The CIOR Language Academy (CLA) provides tuition in English and French as a second language. It is aimed at NATO Reserve Officers and Regular Officers of the new Member and Partner nations of Eastern and Central Europe, many of whom previously used Russian as an operational language.
Learning objectives include increasing the student’s ability and confidence to interact militarily and socially, speaking with improved fluency and pronunciation, comprehending and using conversational English and French and expanding their vocabulary and knowledge of NATO military lexicon.
The CLA makes a significant contribution to defence diplomacy, allowing reservists from numerous countries to share common experiences to enhance professional knowledge and mutual understanding. The CLA also considerably stretches the reservists who provide the instruction.
The Vyskov Military Academy in the Czech Republic hosted the CLA for a fortnight in July 2010. Eighteen Reservist instructors, including three from the UK, provided tuition to 82 students from 18 countries. Five of the students were due to deploy in support of UN and NATO operations and a number had recently returned from peacekeeping duties in Afghanistan, Bosnia and Lebanon. The Czech Defence Language Institute, based at Brno Military University, tested and passed 30 students at the Survival and Functional levels in English in reading, speaking, listening and writing.
A week-long refresher course was also run for twelve students at the Polish Naval Academy in Gdynia in September 2010. For the first time, prior to the course students had access to a range of English materials online to enable them to better prepare. Topics covered included use of tenses and clear pronunciation. Student response to the on‐line materials proved there was an interest in continuous learning. The CLA hopes to be able to continue to roll out the use of online Learning Management Systems.
The CLA in 2011 will be held in Moldova. The course is open to British Reservists who would like the opportunity to learn French in a multinational environment. For more information, contact the UKRFA Secretariat on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it
