DRAFT AGENDA FOR THE AUGUST MEETING OF THE FLTC

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP85M00158R000600010009-8
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 20
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 22, 2009
• Sequence Number: 9
• Publication Date: August 5, 1983
• Content Type: MEMO

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TRANSMIT'I~AL SLIP
I D5EAug 83
TO:
T('S Registry
ROOM N0. I BUILDING
REMARKS:
FROM:
ROOM NO. I
BUILDING
I
EXTENSION
1 FEB 53~ 241 WHICHCMAYU EMUSED
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The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20505
Foreign Language
Training Committee
MEMORANDUM FOR: See Distribution
FROM:
Executive Secretary, FLTC
SUBJECT: Draft Agenda for the August Meeting of the FLTC
Jolla, California, for discussions with the JASON group on the
1. Attached are the following:
a. The draft minutes of the 29 June meeting of the FLTC.
b. A draft agenda for the 31 August meeting.
c. A copy of a Trip Report by (CIA) on a visit to La
feasibility of applying Machine Assisted Translation
documents.
d. Copies of the FLTC Monthly Reports for May and June to the DDCI.
2. Please advise me of any corrections or additions you wish made to the
minutes of the 29 June meeting and any additions you wish made to the agenda
for the 31 August meeting.
3. The August meeting will take place in Room 1S06,
n Wednesday, 31 August at 1300 hours.
Attachments:
A. Draft Minutes of 29 June Meeting
B. Draft Agenda for 31 August Meeting
C. Trip Report
D. Copies of May une on y eports
STAT
STAT
STAT
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STAT
STAT
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SUBJECT: Draft Agenda for the August Meeting of the FLTC
Distribution: (FLTC 024-83)
1 - Each FLTC Member
1 - FLTC Chrono
1 - ES/FLTC
1 - ICS Registry
ES/FLTC (2 Aug 83)
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Draft Minutes of 29 June Meeting of the FLTC
1. The meeting was o ened b the Chairman and the minutes of the 26 May
meeting were accepted. reported on the activities of the
Technology Subcommittee. CALICO (the Computer Assisted Language Learning and
Instruction Consortium established jointly by NSA and Brigham Young
University) is "off and running" The first quarterly Journal is at the press
and an initial mailing of about 15,000 is contemplated. The Consortium's data
base should be operational by the first of October. NSA has contributed
$10,000 toward the establishment of a satellite link between high school
computers in Hawaii and Japan in conjunction with the University of Hawaii.
Two week training is also being arranged for teachers of Spanish, Japanese,
French, and German. These courses will utilize CAI for the study of both the
language and society concerned. Finally, reported the Navy is
somewhat interested in a Japanese MAT system being deveoped by the Weidner
Corporation which NSA hopes to evaluate.
2. Mr. Craig Wilson, Chairman of the Education Subcommittee, reported
that despite the zeroing out of $26 million for FY 84 by the administration
for Title VI funding for regional centers for foreign area studies, certain
Congressmen are hoping not only to restore that amount but to raise it to
about $30.6 million. Mr. Wilson also reported on a bill being introduced by
Rep. Paul Simon to provide some $50 million for secondary schools for foreign
language training in support of national defense. Finally, Mr. Wilson
reported that the General Services Administration (GSA) has not abandoned i'ts
plan to declare excess and thus, possibly, sell some acreage at the Presidio
of Monterey. Such a sale would have an adverse impact on DLI's expansion
plans. The proposal is now being studied by the Federal Property Review Board
and Mr. Wilson wished to advise the Committee that should the Board decide to
support GSA, we might wish to alert the DCI and/or the DDCI and ask them to
join with the Secretary of Defense in appealing such a decision.
