students lots of practice with Performance
Final Learning Objectives. ELA continued the modernization of the Spanish audio
and video programs, which include 48-videotaped dialogs of the old Spanish
Basic Course.
MP3 PLAYERS AND SMART BOARDS. Every
ELA classroom is now equipped with a Smart Board, through which all the text,
audio, and video materials are delivered.
A Smart Board is an interactive whiteboard that
transforms the classroom into an interactive working and learning environment.
With the combined power of a projector, computer and whiteboard, teachers can
do everything they do on their computer – and more. Simply, they use their index finger as the
mouse, to touch the interactive whiteboard and highlight key points, access
applications and Web sites, and write notes in electronic ink. Then, they save
their work to files that they can reuse later, print, e-mail or post to a Web
site.
With the introduction
of MP3 players, ELA has discontinued use of audiocassette players and tapes
in all its five languages.
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IMMERSION
BADGES SAMPLES
|
_files/image004.gif) Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center
اللُّغةُ
العربيةُ
|
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center
|
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center
ESPAÑOL
|
Defense Language Institute
Foreign Language Center
|
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Hauptmann Schnell
Was Here
A brief account of DLI’s
German program from the 50s to now - by Annette Scheibner
Which
German do early DLI graduates remember best?
Erich Honeker, Helmut Schmidt, Helmut Kohl, Nena or even Boris
Becker? Not at all – the answer has to
be Hauptmann Schnell, his girlfriend Lilo and their Dackel Putzi. No idea who they are? Well, you must have graduated in the
mid-eighties or later. You might
remember Herrn Dübel, Herrn Böhler, Käte Biehl or even Frau Häusel. Or Katja Heinemann, Klaus-Otto Baumer,
Angelika Wiechert and the Matters are still fresh in your mind. Who are these people, and how have they helped
countless German Alumni master the challenge of learning German at DLI?
German was taught from the earliest days of
DLI and is still taught today. Of
course, after the fall of the wall, the program has shrunk from two departments
to a small program of several teachers.
The program now resides in Pomerene Hall
(adjacent to the well known Nisei Hall, the department’s home during the
80s and early 90s).
After WWII, Dr. Münzer (you might
remember Munzer Hall – the old library was named after him, unfortunately
denying him his Umlaut) wrote the first set of textbooks, chronicling Hauptmann
Schnell’s adventures in Germany. It was
a truly grammar-based program, teaching the exact same skill at the same time
each day. Students had to memorize dialogues,
practice grammar drills and follow Hauptmann Schnell for 92 Lessons. The students were separated into “speakers”
and “listeners” and drilled accordingly.
The 80s brought the first major change
with the in-house production of a trail-blazing communicative textbook. It
contained 35 lessons and was lovingly referred to as the “Telefonbuch” due to
its looks. Herr Dübel et al
revolutionized teaching at DLI, and many other languages used the Telefonbuch
as a prototype for their new textbooks.
To complete the students’ training, a commercial textbook named “Themen”
was added, in which Katja and friends guided generations of DLI students
through the higher roams of the German language and culture.
Today, DLI still uses Themen 1 & 2 in
addition to a variety of materials and web-based exercises. We are fortunate to have the latest
technology in our classrooms and labs, and with the help of the Multi-Media
Lab, a smart board in every classroom, and the usual audio-visual equipment, we
are able to bring Germany into the classroom in real life. Yet, one thing has not changed: students have to study hard, and practice,
practice, practice…!
So if you ever see one of the old panels of
the Berlin Wall and read “Hauptmann Schnell was
here”, you will now know who wrote it and why.
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About Reunions - How Difficult
is it to Find Classmates?
Since last December, W. Clement Smith, a
DLI graduate of Russian class 01RU47W0474
(04Mar74-02Apr75) has tried to locate the other 24 students of his
class. His purpose: to organize a
reunion in Monterey on Apr 15th, 2004, and to honor one of his
Russian teachers, Irene Baratoff, who retired as Russian department chair this
past January after 30 plus years of service.
Following is
a chronological update of
his Herculean search:
Flyers
Mailed. Clement sent flyers to
approximately 2500 individuals with similar names across the US. He
thought the name Johnson was too common to even conceive of mailing
to every Johnson in all states. So, since he remembered Arizona being
often the subject of David Johnson's conversations, Clement chose
to send flyers to only the Johnsons in Arizona (350).
