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Professionalisation and the STANAG

Professionalisation and the STANAG. – national requirements and NATO standards Allan Juhl Kristensen Royal Danish Naval Academy. Royal Danish Naval Academy. Aim. 1) show how increasing professionalisation requirements nationally challenge the STANAG as a testing and teaching standard

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Professionalisation and the STANAG

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  1. Professionalisation and the STANAG – national requirements and NATO standards Allan JuhlKristensen Royal Danish Naval Academy BILC Conference 2013

  2. Royal Danish Naval Academy BILC Conference 2013

  3. Aim 1) show how increasing professionalisation requirements nationally challenge the STANAG as a testing and teaching standard 2) explore question: is drive towards professionalisation creating a schism between English for clearly defined professional purposes i.e. maritime/naval English and the general proficiency measurements of the STANAG and the test’s backwash potential? BILC Conference 2013

  4. Professionalisation • 2006 Danish Government Globalisation Strategy: make country more competitive internationally • ‘To achieve this, all higher education study programmes must meet international quality and relevance standards, the European Standards and Guidelines (ESG).’ http://acedenmark.eu/accreditation/why-and-how.html BILC Conference 2013

  5. Professionalising the Danish Defence • Officer academiesaccredited 2011 • Naval Academy offers two prof. BAs: • NavalLeadership and Operations • NavalLeadership and Engineering BILC Conference 2013

  6. Accreditationrequirements • level, quality and relevanceaccording to Danish HE framework (Bologna quality assurance guidelines) • knowledge, skills and competencetaxonomy • knowledge, skills and competencederived from, orientedtowards and transferable to profession • coursecontentbasedon research, knowledge and practicewithinfield BILC Conference 2013

  7. Professionalising English • Standard Training Certification and Watchkeeping (STCW) conventions for shipmasters and marine engineers • Naval Leadership and Operations: course content developed with future commissions in mind: • squadron feedback forum • case-based, interdisciplinary scenarios • 1 + 2 = shift towards domain-specific English away from STANAG descriptors BILC Conference 2013

  8. Furtherprofessionalisationinitiatives 2012 Defencereview: • Revisedaccreditation model to make ‘useful the civilian education system and focusing training and education within the defenceon core military subjects” (Feb. 2013) BILC Conference 2013

  9. The future • Diploma in militaryleadership and strategy • Recruitcandidateswithbacherlor’sdegrees as well as able ratings • RDNA coursereduced from 58 to 28 months • 50% reduction in English provision • Deliver training/educationjust-in-time BILC Conference 2013

  10. Complying with accreditation requirements • ESP approach – curriculum and syllabi as close to and relevant to the profession as possible to achieve as high a degree of knowledge and skills transfer to enable competent performance onboard navy vessels and later on in staff roles  • Develop course content and materials based on existing job descriptions in collaboration with squadrons  • Interdisciplinary integration with e.g. navigation, naval warfare, leadership and international politics • English teachers as consultants in subjects where course materials are in English • Case- and task-based learning in which learning/teaching takes place in e.g. a simulator BILC Conference 2013

  11. Relevance of the STANAG? STANAG Prof. Bachelor/Diploma functionalability to performspecific, job-relatedtasks ‘measure specific uses of English language among identified groups of people, such as doctors, nurses…[naval officers]’ (Tratnik &Manent ) professional FL learners/users in multi-culturalsettings • “general” as well as professional English • measure English proficiency (non-military specific) of military personnel.’ (Tannenbaum & Baron) • educated, native speaker benchmark BILC Conference 2013

  12. ”Re-placing” the STANAG • narrowing ESP/professional focus of accreditation model means that STANAG is losing relevance as a tool for testing as well as for providing input into teaching and syllabi design • currently removing STANAG descriptors from revised course descriptions or editing them so they serve professional purposes only BILC Conference 2013

  13. Potential weaknesses • more heterogeneous intake may well lead to bigger differences in language proficiency • time to focus on core maritime/naval skills only • little time if any for “general” English/remedial work • inadequate English language provision BILC Conference 2013

  14. Officer of the competitionstate? • abandoning goal of well-rounded, well- educated officers • each individual becomes responsible for maintaining his/her market value as a human resource by acquiring the knowledge, skills, competencies needed to secure and remain in work • language providers deliver strictly professional English just in time in an education marketplace (running sushi model) BILC Conference 2013

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