About Us (Mission)
About Us (Mission)
The California State University, Long Beach (CSULB) Language Training Center (LTC) is one of the original LTCs selected by the Department of Defense in 2011 to provide language education to military linguists. Since 2012, an average of 94% of the CSULB LTC attendees have maintained or improved their language proficiency on the Defense Language Proficiency Test (DLPT). Of those that maintained their proficiency, almost 30% came to the course at the 3/3 Interagency Language Roundtable (ILR) level. Linguists who are serious about improving their language skills should strongly consider attending CSULB’s Language Training Center courses.
California State University, Long Beach hosts five 16/17-day (130-hour) residential intensive language courses in French, Chinese, Arabic. Russian and Spanish will be taught as 80-hour online intensive language courses for the summer of 2023. To be eligible to attend these intensive courses, the military linguist must have a 2/2 ILR rating. In some cases the program director may waive this requirement. The objectives of the intensive language courses are:
- Increase language proficiency by an “+” ILR rating in at least one modality, and,
- Assist students in developing language learning strategies to improve overall language proficiency
During each CSULB LTC course (residential/online), students will take a higher education pre- and post-test. The DLPT is conducted the final two days of the residential intensive courses. The DLPT will not be administered during online virtual intensive courses. Instruction and materials for the intensive courses are free to the student; however, travel and per diem costs for students attending residential course are the responsibility of the unit authorizing the training.
The CSULB LTC program also offers five 16-week hybrid language mentor (HLM) courses in Chinese Mandarin, French, Arabic, Russian, and Spanish. These courses provide individual instruction for military linguists to sustain their proficiency in the target language. Just prior to the HLM courses, instructors and the students will coordinate one hour of synchronous instruction using a web-conferencing tool such as Zoom or Google Meet. Students are required to take a pre- and post-test and to spend at least one additional hour per week preparing for the synchronous online lesson. Instruction is free to the student. The objectives of the hybrid courses are:
- Improve or sustain target language proficiency
- Prepare students for an intensive course or other major language training event.
- Assist student in discovering resources and learning strategies.
The combination of online sustainment courses leading to intensive language courses provides serious linguists with a pathway to achieve higher language proficiency.