Customizable Language Courses

The NFLC offers customizable Advanced Language Courses for Government Service that range in length from 45 to 150 hours. All courses are aligned to the ILR scale, focus on topics that prepare students for global language proficiency tests, and include activities that simulate work environments. The NFLC-UMD hosts courses at its offices in Riverdale, MD, and online. Students have unlimited access to the NFLC-UMD’s Portal, an online collection of language learning materials and assessments throughout the course and for a period of time after the course ends so that they can extend their learning. The courses convey Continuing Education Units, which are issued by the University of Maryland’s Office of Extended Studies. 

Course Design

The Advanced Language Courses for Government Service are organized around thematic units. Each thematic unit aims to answer an essential question and a series of subquestions. The essential questions and subquestions span five topical categories designed to expose students to the vocabulary and linguistic features necessary to improve their global proficiency. This thematic approach infuses culture and area studies into the course, while maintaining a focus on language proficiency gains.

Individual lessons are primarily based on authentic passages (broadcasts, editorials, social media posts) that are created by native speakers for native speakers of the target language. The authentic materials include support tools to help students engage with them. These support tools may include prereading activities, glossaries, transcripts, translations, and graphic organizers. For those students who may have slipped slightly below level, instructors provide additional scaffolding to assure that students can fully comprehend the training materials.