Socio-Cultural Context of Operations: Culture and Foreign Language Learning for Company-Grade Officers.

摘要

The purpose of this study was to identify the sociocultural aspects of mission performance for company-grade officers and to identify a core set of learning objectives for the precommissioning phase of the Basic Officer Leader Course (BOLC-A). To determine what officers need to be able to do with regard to the sociocultural context of operations, data collections at several different installations were conducted about the nature, extent, and importance of officers' encounters with foreign cultures on deployment. Results informed the development of a draft cultural competency framework describing what officers do, or should do, to perform their missions effectively in an unfamiliar culture. Additional analyses based on these data collections as well as other Army doctrine resulted in updated Army Culture and Foreign Language Strategy (ACFLS) learning objectives for junior officers. Findings can be used to improve program planning for training and development initiatives, determine the extent to which the goals of the ACFLS are being met, and identify further training gaps. This research may also provide a useful method to follow in revising culture and foreign language learning objectives for other career stages and cohorts.