Responses/Contacts. The search for
approximately 25 graduates resulted in locating and speaking with
or e-mailing six (6) former
classmates and news of one passing. The
first one, D.A., USA,
corresponded with Clement by e-mail; The second, E.D., USN, was contacted on the phone;
The third, R.W., USA, Clement e-mailed, spoke with and visited in person; The
fourth, R.R., USA,
Clement knows his whereabouts via R.W., but no contact yet; The fifth, J.A.,
USN, was contacted
via e-mail; The sixth,
J.H., USN, Clement found out he died circa 1995 and is buried in Arlington
Cemetery; The seventh one, W. Clement
Smith, himself, USN (he is glad he was the one conducting the
search, because with a name like Smith, he would probably never
have been found).
Retirement/Reunion Gathering
Attendees:
All
of those contacted are excited about having been 'located' and would very
much like to attend or are contemplating their ability to change schedules
and attend the gathering. Some have indicated that they will
definitely attend. Clement is still in the process of searching for
the remaining and will continue until contact is made or their
whereabouts determined.
Final Step. Clement has continued contact with the
located classmates and has informed them of the agenda, places to stay,
and general instructions, as he is aware of them. Due to the events on the week of April 15th
in the Monterey Peninsula, Clement has learned that many hotels are booked
and the pickings are slim. However, there are still motels with some rooms
available and they are going to try to stay in the same place.
Last minute changes on reunion plans. To date (4 Apr
04) approximately seven former classmates have been located or their whereabouts
discerned, out of a total of 30. That's
approximately 25% and not too bad overall. Only three of them, though, will
be able to make it to Monterey this time on the 15th, therefore it cannot
be called an actual reunion. So they’ve decided to change the name of their
gathering to 'Reunion/Retirement Planning Meeting' and use the time to catch
up with each other, discuss each person in the class, reminisce, document
facts and continue until they are successful at locating 100%. Then schedule
a large Reunion/Retirement some time later in the summer, August perhaps,
with hopes of a larger contingency.
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It’s About Practice,
Practice, Practice
Published with permission from the Middle
East II School Associate Dean.
_files/image017.gif)
One
of the more stressful events you will experience here at DLI is the final Oral
Proficiency Interview (OPI) as part of
your Defense Language Proficiency Test, DLPT. Why is it so stressful? Well, you
only get 20 minutes to do your best at speaking Arabic while sitting in a
stuffy little room with two testers and a recorder. The testers are asking you
questions expecting you to reply with more than one sentence answers. However, you just want to answer with as few
words as possible and move on to the next question because you are so nervous,
can’t think of anything else to say, and just want this torture to be over. I
am sure if every student had a few beers before taking the OPI, they would do
fine. This would be just enough to
loosen their tongue, enable them to relax, and not feel intimidated. This is
just not possible. So, you will have to do it without the beer! Here are a few tips I received direct from
the experts themselves. First and
foremost…you must begin by speaking Arabic in and out of school as much as possible,
starting from the first day of class. This way you will have already made all
the mistakes possible by the time you take the OPI and won’t be as nervous or
unsure about your abilities. And you won’t panic when you make a mistake during
the OPI. You will know to just correct your mistake and keep on talking.
Next, no matter what your teachers tell you
about how good you are speaking Arabic…you need more practice. If you expect to
get a 2 in speaking, you will have to be able to handle some language at level
2+. Also, you must be able to speak at the 1+ level on more than just one
narrow subject area. For example…you can
speak forever about sports and do it well at or above level 2. Yet, you can’t speak above level 1+ when it
comes to current events not related to sports. You will not get a 2 on your
OPI. Learn to speak in paragraphs.