3. Q Chairman of the Requirements Subcommittee, reported that
upon receipt of the final data from the Department of State, and from NSA, he
would, in conjunction with the Executive Secretary, attempt to consolidate and
place in an IC Staff data bank, a record, by specific language and tested
competence in reading, speaking, and listening (where applicable),-for CIA,
State, FBI, and NSA. As reliable data becomes available from DoD components,
this would be added. He also reported on his conversations with Edward Knox,
Director of the Sunderland Language Center at Middlebury~College, Vermont,
concerning the possibility of providing additional spaces for government-
sponsored students and adding to their current roster of languages. Any such
arrangement would depend upon a government uarantee as to the caliber of
their students and their "sustainability". ~ said that the FBI had been
most satisfied with both the cost and effectiveness of the nine-week intensive
language training FBI personnel had received at Middlebury and believed it
would be useful for the Chairman and one or two other members of the Committee
to discuss this matter in Middlebury with Dr. Knox. and other
Attachment A
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to discuss this matter in Middlebury with Dr. Knox. land other
Committee members spoke highly of Middlebury's training, but added that other
institutions such as Norwich and the University of Northern Ohio had programs
which might be equally res onsive to Community specialized needs. The
Chairman requested, and ~ agreed, to attempt to arrange a visit for
himself and one or two other Committee members to Middlebury in August.
4. The Chairman welcomed Mr. Jack Mendelsohn, Dean of the Foreign
Service Institute's School of Language Studies, who replaced Mr. Pierre
Shostal as State representative to the FLTC and Chairman of the Program
Subcommittee. At the Chairman's request, Mr. Mendelsohn advised the Committee
of the changes in personnel and course development made at the SLS as a result
of the FTE (Full Time Equivalent) reductions. Attached is a list of those
languages for which there will be workload reductions between May 30 and
September 30, 1983. With the exception of Russian and Arabic, materials
development projects will. be suspended for the balance of FY 83. Because of
the reductions, no new unscheduled training will take place, individual
tutorials will not be given, but the SLS will broker contracts for State's
Geographic Bureaus which require and can fund such individual tuition. The
effects for FY 84 will not be too drastic although special training and out of
cycle training will not be available. Minimum enrollment requirements will be
enforced and only for the more difficult languages will two alternative
starting dates be granted.
5. The Executive Secretary Colonel Kirkpatrick (Army/ACSI),
and Mr. Wilson briefed the Committee on t e two-day meeting of the DoD-
University Forum held in Monterey on 22-23 June. The Executive Secretary's
Trip Report is appended.
6. (DIA) reported that DIA will enter into a contract
with the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) for measuring the trends in
usage of seldom taught languages of the Third World. This $25,000 effort will
build upon work already done by the CAL. Committee members agreed that the
results of this survey could be of considerable value to the Community as well
as DoD in formulating their requirements, and thus their training needs, for
such languages.
7. In view of the holiday season, no July meeting was scheduled. The
Executive Secretary will advise members of the date for the August meeting.
Executive Secretary
Attachments:
1. List of Languages
2. Trip Report
STAT
STAT
STAT
STAT
STAT
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Attendees - FLTC Meeting
Chairman
Executive Secretary
Army
Army
Navy
DIA
State/FSI
OSD
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FTE REDUCTIONS - LANGUAGES FOR WHICH THERE WILL BE STAFF WORKLOAD
REDUCTIONS BETWEEN MAY 30 AND SEPTEMBER 30, 1983*
ITALIAN
PORTUGUESE
JAPANESE
KOREAN
TAGALOG
TURKISH
GREEK
INDONESIAN
HEBREW
DARI
SWAHILI
HUNGARIAN
?CZECH
BULGARIAN
SERBO-CROATIAN
HINDI-URDU
BENGALI.
NEPALI
FINNISH
ICELANDIC
CHINESE
VIETNAMESE
THAI
LAO
DUTCH
* Reductions in most languages ,to take effect June 24, when many
classes graduate. ?
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The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20505
Foreign Language
Training Committee
FLTC-020-83
8 July 1983
MEMORANDUM FOR THE RECORD
SUBJECT: Trip Report - Monterey, California on 22-23 June 1983
1. On 22 and 23 June 1983, I attended a meeting of the Department of
Defense-University Forum hosted by the Foreign Language Center (FLC) of the
Defense Language Institute (DLI) at the Presidio of Monterey in California.
There were two principal items on the agenda: (a) the status of the U.S.
Army's contract with the Association of American Universities (AAU) to
investigate the status of foreign language and area studies in American.
