BUREAU FOR INTERNATIONAL LANGUAGE COORDINATION

BUREAU DE COORDINATION LINGUISTIQUE INTERNATIONALE

Closing Briefing

Julie J. Dubeau BILC Chair Tbilisi, Georgia, 9 May 2013

Bled, 2012

Czech Republic, 2012

•

NATOSPEAK: ENGLISH IN MULTINATIONAL SETTINGS

NATO speak:

• Acronyms, abbreviations, lingo, jargon,• Specific meanings, expressions• A discourse community, but context

dependent, several domains• Non-standardized uses• Complexity of context• Procedures, approaches

NATOSPEAK: ENGLISH IN MULTINATIONAL SETTINGS

Implications and challenges:• Blending general and specific language• Deployment lessons learned• Military culture and intercultural awareness• Culture literate soldiers • High stakes

– Language as powerful tool for ‘good’: Obama to Iran– Consequences of miscommunications

• Crimean war

• Yugoslavia

NATOspeak = WMC

Weapon of Mass Confusion

NATOSPEAK: ENGLISH IN MULTINATIONAL SETTINGS

Getting the message across: Lingua franca

– EFL, ESL, LFE or ELF & English native speaker

– Plain Language, readability formulas

– Graded language, two-way communication

– Accents, pronunciation, stress, intonation, etc…

STANAG 6001, Edition 4

0

1

2

3

4

5

Survival

Functional

Professional

NATOSPEAK: ENGLISH IN MULTINATIONAL SETTINGS

• Standards: Implications for training and testing– Time on task– STANAG 6001 across all languages– English Native Speaker reference

• Who else? Whose English, Spanish, French, etc.

– Test specifications– Capability database

STEERING COMMITTEE

• BILC Sec 2014: TBC

• Military terminology

• LNA

• ToR

• IS EQ Tbl : Letter

• Future Conferences & Seminars

STUDY GROUP - Recommendations

1. What is NATO Speak?

2. Enhancing Cross-cultural Communication within Multi-National Settings

3. On-line Language Maintenance Best Practices

4. Standardizing Application of STANAG 6001 Across Foreign Languages

5. Questionnaire on Deployment Lessons Learned

Contacts

BILC@forces.gc.ca

Julie.Dubeau@forces.gc.ca

Jana.Vasilj-Begovic@forces.gc.ca

“Language is Wine Upon the Lips”