Cross-Cultural Competence Assessment Instruments for the U.S. Military Academy's Semester Abroad Program

Overview

 

Among the many transformation efforts initiated by the US. Department of Defense (DoD) in the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon on September 11,2001, was an attempt to significantly alter how its four services - the Army, Navy, Marines, and Air Force - train, assess, and manage their foreign language and cultural awareness programs. The result of this transfonnation effort, the Defense Language Transformation Roadmap (DLTR), published in January 2005, included several mandates related to enhancing language proficiency, cultural awareness and regional expertise (U.S. Department of Defense [DoD], 2005). The 2006 DoD Quadrennial Defense Review subsequently stated, "developing broader linguistic capability and cultural understanding is critical to prevailing in the long war and to meet 21'' century challenges" (DoD, 2006).