Universities and other academic institutions; (b) the proposal by the
National Security Council (NSC) and the National Council on Foreign Language
and International Studies to establish a "National Council on International
Research and Manpower." Both these items are of concern to the Intelligence
Community and have been the subject of memoranda to DD/ICS and the DDCI.
2. I am pleased to report that, partially as a result of the IC Staff's
representations to the Army and other DoD elements, the AAU contract has now
been so restructured as to meet all our concerns. The primary task of the AAU
contract, to conduct research into the status of language and area studies in
this country, is being carried out by a group of eminent scholars with
expertise in the Soviet Bloc and Third World areas .under the direction of Dr.
Richard Lambert, Head of South East Asia Studies at the University of
Illinois. These scholars have reviewed previous work in this field by such
organizations as the Center for Applied Linguistics (CAL) and the Modern
Language Association (MLA) and have attempted to ascertain the adequacy of
"special resources" such as libraries and specialized research facilities.
They have interviewed scholars who have graduated in foreign language and area
studies and have tried to assess the degree to which specialized fields of
research are "in jeopardy", either through a lack of funding or because of
inadequate student enrollment. Their final report will not be issued for
several months, but ,preliminary findings would indicate that university
administrators are. generally committed to foreign language and area studies
programs; their subordinates, however, are less confident and fear that a
reduction in the Department of Education's "Title VI" funding for regional
centers for area and language .studies might seriously curtail graduate studies
in these fields. Although graduate departments in economics and sociology
seem disinterested in international concerns, this is not apparently true for
political science. Researchers were generally impressed with the quality of
graduate students in foreign language and area studies.
Attachment 2
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3. The interaction between researchers in the field of foreign language
and area studies and government policymakers varies widely. The relationship
of government funding for academic research to policymaking is a "double edged
sword" with some academicians fearing that, should the fact of government
funding become known, the entree of scholars to field research, particularly
in the Third World, might be severely curtailed. Representatives of both the
universities and the government at this meeting tended to agree that
government funding, if granted, must not be concealed by some flimsy "cover"
and that the source of funds must be openly acknowledged, if not widely
broadcast. Private foundations plan to meet in the fall of 1983 to discuss
the most effective means of funding academic research (including the use of
government grants) in foreign language and area studies. At present there is
no unanimity on this matter and academia's views on DoD or other government
funding run the gamut from resistance to enthusiasm.
4. The AAU, with the concurrence of the Army, has awarded a subcontract
to SRI International to assess the needs of the Department of Defense (and not
the Community as a whole) for foreign area and language expertise. This work
is being headed by Dr. William Bader, head of SRI's Washington office and
former task force leader on the Church Committee.
5. Dr. Robert Ward, Director of the Center for Research in International
Studies at Stanford University, briefed the meeting on the background of the
proposal to establish a National Council on International Research and
P1anpower. Participants at the Monterey meeting, many of whom had attended the
28 April White House meeting, were, on the whole, skeptical of the
desirability and feasibility of creating an umbrella organization under NSC
sponsorship to effect proper coordination between government and academia for
the funding of research in language and area studies of mutual interest to
scholars and policymakers. The academic community feared that NSC sponorship
might be misconstrued by the academic community as well as by the governments
of many countries in which American scholars do their field research.
Although sponsorship by such organizations as the National Science Foundation,
the National Council for Soviet and East European Research or the Smithsonian
Institution's Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars might alleviate
the "image" problem, participants were generally of the view that it would be
best, for the present, to utilize existing mechanisms for government-academic
cooperation rather than create a new organization. Moreover, it was feared
that, should the Congress or the Administration grant the funding needed for a
new organization, it might be at the expense of existing programs such as the
Title VI regional study centers. It was finally agreed that the
representatives of the academic community would discuss this matter further
amongst themselves in an attempt to define a common position which could then
be referred to the government representatives in the DoD-University Forum.
