CIA'S FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAM

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP78-06202A000100050013-3
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: C
• Document Page Count: 12
• Document Creation Date: December 12, 2016
• Document Release Date: June 6, 2000
• Sequence Number: 13
• Publication Date: December 11, 1965
• Content Type: MF

((~??(("~ 11 (~' DD/S 65 -5788
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11 DEC 1965
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT : CIA's Foreign Language Program
1. This memorandum submits recommendations for your
approval; such recommendations are contained in paragraph 4.
2. Pursuant to your recent request for recommendations to
strengthen the Agency's foreign language program, a small Working
Group comprised of a senior member from each Directorate was
formed to survey our present program and to develop such recom-
mendations.
3. No estimate of funds and personnel required for increased
emphasis on foreign language training can be developed until .an
inventory of existing foreign language skills and foreign language
training requirements are developed.
4. The report of the Working Group is attached. It contains
six recommendations with. which I concur and which are submitted
for your approval.
pan
Deputy Director
for Support
Attachment:
Report of Working Group on CIA's
Foreign Language Program
CONFIDENTIAL
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CONFIDENTIAL
REPORT OF WORKING GROUP
ON
CIA's FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROGRAM
MISSION
In response to an initiative from the DDCI, a Working Group was
formed by the Deputy Director for Support to examine the Agency's foreign
language program and develop recommendations to strengthen it. Under
its terms of reference, the Group was asked specifically to:
a. Examine the status of current and projected language
requirements in the Agency.
b. Review the present system for maintaining the CIA
Language Inventory and for testing the skills recorded there.
c. Recommend changes in the policy base of the Agency's
language development program to meet future needs.
The DD/S supplied the Chairman for the Working Group which included
a representative from each Deputy Directorate and advisors from the Offices
of Personnel and Training. (See TAB A for list of members.)
METHOD OF APPROACH
In conducting its review, the Working Group devoted primary attention
to: present Agency policies - on language development; evidence as to
the effectiveness of these policies; records and other indications of language
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requirements developed by the Deputy Directorates; probable trends in language
requirements; the status of the Language Skills Inventory maintained by the
Office of Personnel )-.the Agency's language proficiency testing program; proposals
for increasing the language competence of the Agency; and other proposals for
improving CIA's language program.
At the outset of its deliberations the Group obtained a comprehensive
presentation on the Agency's language program from the Chief of OTR's
Language School. A briefing by the Acting Dean of the State Department's
Foreign Language School was also obtained in connection with the Group's
examination of the policies and objectives of language programs in State, USIA,
AID, and the Department of Defense.
SUMMARY OF FINDINGS
As others before, notably the Inspector General in his 1960 survey
of the CIA Training Program, the Worki Group found a widespread lack of-
essential discipline in the Agency's management of its foreign languaejro, ram .
of disci line ste in are ry __.m _
This lack part, we believe, from two prominent
defects in CIA's present language policies as they appear in-and related 25X1A
instructions: first, the obvious lack of specificity which blurs the intent of
policies and side-steps the detailed guidelines so necessary for their effective
administration; second, the failure trovideadequate for centralized
monitoring-and, staff Supervision of the Agency's conduct of its language program.
It was concluded that if substantial progress is to be made in improving
the Agency's language competence these two defects in policy must be dealt
with. Consequently, the main efforts of the Group have been applied in that
direction.
CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMENDATIONS
LANGUAGE REQUIREMENTS
Realistic and meaningful language requirements are the foundation
stone of any foreign language program. They are the starting point in the
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development of hiring policies, training programs, assignment practices,
and other measures necessary to satisfy an organization's language needs.
-recognizes this basic fact as well as the wisdom of allowing each
Deputy Director the latitude of establishing his own language requirements
to meet his particular needs. But the regulation errs, we believe, in avoiding
any statement as to how often such requirements should be surveyed and in.
failing to provide for the staff review of requirements at a central point where
they can be related to other elements of the Agency's language program. As
a consequence, the DD/S&T has yet to make a detailed survey of his language
requirements, the DD/I and DD/S have done so only once--in 1960, and the
DD/P's most recent survey was completed in 1962.
