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The
Interagency Language Roundtable
2006-2007
The Interagency
Language Roundtable (ILR) is an unfunded Federal interagency organization
established for the coordination and sharing of information about
language-related activities at the Federal level. It serves as the
premier way for departments and agencies of the Federal government
to keep abreast of the progress and implementation of techniques and
technology for language learning, language use, language testing and
other language-related activities. Participation in the ILR provides
organizations and individuals with: (1) an assured channel of communication
and cooperation among agencies that have common interests in foreign
language training and testing; (2) a centralized forum for the dissemination
of language-related information across the government; and (3) a working
network for the mutual sharing of ideas, information and language
resources among organizations in government, the academic community,
and the private sector. Participants meet every month from September
to June to attend plenary presentations by an ILR organization or
guest speakers, to discuss common interests in topic-specific committees
and special interest groups and to network with professional colleagues.
Attendance at ILR meetings is open to any interested individual, government
or civilian.
The rationale for what was to become the ILR arose through discussions
in 1955 among Howard Sollenberger of the Foreign Service Institute,
Clyde Sargent of the CIA Training Division, and James R. Frith, then
with the Air Force Language Program and later Dean of FSI’s
School of Language Studies, all of whom recognized the need for better
coordination and communication in language training and testing among
federal agencies. Subsequent meetings included representatives of
the local academic community, as well, including Charles Ferguson,
then Director of the Center for Applied Linguistics. The ILR continued
on a very informal basis until 1973, when a study by the General Accounting
Office recognized its value and recommended that it be formally institutionalized.
Since then, the ILR has evolved into its present loosely coordinated
network of Federal, academic and NGO language specialists and managers
who share a common goal of improving the nation's capacity to learn,
teach and effectively use foreign languages in the national interests.
Meetings are held in the Washington DC metropolitan area, where the
majority of the attendees work. However, several frequent attendees
fly in from institutions as far away as the West Coast and Canada.
Wherever each participant is from, he or she brings to the ILR a unique
perspective on the human skills and technology needed to advance the
common service within their own organization. ILR participants find
numerous opportunities for sharing information, materials, and expertise
across organizational lines in ways that benefit their own agency
and the broader ILR constituency. Sharing takes place in committee
meetings that precede the plenary sessions, where participants may
raise issues of need or concern, or news of an acquisition or accomplishment
that may be shared with other organizations.
The ILR plenary meetings are typically attended by from 75 to 100
individuals, representing more than thirty federal agencies and several
academic institutions and Non-Governmental organizations. Each plenary
features one or more presentations on topics of broad interest within
the community. Recent plenaries have been on such topics as language
policy in the government, testing high-level speakers, best training
practices, analysis of language needs of USG offices, translation
standards and distance education and other applications of educational
technology. Immediately prior to the plenary sessions, open meetings
are held of three standing ILR committees: the Testing Committee,
the Language Training Committee and the Committee on Translation and
Interpretation. There is also an ILR Steering Committee. The functions
of these ILR units are as follows:
ILR Steering Committee consists of the ILR Coordinator,
the chairs of each of the standing committees and interest groups,
and representatives from the Peace Corps, the National Cryptologic
School, the Intelligence Language Institute, the Federal Bureau of
Investigation, and language-related offices in the Departments of
State, Defense, Homeland Security, and Education. The committee is
responsible for establishing priorities and planning ILR activities.
Language Testing Committee discusses and shares information
and research related to language proficiency testing and performance
testing in federal agencies. One major task of this committee is the
review and, where necessary, recommendations for revision of the ILR
Language Proficiency Skill Level Descriptions. Other interests
include the training of effective language testers and the use of
technology in testing.
Language Training Committee deals with all aspects
of language learning and teaching, including teacher development and
training. One of the primary interests of this committee is the use
of technology for independent language learning, for distance learning,
for language maintenance and for teacher development. Recent interests
of this committee have included conversion training (e.g., from L2
to L3 or L4), the teaching of listening comprehension, and the teaching
of Heritage language learners.
Translation and Interpretation Committee began meeting
in 1999 in response to a widespread interest across the ILR membership
in issues related to effective translation and interpretation. Special
interests include the appropriate use of machine translation, the
evaluation of translation or interpretation ability, and the training
and certification of skilled translators and interpreters. Together
with the Testing Committee, this committee recently disseminated publicly
a draft set of guidelines for assessing translation skill.
In addition to these standing committees, the ILR also currently hosts
two Special Interest Groups—a task group to support the national
Year of Languages in 2005, and a working group to provide the perspectives
of working government linguists and language specialists to the researchers
at the Center for Advanced Study of Language at the University of
Maryland.
The ILR has no operating budget and relies solely on the cooperative
and collaborative spirit of the participating organizations to provide
their employees the opportunity to attend ILR meetings and to participate
in any task groups initiated at those meetings. Committee and Interest
Group chairs spend additional duty and personal time as necessary
to perform the liaison and coordination necessary to achieve informative
and productive meetings. Projects of primary interest to a single
agency are typically funded and carried out by that agency. However,
projects having wider applicability may be supported by the pooled
resources of several agencies, usually through interagency agreements.
Much of the effectiveness of the ILR can be attributed to the longstanding
practice of interagency cooperation to accomplish tasks of mutual
benefit to the agencies.
Despite its informal status, the ILR has made notable contributions
to the language teaching and testing fields from its inception in
the 1950's to the present. These include:
-
The refinement
and official establishment of federal government-wide Language
Proficiency Skill Level Descriptions on a 0 to 5 scale for
foreign language Speaking, Reading, Listening and Writing. Adapted
from descriptions originally developed for the State Department
in the late 1950’s, the “ILR Proficiency Level Descriptions”
have influenced the evaluation of foreign language proficiency in
the United States and internationally;
-
The development
in 2005-06 of new ILR Translation Performance Skill Level Descriptions
that are modeled after the Proficiency Skill Level Descriptions;
-
The development
in 2006 of provisional ILR Interpretation Performance Skill
Level Descriptions that are modeled after the Translation
Performance Skill Level Descriptions and that are to be formally
approved in 2007;
-
The conduct
of a research project through a contract with the Center for Applied
Linguistics to compare language proficiency test results among three
federal agencies;
-
The development
of a widely-used interagency training manual for oral proficiency
testing candidates;
-
The sharing
among government agencies and academia of materials in a variety
of media for foreign language training and testing and for language
teacher training and development;
-
The hosting
in 2003 and in 2005 of public Showcases of Language Learning
and Language Use in the Federal Government, including participation
from scholars and practitioners in government, academia, K-12, and
others;
-
-
Co-sponsorship
with the American Translator’s Association and other professional
associations of the 2007 Translation Summit;
-
Sponsorship
with the National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland
and the American Translator’s Association of a 2000 study
on Translating and Interpreting in the Federal Government.
The
maintenance of an ILR website (http://www.govtilr.org) and an email distribution
list for the dissemination and sharing of information about language-related
activities, instructional materials, events, policies and writings to
interested individuals in all public sectors. Instructions for how to
join the email list are found on the webpage.
Numerous activities have been
conducted in recent years to highlight the critical national need for
high-level language ability and to provide guidance on acquiring a language
to those levels.
Any individual with a professional interest in foreign language
learning, teaching, and use will find a warm welcome from the ILR.
The best ways to learn about ILR events are to check the ILR website
and to join the ILR email list.
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