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6. There was considerable discussion of the establishment by government
agencies of proficiency standards to measure and test foreign language skills
in reading, speaking, listening, and writing. A working group of the
Interagency Language Round Table has been instrumental in establishing
commonly understood and accepted, levels of proficiency and standard tests
against which these levels can be measured. As a result, a~CIA attestation
that an employee who has attended its Foreign Language School and attained a
"2 plus" level in speaking Gulf Arabic would convey immediately to managers in
NSA, the FBI or State (for example), the exact degree of that employee's
competence according to commonly agreed standards. Such proficiency testing
has not been commonly adopted on the campus and where testing does take place,
standards vary. The representatives of universities and such organizations as
the MLA and CAL welcomed the government initiative in establishing common
standards for proficiency and testing and hope to benefit from the work which
the ILR has done. In response to this need, the DLI is establishing a two-
week training course for university personnel in the methodology of language
training.
7. At the conclusion of the meeting, all participants expressed their
satisf action at the useful exchange of views between the representatives of
government and academia through the medium of the DoD-University Forum and
trusted that this practice would be continued. IC Staff participation at this
meeting was of considerable benefit to the FLTC, and we trust, to other staff
elements such as the Planning and Policy Staff.
STA
Distribution
1 - DD/ICS
1 - FLTC Chrono
1 - ES/FLTC
1 - Chmn, FLTC
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Draft Agenda for August FLTC Meeting
1. Opening Remarks by the Chairman and Consideration of the Minutes
of the June meeting.
2. Reports by Subcommittee Chairpersons
3. Report by the Executive Secretary on the present status of the
Working Group investigating the application of MAT toJapanese scientific and
technical documents.
4. Other items which members may wish to raise.
Attachment B
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 .~.r.r1-!TI A l I
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vv ~ ~ ? ~ ~ --? ? - -? --- Attachment C
SDS Memo #83-12
19 July 1983
NiEMORANDtJM FOR THE RECORD
FR~I
SUBJECT: JASON Summer Session Study
1. FBIS's expectations that the JASON organization would provi
evaluation of machine translati
i
ti
de a
-
ng
nu
significant input to our con
d to the IC Staff's and DDI's search for a solution to the
l
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ogy an
no
_ _ _ t _ ~ ~ _ n _ i
n ,.,..-,.,.
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sentatives rom FBIS, ORD and OSO iaere disappointed to learn that due to a
shortage of JASON human resources there would be no JASON Summer Session study
of either Artificial Inttelligence/Natural Language Processing topic which
had been accepted by the JASON's at their Spring meeting:
for OSO - Use of Expert Systems to select messages of high interest
for FBIS - Application of natural language processing to machine
translation. (Attachment A)
2.? We have reviewed the chronology of events leading up to the announcement
in La Jolla .(see Attachment B) and are unable to determine when the status
changed. The result, however, was that what the government had envisioned as
a two day round table discussion/guidance session to ,initiate a major study
effort was, on the JASON's calendar, planned as a two hour meeting.
3. In place of the expected studies, Donald Levine, Executive Secretary
of the JASONs, suggested to both FBIS and OSO that individual JASONs tiTould be
available during the academic year as consultants in the areas of interest.
While a consultant will prove useful to FBIS in our long-range effort, OS0's
problem requires an earlier solution. FBIS may have to perform our oti~ tech-
nology survey and evaluation of achine translation systems.
The special working group established by the taff's Foreign Language Training
Co~ronittee and chaired by ORD.. to coordinate the exchange of information between
the JASON's and the Community, can continue as a conduit for information.
4. FBIS found the discussions with JASONs Al Despain, Bi11 Press,
Oscar Rothaus,.Hal Lewis, and others in La Jolla to be very useful and plans to
maintain contact with Al Despair. who is overseeing the JASON
contract for the DDSF,T, has been informed of these developments and is attempting
to clarify the situation..
When Separated from attachment
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 nnn~r~nC111T111i
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JAS?N Stualy -
28 January 1983 ~ DDSF~T staff requests nomination of
topics for JASON Summer Study 1983.
25 February 1983 Both FBIS and OSO nominate projects
related to Artificial Intelligence/
Natural Language Processing (AI/NLP)..
OSO's task relates to Expert Systems
for message selection. FBIS's task is
to determine the applicability of AI/
NLP to machine translation.
15 March 1983
31 March 1983
27 April 1983
20 D4ay 1983
30 May 1983
JASON's Gordon MacDonald and Donald
Levine are briefed on the DDS~T projects.
The AI/NLP tasks are accepted by. the
JASONs. ~.