RECOMMENDATION #1
It is recommended that:
(a) Each Deputy Director prepare by 1 July 1966 a current
statement of his foreign language requirements showing the
positions, or proportion of positions, in each component which
require language competence on the part of incumbents, together
with the specific languages and proficiency levels involved. These
statements of requirements for language competence in place
will provide useful background for assignment consideration and
the basis for developing language training requirements.
(b) Deputy Directors thereafter update their language
requirements at least annually.
(c) Each Directorate furnish a consolidated statement
of its current language requirements to the Director of Training
in a suitable format developed with hi m ox tbjj,. purpose
TESTING AND RECORDS
provides that "staff personnel who claim any degree of knowl-
edge of a foreign language are required to have their proficiency evaluated
through Agency tests." However, no time limit is set within which such tests
must be taken or retaken and no one is charged with responsibility for seeing
that it gets done, except the Director of Personnel in the case of new employees
entering on duty. Perhaps it should not be too surprising, therefore, that as of
31 December 1964, according to the Office of Personnel, only 34 per cent of the
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skills recorded in CIA's Foreign Language Inventory had been tested, and at
least two-thirds of the proficiency records--self-appraised as well as tested--
had been filed prior to 1962. A vigorous overhaul of the Agency's testing
program and Foreign Language Inventory are clearly in order.
RECOMMENDATION #2
It is recommended that:
(a) Career Service Heads be made responsible for assuring
that employees under their jurisdiction whose foreign language
proficiencies should be a matter of Agency record undergo appropriate
tests as required by Agency policies.
(b) New staff employees entering on. duty with the Agency
who claim foreign language skills be required to have such skills
tested as a part of EOD processing, such testing to be accomplished
within two weeks after their entrance on duty.
(c) All other staff employees serving in the Headquarters
area who claim language proficiencies that have not yet been
tested be required to complete such tests by 31 December 1966.
Priority in test scheduling should. be given employees claiming
spoken proficiencies.
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(d) Staff employees returning to Headquarters from overseas
stations who have untested language proficiencies
s al be sc zedu ed for testing as a part of their in-processing, such
testing to be accomplished within two weeks after their return to
Headquarters for duty.
(e) To keep the Agency's Foreign Language Inventory up to
date, a policy be approved requiring that after 31 December 1966
staff employees with tested language proficiencies below the native
level be retested approximately every three years.
(f) To simplify language records and testing activities,
only speak in , readi , and understanding skills be tested or
recorded, subject to the proviso that the capacity to test writ
and pronunciation be maintained to meet specific requests for such
information.
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GENERAL POLICY ISSUES
Goals and Objectives
-states that "the purpose of the Language Development Program
is to develop skills in foreign languages required to discharge the mission and
functions of the Agency." To translate this broad objective into meaningful
actions, we believe more specific goals should be identified. Three are pro-
posed at this time: the first attempts to relate personnel assignments to
language requirements;. the second to provide a minimum language goal for
professional employees in "foreign service" career fields; and the third to
improve the Agency's language posture at overseas posts.
RECOMMENDATION #3
It is recommended that:
(a) After 31 December 1970, personnel assigned to
positions for which specified language requirements have been
established, or to organizational elements in which a proportion
of positions have been designated as language-essential, will
be expected to possess the requisite language competence for
such assignments unless an exception Is mutually agreed upon
on an. individual basis by the responsible Operating Official and
Career Service Head.
(b) By 31 December 1970, professional employees
serving in career fields or employment categories designated
by the responsible Deputy Director as requiring language
competence will, unless individually excepted, be expected to
possess a fully useful proficiency (i.e., "Intermediate" or higher)
in at least one foreign language.
(c) Effective immediately, every professional employee
assigned abroad will be expected to possess at the time he arrives
at his overseas post, or to acquire in his first six months there,
at least a "courtesy" level of proficiency (i.e., "Slight" or higher)
in the official language of his post or in a commonly used alternate
language. In addition, non-professional employees, and wives. of
employees serving abroad should be encouraged to acquire such
"courtesy" levels of proficiency and should be provided training
for this purpose at Agency expense.
