Requirements for Linguists in Government Agencies

Resource Information

The work Requirements for Linguists in Government Agencies represents a distinct intellectual or artistic creation found in Boston University Libraries. This resource is a combination of several types including: Work, Language Material, Books.

Label

Requirements for Linguists in Government Agencies

Contributor

• LIBRARY OF CONGRESS WASHINGTON DC CONGRESSIONAL RESEARCH SERVICE
• Kuenzi, Jeffrey J

Subject

• Counterterrorism
• Deficiencies
• Dialects
• Foreign languages
• Government and Political Science
• Government employees
• Graduates
• Human intelligence
• Interpreters
• Linguistics
• Linguistics
• Personnel Management and Labor Relations
• Proficiency
• Qualifications
• Remote areas
• Requirements
• Skills
• Tables(data)
• Translators
• United states government
• Universities

Language

eng

Summary

As part of the war on terrorism, it is widely recognized that the U.S. Government has a substantial and growing need for personnel with knowledge of foreign languages and especially languages that may be spoken in limited and remote areas of the world. In 2002, the Federal Government employed about a thousand translators and interpreters in four agencies responsible for security-related functions. These agencies also employ nearly 20,000 staff in positions that require some foreign-language proficiency. Yet there is a widespread consensus that requirements for foreign language qualified personnel are not currently being met. The report issued by the 9/11 Commission in July of 2004 makes several references to this deficiency and suggests corrective action to address it. Government agencies have addressed requirements for linguists in several different ways. Few observers believe, however, that they are adequate to what appears to be likely escalating requirements of coming years. In particular, greater human intelligence collection, widely advocated by intelligence specialists, creates a need for officials with near-perfect qualifications in local languages or dialects. Given growing requirements for skills in a wide variety of less commonly taught languages, federal agencies are increasingly turning to persons who have learned foreign languages at home. Foreign language instruction at U.S. academic institutions has tended to concentrate on a small number of languages, especially Spanish, French, other Romance languages. There are far too few graduates who have acquired language skills currently needed by federal agencies and fewer still whose skills enable them to interpret or engage in complex conversations. At the present time, a number of issues in regard to foreign language capabilities appear to be receiving congressional attention, particularly funding. This report addresses many of these issues and is intended as background only and will not be updated

Cataloging source

DTICE

Index

no index present

Literary form

non fiction