JASON Spring Meeting
FBIS briefed key JASONs on the background
for our task, our current processing
procedures and plans for modernization.
Formal task description is attachment A.
Foreign Language Translation Committee
(FLTC) on FBIS/JASON study plans and how
they would support the IC Staff's effort
to establish a community position on the
development of machine translation, partic-
briefs the IC Staff
ularly for
coordinate community effort in machine
translation and serve as conduit between
Working Group created under the FLTC to
rh~unity and the JASONs.
ORD, is the chairman.
an e ort to learn the status of the JASON
Study. MacDonald says Levine is coordi-
nating plans and will call her.
contacts Gordon MacDonald in
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finally gets in touch with
Levine. They agree that the week of
11 July looks good for the "initial study
session." Levine promises to send map
and hotel info.
11 July 1983
kFBIS/SDS), 25X1
(FBIS/Prod), and (OSO) meet 25X1
with Al Despain, Bill Press Oscar Rothaus ~
and Hal Lewis in La Jolla. 25X1
ask Despain to clarify the purpose 25X1
or t is meeting. Obriefs the group 25X1
on the IC Staff interest in the study and
requests that any discussion of the machine
translation task be deferred until the
12th when the rest of her team is arriving.
Despain explains that the JASONs have no
people resources to apply to either topic
during the summer session.
:Rest of session'is devoted to a general
discussion of various "Expert System"
approaches to OSO's topic.
(FBIS/SDS) arrive in La Jolla.
12 July 1983
~ (ORD) and
The five government representatives meet
with.JASONs Al Despain and Oscar Rothaus.
Despain provides a useful introduction to
AI/NLP R$D. Q describes FBIS's 25X1
Modernization Program. ~
In an effort to clarify the "apparent"
change in level of effort, the group met
with Don Levine. Levine explained the
JASON organization and their inability to
respond to FBIS's and OSO's tasks as one
of manpower shortages during the 6 week
Summer Session. He offers the services of
Despain and others on an ad-hoc basis
during the academic year (through April 1984).
By Labor Day Despain agreed to provide
both OS0 and FBIS a letter memo with names
of prominent researches and the status. of
applicable RF,D.
CCONFIDENTIAL
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The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20505
ruroipn Language
7-sining Gummittee
- FLTC-016-83
? 7 June 1983
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
VIA? Deputy Director, Intelligence Community Staff
FROM:
Chairman
SUBJECT: FLTC Monthly Report--May 1983
1. A meeting of Intelligence Corr>rnunity representatives concerned with
and knowledgeable in the developments of Machine-Assisted Translation (N'iAT)
met under the sponsorship of the FLTC at the Community Headquarters Building
? - -----'-r-- ..... ... +., nccccc the
-
..
On ZU 1`'idy LU U I~l.u? ~iic ~ v~ u.~........ .,. - --- -
MAT to overtly acquired
in
l
f
,
g
y
app
feasibility o
In his opening remarks, C/FLTC advise
participan s a e e had been charged by the Director of the
Intelligence Community Staff with coordinating the responses to the DCI
the CIAP and the GDIP" to "submit coordinated
"f
or
Guidance (FY 1985-89)
program initiatives designed to improve the Community's capability to produce
timely and accurate translations of .. material through the .
utilization of ... machine-assisted trans a ion echnology". Moreover, the
guidance also requested the CCP to accompany its 1985 budget submission with a
report on the applicability of this technology to NSA's requirements. The
FLTC had attempted, at this meeting, to assemble representatives of all
elements of the Community interested in this problem and to constitute a
working grou to re are a report to you with recommendations to resolve this
problem. Chief of FBIS' Asia Branch, stated that FBIS had
been tasked in 1980 to investigate the problem of the acquisition and
translation of ocuments. There are at least 9000 such
publications in an S has subscriptions to some 300 of them.
