Slovenian Language Instructor DLI-W

Summary:

The Unconventional is seeking a highly skilled Language Instructor to join our team to support the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC). DLIFLC is responsible for ensuring that our Nations effort to understand the languages and cultures of our friends and foes alike are met. The DLIFLC provides culturally based foreign language education training evaluation and sustainment to enhance the security of the nation here and abroad. DLIFLC plays a critical role in the preparation of service members for their missions whether as Foreign Area Officers foreign affairs or liaison officers military attaches or simply as the language goto soldier in a platoon on a patrol in a faroff province where the need for a language and cultural expertise can mean the difference between key national security mission success and failure or simply life and death. In this role you will be responsible for providing classroom language instruction for the Defense Language Institute Washington (DLIW).

Specific duties may include but are not limited to:

• Provide professional foreign language instruction to students in a classroom and/or virtual environment. Instruction can last six 6 hours or more per day with courses ranging from ten 10 weeks or longer.
• Will prepare for each class he/she teaches tailoring the lesson to individual students needs.
• All instruction and instructional support services provided under this contract must be based on proficiencyoriented principles of second language acquisition with a strong focus on instructional methods that are the most effective for adult learners.
• Instruction must be culturallybased learnercentered employing authentic materials and realworld tasks that resemble what students may do with their language skills in their final job assignments. Emphasis is placed on communicative competence in reallife situations and practical application of language skills to include appropriate military terminology and exposure to both formal and informal language including colloquial and idiomatic speech.
• The program emphasizes creativity and flexibility to meet the unique instructional needs of a diverse student population.
• At all levels of proficiency from the beginner to advanced level and topicappropriate lessons materials and activities must be utilized to generate as much uninhibited spontaneous use of the language as possible. This helps advance the students proficiency in all three evaluated/tested modalities in addition to writing.
• Writing skills must be taught to promote/enable language acquisition leading to increased proficiency in a target language.
• Adults are goaloriented and typically want practical applications for their learning. Methods like Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) and Taskbased Language Teaching (TBLT) align well as they focus on using the language for realworld communication and specific purposes. However older methods that focus on grammar instruction as a foundation for building language skills particularly early in the course are equally acceptable.
• Sufficient attention must be devoted to the skills associated with nonparticipatory listening and general reading comprehension to permit level appropriate attainment of the endofcourse proficiency objectives. This must be done through deliberate and frequent exposure to a range and variety of authentic targetlanguage materials accompanied by appropriate tasks and activities.
• The program is expected to bridge the gap between global and jobspecific language performance skills and to prepare students for tasks they will likely perform in the target language. These skills include reading handwriting keyboarding writing for professional purposes and general correspondence.
• Training must engage the students higher order thinking skills (analyze evaluate create) develop independent learning skills and adhere to the best practices in and principles of adult education.
• The training MUST incorporate the use of diverse instructional technologies such as but not limited to electronic flash cards online learning applications (apps) games virtual and augmented reality social collaboration tools in the LMS a Human Language Technology tools (HLT) and Gen AI.
• Intercultural Competence and cultural knowledge MUST be integrated into language instruction in all phases of training. DLI recognizes that languages cannot be learned in a cultural vacuum. Language and culture are intricately intertwined and difficult to separate; therefore language skills are to be developed in a context that includes information on the value systems behavioral patterns institutions geography and political economic and social systems of the areas where the target language is spoken.
• In all languages Contractors are expected to use authentic materials and language together in immersive ways with diagnostically oriented teaching methods guided by the following principles:
  • Diagnostically oriented approach
  • Learnercentered skillintegrated approach
  • Contentbased curriculum and instruction
  • Taskbased and scenariobased instruction
  • Instructional materials that address individual students needs
  • Use of meaningful interactive tasks
  • Use of target language (TL)
  • Use of authentic materials (current news opinions columns etc.
  • Immersive environment
• Curriculum/materials should include:
  • Sufficient quantity analysis and comprehension of listening and reading Target Language (TL) texts
  • Integration of productive TL skills (speaking and writing)
  • Application of HigherOrder Thinking Skills (HOTS)
  • Reinforcement of vocabulary and discourse models meaningful asks/activities/homework
  • Integration of linguistic structure and vocabulary with discourse structure pragmatics and sociocultural awareness
  • Ancillary objectives such as manner or tenor (level of style proper use of registers cultural connotations and politeness forms) and colloquial usage and/or slang must be introduced and taught during the course
• All courses regardless of length must include a syllabus.

Required Qualifications:

• At a minimum must possess a Bachelors degree or equivalent and have at least two 2 years of successful relevant experience in intensive training teaching adults using proficiencyoriented methods and materials aimed at ILR skill levels 2 and 3. For the purposes of this contract intensive training is defined as follows: The student is fulltime (solely dedicated to language study for four to six hours per day) with no other duties during the period of training.
• Successful relevant experience of at least four 4 years in teaching the target language to adult learners in an intensive proficiencyoriented environment may be substituted for education. Demonstrated experience successfully using educational technology tools to enhance student learning is preferred. Experience teaching remotely is a plus.
• Must be an educated native speaker of the current standard form of the language/dialect taught and additionally have strong English language skills. With written permission of the COR instructors who are nonnative speakers but who possess near native language proficiency in all skills (minimum proficiency for the language to be taught is a Level 3 as defined by the ILR SLDs); along with strong English skills.
• Must possess the ability to adapt to students with varying learning styles requiring different teaching strategies.
• In addition to the requirements detailed above instructors must have Oral Proficiency Interview scores of Level 3 or above on the ILR scale or Superior or above on the ACTFL scale in the Target Language. Additionally instructors must prove their proficiency in English by providing an Oral Proficiency Interview score of Level 2 or above on the ILR scale or Advanced or above on the ACTFL scale. Contractors must provide documentation demonstrating scores (English and target language) documentation will not be older than 18 months.

Clearance: Must be able to pass a background check.

Location: National Capitol Region

Travel: Travel is not anticipated.