Advanced Language Courses
for Government Service
Contact NFLC-UMD for course fees and enrollment procedures.
nflc-alc@umd.edu.
The National Foreign Language Center at the University of Maryland (NFLC-UMD) has leveraged its decades of experience supporting government partners and developing courses, learning materials, and assessments in over 100 languages to deliver advanced language courses specifically tailored to the government’s needs.
To support government and military linguists and prepare them to carry out their missions, the NFLC-UMD works closely with government stakeholders to offer courses centered on current, relevant, and authentic curriculum taught in carefully sequenced thematic units that integrate culture, area studies, and language.
The NFLC-UMD offers five-week in person or online language courses, providing a mix of of direct instruction and additional guided practice in the form of graded homework, online assessments, and online learning modules. Students also have access to the NFLC-UMD’s e-Learning Portal, an online collection of language learning materials and assessments, and they can earn Continuing Education Units for completing a course.
Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, Persian (Farsi), and Russian courses will help students progress from ILR level 2 to ILR level 2+, and beyond. The Ukrainian course will help Russian language students learn Ukrainian.
Advanced Chinese (Mandarin), Korean, Persian (Farsi), and Russian for Government Service courses are designed to increase the language proficiency of students from ILR 2 to ILR 2+ and above. The courses are based entirely on carefully curated, timely, and authentic materials at the target ILR level, organized in thematic units (such as government, conflict, and media). The five-week courses include 150 instructional hours plus 50 hours of asynchronous homework and convey 15 Continuing Education Units. These courses are either offered in person at the NFLC-UMD campus-adjacent offices, or online.
Ukrainian Conversion for Government Service is a five-week conversion course designed for students who have reached ILR 2 proficiency in Russian and have no prior knowledge of Ukrainian. The focus is on gaining proficiency in Ukrainian in order to comprehend straightforward communications, such as incident reports, social media posts, news videos, bulletins, press releases, and other similar communiqués, and to participate in routine conversations. The fully online course is based primarily on carefully curated, timely, and authentic materials that are sequenced from ILR 0+ to ILR 2 and organized in thematic units (such as basic needs, responsibilities, thriving communities, and resilience). The five-week course includes 150 instructional hours plus 50 hours of asynchronous homework and conveys 15 Continuing Education Units.
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.
The NFLC-UMD’s courses are designed around its research-based principles of effective language teaching, which maximize students’ proficiency gains:
- Implementing a standards-based and thematically organized curriculum
- Integrating culture, content, and language in the classroom
- Adapting and using expertly leveled authentic materials
- Using the target language and providing comprehensible input
- Facilitating a learner-centered classroom
- Conducting performance-based assessments
Advanced Chinese (Mandarin) for Government Service (ILR 2 ➡ 2+)
| Length | Instructional Hours | Start Date | End Date | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 weeks | 150 Synchronous 50 Asynchronous | Aug 20, 2025 | Sept 25, 2025 | Zoom (Online) |
Advanced Korean for Government Service (ILR 2 ➡ 2+)
| Length | Instructional Hours | Start Date | End Date | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 weeks | 150 Synchronous 50 Asynchronous | Sept 3, 2025 | Oct 7, 2025 | Zoom (Online) |
Advanced Persian (Farsi) for Government Service (ILR 2 ➡ 2+)
| Length | Instructional Hours | Start Date | End Date | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 weeks | 150 Synchronous 50 Asynchronous | Aug 20, 2025 | Sept 25, 2025 | Zoom (Online) |
Advanced Russian for Government Service (ILR 2 ➡ 2+)
| Length | Instructional Hours | Start Date | End Date | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 weeks | 150 Synchronous 50 Asynchronous | Sept 3, 2025 | Oct 7, 2025 | Zoom (Online) |
Ukrainian Conversion for Government Service (Russian 2 ➡ Ukrainian 1+/2)
| Length | Instructional Hours | Start Date | End Date | Format |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 weeks | 150 Synchronous 50 Asynchronous | Oct 16, 2025 | Nov 20, 2025 | Zoom (Online) |
The NFLC-UMD’s advanced language courses are open to members of US Department of Defense organizations and units, as well as other federal government employees. Contact NFLC-UMD for course fees and enrollment procedures.