A Letter from Valley Forge and Words of the Developing World: Knowing the “Why” for Autonomous Language Learning

Abstract

Knowing the “why” has always been critical to our collective drive as an American fighting force. At the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC), instructors are charged with educating a remarkably diverse population of military students from every demographic and professional background. Meanwhile, the DLIFLC language instructor population is just as diverse with civilian faculty from countless nations and military instructors from various branches of service. While having teachers explain the “why” to students in American schools is customary, it is not necessarily a common practice in other countries. This gap in expectations or pedagogical understandings is often invisible to students and teachers alike. In this article, I share my understanding of the “why” for autonomous and well-rounded language learning—an understanding which I developed over time through lessons learned as a DLIFLC student and as an Army Foreign Area Officer—and I reflect on ways to effectively communicate the “why” to our student population.