Abstract:

The level of English knowledge among Command Master students in “Carol I” National Defense University has constantly grown, reaching a stage that would have only been a distant aim, maybe even wishful thinking, 15, 10 or even 5 years ago. Taking an important step in their training for becoming valuable military leaders at a superior level also involves excellent linguistic competence in English. Upon starting the MA program, the officer’s level of English knowledge (on average) is from the start better than their predecessors’. There are fewer and fewer students who have not already been deployed several times on missions or exercises abroad, not to mention those who have worked in multi-national commands. The constraints of STANAG 6001 provisions, referring to the different levels of performance they need to reach at all the four skills, Reading, Speaking, Listening, Writing, and the connection between their English competence and the position, function or appointment they might get have made our students really keen on maintaining and constantly improving their level. That is why a need was felt for a change in English Language Teaching in the Command Master program, including the course objectives, the topics to be approached and the activities to be performed. Given the relatively small number of classes allotted to English, their main purpose has become practicing Speaking as students tend to consider this skill the hardest to “master” at superior level and the easiest to “lose” in the absence of constant practice. The conclusion reached after a complex group project generated by studying and exposing our subjects - the students - to the principles of cooperative learning and project-based learning was that this is probably the most appropriate teaching strategy in the current English classes within the military higher education system. The research methods used were mainly qualitative in nature, as we started up with empirical observation, we applied a feed-back survey and finally we made an analysis of the lessons learned from the respective activity. The purpose was to raise students’ awareness on their needs, empowering them to have a say in their own process of instruction. Thus, the present article is built around a project turned into a case study proving the shifting paradigm of language learning in the military context and a starting point for the future ELT approach in our MA program.

Keywords:

Military higher education, team-work, student-centeredness, English Language Teaching.