PRESIDIO OF MONTEREY, Calif. -- Renovations and a rework of how students are introduced to the world of Cryptologic Language Analysists is underway at the Presidio of Monterey, and it is being led by two of its senior enlisted members.
“We are going to try and change the way that students approach learning,” said Staff Sgt. Brittany Baze, 314th Training Squadron curriculum support. “We are trying to give students the power to take control over their education.”
To find the best way to help the students, data from multiple sources was analyzed.
“There have been studies done, one study done by Defense Language Institute independently, and another one we did ourselves,” said Master Sgt. Steel, 517th Training Group command language manager. “These helped us narrow down the causes of students not passing the course. One being a lack of prior knowledge of geopolitical issues, which feed into this career field and give students context into why they are here. Another is learner autonomy; we want the students to find the best study method for themselves. Student motivation is the last key piece. If the student doesn’t know what they are doing or why they are here, they won’t be motivated in the classrooms.”
The class is geared toward getting new CLA students prepared and informed about their future career as linguists.
“This is where we are going to show students an introduction into what they are going to be doing here, and more importantly why they are here,” said Baze. “We give them an introduction to the area, what their classes are going to look like, and then DLI begins to teach them their language.”
The curriculum and the building are still under construction, but the team is making advances.
“We have done quite a lot of heavy lifting with the curriculum,” said Steel. “We have had subject matter experts come help, we have worked with the Air Force Academy, and experts in Academia.”
The class is open to all languages to help students acquire the tools they need to become the best linguists that they can be.