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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+)

LengthInstructional
Hours
Start DateEnd DateFormat
5 weeks150 Synchronous
50 Asynchronous
Aug 20, 2025Sept 25, 2025Zoom (Online)

Advanced Korean for Government Service (ILR 2 ➡ 2+)

LengthInstructional
Hours
Start DateEnd DateFormat
5 weeks150 Synchronous
50 Asynchronous
Sept 3, 2025Oct 7, 2025Zoom (Online)

Advanced Persian (Farsi) for Government Service (ILR 2 ➡ 2+)

LengthInstructional
Hours
Start DateEnd DateFormat
5 weeks150 Synchronous
50 Asynchronous
Aug 20, 2025Sept 25, 2025Zoom (Online)

Advanced Russian for Government Service (ILR 2 ➡ 2+)

LengthInstructional
Hours
Start DateEnd DateFormat
5 weeks150 Synchronous
50 Asynchronous
Sept 3, 2025Oct 7, 2025Zoom (Online)

Ukrainian Conversion for Government Service (Russian 2 ➡ Ukrainian 1+/2)

LengthInstructional
Hours
Start DateEnd DateFormat
5 weeks150 Synchronous
50 Asynchronous
Oct 16, 2025Nov 20, 2025Zoom (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. 

nflc-alc@umd.edu

The teachers are great at sensing what the students need and tailor the course accordingly. Great at taking feedback and implementing it in the course.

Former Student

Great pace for the course, and the teachers did a great job making sure everyone understood the material despite people being at different levels of proficiency already coming into the course.

Former Student

As with the last time, this course delivered far more than I even expected. It was even far better than when I did this course virtually in the past. I genuinely and tangibly feel the growth that has taken place over the last 5 weeks.

Repeat Student

The class was a good mix of reading, listening, and speaking. While we did cover a lot of material, things didn't feel rushed, and we had enough time to complete the in-class assignments and discuss them. The instructors did a great job at adapting to the needs of the class while also keeping us on track.

Former Student

I think this program is different from other programs by how well the questions for articles are presented and analyzed.

Former Student

I would give the course a rating of "Excellent" and would gladly recommend this course to any colleagues. I am very satisfied with the quality and quantity of materials, professionalism of the teachers and well prepared and authentic language materials.

Former Student

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