Foreign Services Department Learning Course

Foreign Services Department Learning Course is developed by the ( US ) Federal Government's primary training institution for officers and support personnel of the U.S. foreign affairs community.

Over the years, the department has researched, designed and taught language courses to Foreign Service staff and diplomats. These courses are now available and licensed to the Public Domain. Virtually all the foreign languages courses have been developed and are very effective for those who have zero knowledge of the new language.

These courses are structured with different graded modules with written scripts and audio material. The full length course can easily take 6 months to 1 year for a easy speaking of the language.

The language teaching method used in Foreign Services Department Learning Courses is known as ' Guided Imitation .'

It follows two main concepts:

Learning Concept 1: Over learning

The course uses the technique of over learning, which takes a small body of material, and thoroughly drills it, so that the concepts and dialogues taught are learned in a concentrated fashion. By concentrating on a small amount of material at any one time, this allows the student to 'over learn' it, allowing it to become thoroughly ingrained, before moving on to the next concept.

Following lessons the FSI Spanish course review the previously learned concepts by incorporating them.

Learning Concept 2: Guided Imitation of Sound and Patterns

The courses try to emphasize the learning of spoken conversational aspect- as it is really spoken in day-to-day usage. For this reason the recordings are not slowed down, making it initially a little difficult for the language learner, and requiring a degree of repetition before the ear tunes in to the spoken phrases.

The Foreign Services Department's philosophy in this methodology is that slowing down the speech constitutes a form of linguistic distortion.

The Foreign Services Department originally designed the courses to be studied under the tuition of a classroom teacher, so for the home-learner, some sessions with a native Spanish speaker as a teacher will be very beneficial.

The native speaker teacher used in the Foreign Services Department's actual classes ensures that the student's are hearing proper pronunciation.

The courses range from 25 – 125 units with 10 or so hours per unit , making the full length course to 250 hours to 1250 hours, designed to be studied over 6-12 months full time .