However, it is faced with a scarcity of competent translators of Japanese who
must be at the "5" or native fluency level to meet~FBIS's rigid requirements
for finished, literate translations. An effort is now being made to
ith
t
hi
l
on,^f
ng
supplement the translators available to FBIS in-Was
PR~C
nffirer
9 ~~~~ .. ~ , . .,,. ...,......, _. uadru le
them-l oth u n-irse number of translators hired thus far may q p
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current output, a massive backlog of documents awaiting screening and/or
translating remains. There is, perhaps, hope in a technological breakthrough
represented b but this technology is not
yet available. Even if technological help shou a forthcoming, FBIS is
faced with a most serious problem of maintaining the morale of its human
translators who fear that should FBIS move to Machine or Machine-Assisted
Translations, they would be relegated to the most borin and menial work of
editing, etc. In concluding his presentation, emphasized that
for any form of MAT suitable for his needs, machine readab a input is
essential. Other participants agreed.
2, Chairman of the Information Handling Committee
(IHC), stated that the importance of Japanese S&T documents to the United
States will grow "by leaps and bounds". The IHC has a charter to facilitate
the automation of all aspects of intelligence processing and will lend
whatever assistance it can to the problem of Japanese S&T documents. Even
though we are successful in adapting some form of machine-assisted translation
to these documents, human assets will still be needed.
3. Representatives of the Air Force's Foreign Technology Division (FTD),
the Naval Intelligence Support Command (NISC), NSA, and CIA's Office of
Research and Development (ORD) reported on the work being done in their
organizations on MAT. Mr. Arthur Corte (State), who is familiar with
industry's needs for and experimentation with MAT, pointed out that Europeans
are faced with essentially the same problem as are the Americans and that it
would be useful to learn what progress they have made in this field.
4. An FBIS representative advised that CIA had commissioned; on behalf
of FBIS, a "JASON" study to assess whether a new generation of Machine
Translation systems will satisfy their requirements or whether "they should
support some effort in a direction not now being pursued. This study will
consist of a survey and analysis of R&D activity (in the United States,
Europe, and Japan) in artificial intelligence/natural language. processing.
The result of this effort will be a report and briefing identifying centers of
this activity, the barriers to and shortfalls in the development of an
efficient, accurate MT system, recommendations for FBIS-supported development
directed toward overcoming these barriers, and the prospect of achieving such
a system". The Chairman, speaking for the group, welcomed this development,
expressed the hope that CIA would make known to the JASONS the work presently
being done in this field by the Intelligence Community, and that the JASONS
would, when addressing the problem of the FBIS, take into account as well, the
requirements of other elements of the Defense, Foreign Affairs, and
Intelligence Communities. He informed participants that ORD has already
agreed that would be available to chair a working group to
address this problem and asked those present to advise the ,Executive Secretary
of their willingness to participate in such a group.
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5. That working group is presently being constituted and will act as a
bridge between the Community and the JASONs to ensure that the latter are
apprised of work presently being done in the Community and that their efforts
will, within their stated terms of reference, serve, to the greatest degree
possible, the needs of the Community as well as those of the FBIS. We shall
keep you informed of developments.
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The Director of Central Intelligence
Washington, D.C. 20505
Foreign Language
Training Committee
FLTC-019-83
8 July 1983
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
VIA: Deputy Director, Intelligence Community Staff
FROM:
Chairman
SUBJECT? FLTC Monthly Report--June 1983
1. On 9 June, the Executive Secretary of the FLTC, the Chairman of the
Information Handling Committee, and the Director of the IC Staff's Planning
and Policy Staff attended a meeting of Community representatives concerned
with the application of modern technology to the teaching, learning, and
translation of foreign languages. The meeting, sponsored by the FLTC's
Technology Subcommittee, agreed that working groups should be established to
consider such specialized problems as Machine Translation (MT) and Machine
Assisted Translation (MAT) (both for Japanese and other languages), the
acquisition from private industry, academia, and government of dictionaries
which could be used or mod ifieforyComeutereAssgsted InstructyonoandTComputer~
and the evaluation of systems P
Assisted Study of foreign languages. These working groups will coordinate
their activities with government departments outside the Intelligence
Community and with privateRoundoTabledandathe1DepartmentsofhDefense?Uni~ersity
the Inter-agency Language
Forum.
2. The Executive Secretary attended a meeting of the Department of
Defense-University Forum hosted by the Foreign Language Center (FLC) of the
Defense Language Institute (DLI) at the Presidio of thenstatuslofCthefUrS1d?