Answering questions in one or two sentences will not get you far because the
testers are expecting you to elaborate on your answers. During the OPI--keep talking. You only have
20 minutes to produce, and these 20 minutes of speech are all the testers have
to evaluate you on. The more you talk the more material they have for
evaluation. Don’t pass up this opportunity by not talking. Don’t force the
testers to drag the speech from your mouth. Remember my previous comment about
the beer! Get familiar with the OPI
process—but don’t focus too much on the mechanics of the process. You will have
enough to worry about just producing sufficient language. You do not need the
added pressure of counting tasks and trying to figure out if the last probe was
a level 2 or level 3 probe. The testers are professionals with many years of
experience and will use the OPI procedures as guidelines. They will vary these
steps as they see fit. You can’t expect all OPIs to be done exactly the same
way. Their job is to give you the unexpected. This is what happens in real life
situations. They do not want to hear rehearsed or prepared responses. If they
believe you are trying to steer the conversation towards your prepared
material, they will mix things up or change directions. Your job is to have a
conversation and just focus on producing as much Arabic as you can. If you do
these things, you will do well on the OPI. Your teachers will give you the
knowledge—you will have to take this knowledge and practice, practice,
practice. Occasionally, but not very often, something goes wrong. If that
happens, bring it to the attention of the Dean or Associate Dean, right away.
The testers are human and sometimes we humans make mistakes. We’ve had to
retest students because a test failed to record or a tester showed up 30
minutes late because of a traffic accident. These things happen. Remember,
students and testers both will sign or have signed a code of conduct stating
that neither will discuss the OPI after completion of the test. This means you
can’t discuss any part of the OPI with your teachers or fellow students when
you return to class. Just like you can’t discuss with them the content of the
Listening or Reading parts of the DLPT. This
falls under the category of CHEATING!
The OPI testers really do an outstanding job. These testers are some of
the best teachers from the two Middle East Schools, as well as from other
organizations throughout DLI. They want students to do well just like we do.
However, they have to give students the scores they earn during the 20 minutes
of their OPI…without knowing how well that student performs in class. Lastly, don’t wait
until a month before graduation to try and prepare for the OPI. This tactic
doesn’t work for proficiency tests.
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Romance Languages and the Russian Program Together?
A recent
announcement suggests that a consolidation of the Romance Languages (+German)
and the Russian Language program is looming on the horizon. Space considerations and the present size of
each school make them good candidates for a merge. The European and Latin American School (ELA)
programs, now located in Pomerene Hall, are slated to move to the Russian
School area by December of this year. This
will be the second relocation for the ELA instructors in three years, who
moved to Pomerene Hall after switching places with the Korean instructors
in 2002. The plans call for the move to be completed before the end of the
year.
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E-Mail from Jon Quigg, a Chinese Graduate
Great to see this
website up and running. I plan to get one of the Chinese T-Shirts ASAP…
…
I was hoping to be able to shoot an email to Joe Kinel, who reported on
the reunion of the '59 Russian class. My family lived in Monterey from
either '58-'59 or '59-'60. (I've got word in to my older brother to try
to nail that down) ... any which way, I'd be curious to know if Mr. Kinel may
have known my dad at that time. Would you be able to get me in touch with
him?
Also, if there is a way to put this
information up on the site somewhere, Robert Tharp,
who was involved with the Chinese Department on a couple different
occasions through the 60's-80's, between his stints with the Yale Chinese
department, published an autobiography that is very comprehensive (almost 900
pages) and quite well done with pictures and graphics. Anyone that came
thru his era at DLI will find this very interesting.
Thanks for your efforts on behalf of the
DLIAA ... hope to be able to take part in a reunion or tour at some point
myself. My time in Monterey was truly outstanding. I wish I hadn't
taken the in-processing briefing so seriously when they said we weren't to
take pictures there.
Jon
Quigg, 98G/CM, Class 0182
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DLIAA Membership, 900+
and Counting
DLIAA membership is growing by the hour. Four hundred of the 900+ members joined in
the last four months. In the chart below
you can see the number of members by language groups. One hundred and eighty members took 2
languages at DLI, while fifty-four took 3, and one took 4.
LANGUAGES
|
Members
|
%
|
|
CHINESE MANDARIN, KOREAN, JAPANESE, THAI, TAGALOG, VIETNAMESE
|
205
|
23%
|
|
ARABIC, GREEK, HEBREW, TURKISH, PERSIAN FARSI,
|
115
|
13%
|
|
RUSSIAN, CZECH, POLISH,
SERBIAN CROATIAN, UKRANIAN
|
330
|
36%
|
|
SPANISH, FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, PORTUGUESE
|
192
|
21%
|
|
ALBANIAN, BULGARIAN, CAMBODIAN, HUNGARIAN, LAOTIAN, PASHTU,
SWAHILI
|
18
|
2%
|
|
FACULTY AND STAFF
|
45
|
5%
|
|
|
|
|
|
Total
|
905
|
100%
|
