Language and Culture Training: Opportunities Exist to Improve Visibility and Sustainment of Knowledge and Skills in Army and Marine Corps General Purpose Forces.

GAO-12-50 October 31, 2011

The Department of Defense (DOD) has emphasized the importance of developing language skills and knowledge of foreign cultures to meet current and future needs and is investing millions of dollars to provide language and culture predeployment training to its general purpose forces. DOD has also noted that such training should be viewed as a long-term investment and that training and personnel systems should better account for the knowledge and skills of service members acquired through training to help manage its forces. The committee report accompanying a proposed bill for the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2011 (H.R. 5136) directed GAO to review language and culture training for Army and Marine Corps general purpose forces. For this report, GAO evaluated the extent to which these services (1) captured information in training and personnel systems on the completion of language and culture predeployment training and proficiency gained from training and (2) developed plans to sustain language skills acquired through predeployment training. GAO analyzed service documents and interviewed cognizant officials.

The Army and Marine Corps have documented some information at the unit level for service members who completed language and culture predeployment training, but the services have not fully captured information within service-level training and personnel systems on service members who completed training or their corresponding proficiency. DOD and service guidance require the services to document language and culture training completion and proficiency gained from training in service-level systems. However, GAO identified several factors that limited the services' ability to implement this guidance. For example, the Army's primary training system did not have data fields for all mandatory language and culture tasks and, as a result, units were unable to document the completion of this training. In addition, while the Army collects some language proficiency data within its primary personnel system, the Army considers these data unreliable because of weaknesses in its approach to collecting them. To improve the accuracy of information within this system, the Army established a task force in January 2011, which has identified a number of key tasks and is at varying stages of completing its work. The Marine Corps did not document language and culture predeployment training completion in any servicewide training or personnel system and a system has not been designated for this purpose. Further, the Marine Corps had not required marines who completed significant language training to take formal proficiency tests and, therefore, the service did not have language proficiency data for these marines. By not capturing information within service-level training and personnel systems on the training that general purpose forces have completed and the language proficiency gained from training, the Army and Marine Corps do not have the information they need to effectively leverage the language and culture knowledge and skills of these forces when making individual assignments and assessing future operational needs. The Army and Marine Corps have not developed plans to sustain language skills already acquired through predeployment training. The services have made considerable investments to provide some service members with extensive predeployment language training. For example, as of July 2011, over 800 soldiers have completed about 16 weeks of Afghan language training since 2010 at a cost of about $12 million. DOD and service guidance address the need to sustain language skills and the DOD strategic plan for language, regional, and culture skills calls for the services to build on existing language skills for future needs. However, we found that the services had not yet determined which service members require follow-on language training to sustain skills, the amount of training required, or appropriate mechanisms to deliver the training. Although informal follow-on training programs were available to sustain language skills, such as computer-based training, these programs were voluntary. In the absence of formal sustainment training programs to maintain and build upon service members' language skills, the Army and Marine Corps may miss opportunities to capitalize on the investments they have already made to provide predeployment language training for ongoing operations. GAO made recommendations intended to improve the availability of information on training completion and proficiency and help DOD plan for sustainment training. DOD generally agreed with the recommendations, but stated that the definition of significant language training was not intended to describe training for initial skills. However, DOD noted that current guidance does not preclude language proficiency testing at this stage.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

Director: Lisa R. Shames

Team: Government Accountability Office: Natural Resources and Environment

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Director: Alicia P. Cackley

Team: Government Accountability Office: Financial Markets and Community Investment

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Director: David J. Wise

Team: Government Accountability Office: Physical Infrastructure

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Director: Orice Williams Brown

Team: Government Accountability Office: Financial Markets and Community Investment

Phone: [phone]

Director: Steven J. Sebastian

Team: Government Accountability Office: Financial Management and Assurance

Phone: [phone]

Director: Susan Ragland

Team: Government Accountability Office: Financial Management and Assurance

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Director: Jeanette M. Franzel