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In the belief that the Agency's primary effort to improve its language
competence should be directed at its junior officers, the Working Group has
proposed a special. language policy for Career Trainees. And in this instance,
permissive phrasing and expressions in terms of goals are dropped in favor
of stating the policy as a requirement.
RECOMMENDATION #4
It is recommended that:
Every Career Trainee whose planned assignment is to a
career field requiring periodic duty abroad shall possess at least
an "Elementary" proficiency in one foreign language before being
transferred to his Career Service and shall possess at least an
"Intermediate" proficiency in a foreign language. before completing
his third year of service in the Agency.
Incentives
The Group considered the need to provide appropriate language incentives
for at least two categories of Agency employees: (1) those who in the future
bring to the Agency at the time of their appointment a useful foreign language
skill and who are expected to serve in language-essential positions, or in career
fields requiring periodic service abroad; and (2) those who undertake the study
of specified esoteric or "hard" languages in the expectation of accepting assign-
ments involving these languages.
It was proposed that some form of salary increase should be used for
language incentives and that such increases should be available only to employees
in grades GS-11 and below serving in positions other than as translators,
0 or language instructors. However, the Group
na e o rear R agreement with respect to these proposals and to
develop appropriate ground rules for their administration.
RECOMMENDATION #5
It is recommended that:
The CIA Committee for Language Development be instructed
to propose a language incentive program within the guidelines provided
above.
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IMPLEMENTATION
As indicated in its summary of findings, the Working Group believes
that present Agency policies fail to provide adequate centralized monitoring
and staff supervision for the CIA language program. Without these, separate
elements of the language program cannot be properly interrelated, over-all
planning is difficult if not impossible, certain types of centralized reporting
are hard to obtain, and essential discipline is often. lost.
The Working Group concludes that the Director of Training should be
responsible for such staff supervision and that the Committee for Language
Development should. expand its functions to assist him in carrying out this
responsibility. Two other conclusions were noted with respect to the Committee:
(1) since part of its. job is to review the activities of the CIA Language School,
it should be chaired by the Director of Training or his Deputy rather than by the
Chief of the Language School, and (2) as a part of its function, the Committee
should maintain a current classification of all overseas posts in. terms of their
primary, alternate, and secondary languages to aid Directorates in establishing
language requirements.
Finally, the Group observed the need of the Director of Training to
receive adequate forecasts of language training requirements, preferably on a
fiscal year basis, so he can efficiently plan for and manage the Agency's
language training activities.
RECOMMENDATION #6
It is recommended that:
(a) Subparagraph b(4) ore clarified to assign 25X1A
responsibility to the Director of Training for staff supervision
of the Agency's Language Development Program .
(b) The Director of Training or his Deputy serve as
Chairman of the CIA Committee for Language Development.
(c) Deputy Directors supply annual forecasts of language
training requirements to the Director of Training in a format
developed with him for this purpose.
(d) The Director of Training revise-and undertake
such. other staff actions as may be required to carry out the
recommendations in this report. which receive final. approval.
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DDJP,.
10 JAN
MEMORANDUM FOR: Deputy Director of Central Intelligence
SUBJECT: DD/P Concurrence in CIA Working Group
Paper, "CIA's Foreign Language Program"
1. In concurring with the attached findings of the CIA Working
Group Paper, "CIA's Foreign Language Pro gram", I wish to point
out that the Clandestine Services position vis-a-vis Incentives does
not favor payment for language proficiency per se either in hiring
an individual or in rewarding those who must take the so-called
hard languages for operational reasons.
2. I believe it is enough to say that language competence may
be considered in e.ptablishing the grade level at which individuals
are accepted into CIA, and that language competence will be an
important factor in the career advancement of the CT and of all
individuals where language proficiency is essential to job performance.
Desmond FitzGerald
Deputy Director for Plans
Dist: Orig & 1 - Addressee
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