There were two principal items on the agenda: (a)
Army's contract with the Association of American Universities (AAU) to
investigate the status of foreign language and area studies in American
Universities. and other academic institutions; (b) the proposal by the
National Security Council (NSC) and the National Council on Foreign Language
and International Studies to establish a "National Council on International
Research and Manpower.p thetsubject ofememoranda tonyounand the D/ICSligence
Community and have bee
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3. Partially as a result of the IC Staff's representations to the Army
and other DoD elements, the AAU contract has now been so restructured as to
meet all our`concerns. The primary task of the AAU contract, to conduct
research into the status of language and area studies in this country, is
being carried out by a group of eminent scholars with expertise in the Soviet
Bloc and Third World areas under the direction of Dr. .Richard Lambert, Head of
South East Asia Studies at the University of Illinois. The final report will
not be issued for several months, but preliminary findings would indicate that
university administrators are generally committed to foreign language and area
studies programs; their subordinates, however, are less confident and fear
that a reduction in the Department of Education's "Title VI" funding for
regional centers for area and language studies might seriously curtail
graduate studies in these fields. Although graduate departments in economics
and sociology seem disinterested in international concerns, this is not
apparently, true, for political science. Researchers were generally impressed
with the quality of graduate students in foreign language and area studies.
4. The interaction between researchers in the field of foreign language
and area studies and government policymakers varies widely. The relationship
of government funding for academic research to policymaking is a "double-edged
sword" with some academicians fearing that, should the fact of government
funding become known, the entree of scholars to field research, particularly
in the Third World, might be severely curtailed. Representatives of both the
universities and the government at this meeting tended to agree that
government funding, if granted, must not be concealed by some flimsy "cover"
and that the source of funds must be openly acknowledged, if not widely
broadcast. At present there is no unanimity on this matter- and academia's
views on DoD or other government funding run the gamut from resistance to
enthusiasm.
5. The AAU, with the concurrence of the Army, has awarded a subcontract
to SRI International to assess the needs of the Department of Defense (and not
the Community as a whole) for foreign area and language expertise. This work
is being headed by Dr. William Bader, head of SRI's Washington office and
former task force leader on the Church Committee.
6. Dr. Robert Ward, Director of the Center for Research in International
Studies at Stanford University, briefed the meeting on the background of the
proposal to establish a National Council on International Research and
Manpower. Participants at the Monterey meeting, many of whom had attended the
28 April White House meeting, were, on the whole, skeptical of the
desirability and feasibility of creating an umbrella organization under NSC
sponsorship to effect proper coordination between government and academia for
the funding of research in language and area studies of mutual interest to
scholars and policymakers. The academic community feared that NSC or other
government sponorship might be misconstrued by the academic community as well
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as by the governments of many countries in which American scholars do their
field research. Participants were generally of the view that it would be
best, for the present, to utilize existing mechanisms for government-academic
cooperation rather than create anew organization. Moreover, it was feared
that, should the Congress or the Administration grant the funding needed for a
new organization, it might be at the expense of existing programs such as the
Title VI regional study centers. It was finally agreed that the
representatives of the academic community would discuss this matter further
amongst themselves in an attempt to define a common position which could then
be referred to the government representatives in the DoD-University Forum.
7. There was considerable discussion of the establishment by government
agencies of proficiency standards to measure and test foreign language skills
in reading, speaking, listening, and writing. A working group of the
Interagency Language Round Table has been instrumental in establishing
commonly understood and accepted levels of proficiency and standard tests
against which these levels can be measured. As a result, a CIA attestation
that an employee who has attended its Foreign Language School and attained a
"2 plus" level in speaking Gulf Arabic would convey irr~nediately to managers in
NSA, the FBI or State (for example), the exact degree of that employee's
competence according to commonly agreed standards. Such proficiency testing
has not been commonly adopted on the campus and where testing does take place,
standards vary. The representatives of universities and such organizations as
the MLA and CAL welcomed the government initiative in establishing common
standards for proficiency and testing and hope to benefit from the work which
the ILR has done. In response to this need, the DLI is establishing a two-
week training course for university personnel in the methodology of language
training.
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