Team: Government Accountability Office: Financial Management and Assurance

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Director: Valerie C. Melvin

Team: Government Accountability Office: Information Technology

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Director: William T. Woods

Team: Government Accountability Office: Acquisition and Sourcing Management

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Director: Debra A. Draper 

Team: Government Accountability Office: Health Care

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Director: Linda T. Kohn

Team: Government Accountability Office: Health Care

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Director: Carolyn L. Yocom

Team: Government Accountability Office: Natural Resources and Environment

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Director: Linda T. Kohn

Team: Government Accountability Office: Health Care

Phone: [phone]

Director: Gregory D. Kutz

Team: Government Accountability Office: Forensic Audits and Investigative Service

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Director: Marcia G. Crosse

Team: Government Accountability Office: Health Care

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Director: Randall B. Williamson

Team: Government Accountability Office: Health Care

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Director: Mark L. Goldstein 

Team: Government Accountability Office: Physical Infrastructure

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Director: Stephen L. Caldwell

Team: Government Accountability Office: Homeland Security and Justice

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Director: David C. Maurer

Team: Government Accountability Office: Homeland Security and Justice

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Director: Kay E. Brown

Team: Government Accountability Office: Education, Workforce, and Income Security

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Director: David A. Powner

Team: Government Accountability Office: Information Technology

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Director: Gregory C. Wilshusen

Team: Government Accountability Office: Information Technology

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Director: Charles M. Johnson Jr

Team: Government Accountability Office: International Affairs and Trade

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Director: Loren Yager

Team: Government Accountability Office: International Affairs and Trade

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Director: Thomas Melito

Team: Government Accountability Office: International Affairs and Trade

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Director: Cristina T. Chaplain 

Team: Government Accountability Office: Acquisition and Sourcing Management

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Director: Sharon L. Pickup 

Team: Government Accountability Office: Defense Capabilities and Management

Phone: [phone]

Recommendations for Executive Action

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Recommendation: To provide decision makers with greater visibility on the language and culture knowledge and skills of Army and Marine Corps general purpose forces that could inform force management processes, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to establish clearly defined data fields for all mandatory language and culture training tasks within the Digital Training Management System and update Digital Training Management System records for soldiers who completed training prior to these fields being established.

Agency Affected: Department of Defense

Status: In process

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

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Recommendation: To provide decision makers with greater visibility on the language and culture knowledge and skills of Army and Marine Corps general purpose forces that could inform force management processes, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army to document the language proficiency for soldiers completing predeployment language training within the Digital Training Management System and the Army Training Requirements and Resources System.

Agency Affected: Department of Defense

Status: In process

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

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Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy, in consultation with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, to designate which training and/or personnel systems the Marine Corps should use to document the completion of marines' language and culture training.

Agency Affected: Department of Defense

Status: In process

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

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Recommendation: The Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Navy, in consultation with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, to administer formal tests to marines completing a significant language training event using DOD's agreed-upon method to measure proficiency, and ensure the results of these tests are documented in marines' personnel records within the Marine Corps Total Force System.

Agency Affected: Department of Defense

Status: In process

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

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Recommendation: To capitalize on the investments in time and resources made in providing language training to service members, the Secretary of Defense should direct the Secretary of the Army and the Secretary of the Navy, in consultation with the Commandant of the Marine Corps, to determine which soldiers and marines with language skills require follow-on training, the amount of training required, and appropriate mechanisms for delivering the training, and make any adjustments to training programs that may be needed.

Agency Affected: Department of Defense: Department of the Navy

Status: In process

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Agency Affected: Department of Defense: Department of the Army

Status: In process

Comments: When we confirm what actions the agency has taken in response to this recommendation, we will provide updated information.

Categories: National Defense, Communication, Data collection, Defense capabilities, Documentation, Foreign languages, Human capital, Human capital planning, Knowledge, skills and abilities, Marine Corps training, Military forces, Military training, Performance measures, Training utilization