BASIC MILITARY ENGLISH

Common Module der EU - Basic Military English Module (BME)

07 10 2016

Prolog

Zur Steigerung ihrer militärterminologischen Kompetenz in Englisch wurde von den „Language Lads“ des Referats Fremdsprachen für die International Students des FH-BaStg Militärische Führung gleich zu Beginn des Wintersemesters 2016 ein Common Module der EU, nämlich das Basic MilitaryEnglish Module, abgehalten.

Zur sprachlichen Aufrüstung der interessierten Leserschaft – und nicht bloß der Internationalen Hörerschaft – sei dieses nun in englischer Sprache kurz dargestellt:

Background & Design

The students of the International Semester undergo a customised curriculum, drawing from the three concurrent semesters, i.e. the first, the third and the fifth one. On top of them other students may enrol just for the one-week event. This time two Italian lieutenants from Torino augmented the multinational audience, bringing the grand total to 13 participants from six nations.

The BME Course (Module O) proper is organised as a series of briefings, lectures, and activities with two teachers presenting their topics.
On top of that BME is to promote students’ writing and speaking skills. To this end students are to submit to the Language Office (Room# 303), an assignment specified hereinafter and make a presentation in class. Furthermore, for oral proficiency participants are to present their chosen topic of the news in the framework of the morning briefing (news up-date) in the TEGETTHOFF classroom with extensive linguistic feed-back and remedial grammar if need be.
The Course is based on the idea of total immersion, i.e. English only to be used during class. Grammar is only taught by way of remedial grammar as required by students.
The didactic concept focuses on Problem-based Learning (PBL).
The principal aims of implementing PBL are:

to integrate knowledge and skills from a range of multidisciplinary modules
to acquire knowledge through self-study
to teach students how to work in groups and manage group projects
to improve and develop the communication skills of the students
to develop the problem solving skills of the student
to encourage self-motivation, curiosity and thinking
...and finally to make learning more fun!

Purpose & Teaching Objectives

The purpose of the Course is dual and is reflected by the following objectives:

to enhance the military language skills of students, thereby enabling them to better perform in a military English environment and
to promote students’ reproductive (active) skills (speaking and writing) as well as their receptive (passive) skills (listening and reading).

Resource Staff

Two teachers, namely PAUSCHENWEIN and THULLER, will provide the students with technical and linguistic expertise.
A USMA Cadet, Daniel GASTON, will render native-speaker support.

Training Schedule

Following initial briefings on Monday, October 3rd, including an English Comprehension Placement Test, the Module proper was quite intense, totalling 30 hrs or 2 ECTS credit points. Below the Schedule:

Participation in the entire programme was mandatory! int’l Students by nation:

Topics and Assignments (Call for Papers)

You are to write a paper on one of the topics below, if need be, conduct relevant research, and submit a fair copy of three pages minimum in legible handwriting (400 words minimum). To this end the class senior is to collect the papers and hand them in at the Language Office (Room # 303) no later than by Thursday, 1600hrs. Co-operation with fellow students is encouraged, plagiarists, however, will be “court-martialled”, i.e. flunked!

Grading

Final grades are based upon the 4P principle, i.e. on

participation in class
paper and presentation on assigned topics
performance in the final test!

If you fail in one of the four P’s, you will be flunked altogether!

It deserves special mentioning that most of the students achieved an A grade. Anyway, all of them had a clear pass and received their well-deserved ECTS credits.

At the side-lines of the Module, the members of the faculty also indulged in extra-curricular activities. Participants and teachers stayed connected and always closed ranks, which was conducive for the learning atmosphere.

All participants understood that mistakes are the best opportunity of learning. That is why nobody was afraid of making mistakes. Otherwise they would have chosen the safest way of communication, which is silence.

It was decided that this momentum should be maintained and that nobody should rest on their laurels, but rather strive for continuous improvement of their language skills. To sum up, both teachers and students bent over backwards to make the Module an interesting and professionally rewarding event.

We will stay on the beaten track under the motto Never Change a Winning Module!

Epilog

Bleibt zu hoffen, dass die anfängliche Euphorie des Basic Military English nicht abflaut und zu Advanced Learners führt! Denn: Sprache ist nicht alles, aber ohne Sprache ist alles nichts!

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BASIC MILITARY ENGLISH

Common Module der EU - Basic Military English Module (BME)