Defense Language Institute The Defense Language Institute ( DLI ) is a United States Department of Defense ( DoD ) educational and research institution , which provides linguistic and cultural instruction to the Department of Defense , other Federal Agencies and numerous customers around the world . The Defense Language Institute is responsible for the Defense Language Program , and the bulk of the Defense Language Institute ' s activities involve educating DoD members in assigned languages , and international personnel in English . Other functions include planning , curriculum development , and research in second - language acquisition . Defense Language Institute Schools and Locations . Defense Language Institute English Language Center ( DLIELC ) . The DLIELC is a Department of Defense agency operated by the U . S . Air Force ' s 37th Training Wing , and is responsible for training international military and civilian personnel to speak and teach English . The agency also manages the English as a Second Language Program for the US military , and manages overseas English training programs . International students must be sponsored by an agency of the Department of Defense , and commonly include personnel from NATO member countries . Over 100 countries are represented among the student body at DLIELC at any given time . The main campus is currently located on the grounds of Joint Base San Antonio - Lackland Air Force Base , in San Antonio , Texas . A satellite campus is located at Fort Jackson , South Carolina . DLIELC acculturates and trains international personnel to communicate in English and to instruct English language programs in their country , trains United States military personnel in English as a second language , and deploys English Language Training programs around the world in support of the Defense Department . Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center ( DLIFLC ) . The DLIFLC at the Presidio of Monterey , California ( DLIFLC & POM ) is the DoD ' s primary foreign language school . Military service members study foreign languages at highly accelerated paces in courses ranging from 24 to 64 weeks in length . In October 2001 , the Institute received Federal degree - granting authority to issue Associate of Arts in Foreign Language degrees to qualified graduates of all basic programs . Although the property is under the jurisdiction of the United States Army , there are U . S . Navy , U . S . Marine Corps , and U . S . Air Force presences on post , and all four branches provide students and instructors . Members of other Federal agencies and military services of other countries may also receive training , and members of other law enforcement agencies may receive Spanish language training . , over 40 languages are taught at the DLIFLC including Afrikaans in Washington , DC and the following in Monterey : Modern Standard Arabic , Iraqi Arabic , Chinese ( Mandarin ) , Dari , French , German , Greek , Hebrew , Hindi , Indonesian , Italian , Japanese , Korean , Kurmanji , Pashto , Persian , Portuguese , Russian , Sorani Kurdish , Serbo - Croatian , Spanish , Tagalog , Thai , Turkish , Urdu , and Uzbek . DLI - Washington . The DLIFLC also maintains the DLI - Washington office in the Washington , D . C . area . The Washington office provides training in languages not taught at the Presidio of Monterey , such as " low - density languages " which do not require the same large volume of trained personnel . There is some overlap , however , as students from the Defense Attaché System ( DAS ) are given local training in languages also available at the Monterey location . Training is carried out at the Foreign Service Institute ( FSI ) of the United States Department of State and by five commercial private - sector foreign language schools in the metropolitan Washington , DC area . History . The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center ( DLIFLC ) traces its roots to the eve of America ’ s entry into World War II , when the U . S . Army established a secret school at the Presidio of San Francisco to teach the Japanese language . Classes began 1 November 1941 , with four instructors and 60 students in an abandoned airplane hangar at Crissy Field . The students were primarily second generation Japanese Americans ( Nisei ) from the West Coast , who had learned Japanese from their first - generation parents but were educated in the US and whose Japanese was somewhat limited , the " Kibei , " Japanese - Americans who had been educated in Japan and spoke Japanese like the Japanese themselves , along with two Caucasian students , the only US military personnel who had any useful command of the Japanese language at the beginning of WWII . Nisei Hall , along with several other buildings , is named in honor of these earliest students , who are honored in the Institute ’ s Yankee Samurai exhibit . During the war , the Military Intelligence Service Language School ( MISLS ) , as it came to be called , grew dramatically . When Japanese - Americans on the West Coast were moved into internment camps in 1942 , the school moved to temporary quarters at Camp Savage , Minnesota . By 1944 the school had outgrown these facilities and moved to nearby Fort Snelling . More than 6 , 000 graduates served throughout the Pacific Theater during the war and the subsequent occupation of Japan . In 1946 the school moved to the Presidio of Monterey , the renamed Army Language School expanded rapidly in 1947 – 48 during the Cold War . Instructors , including native speakers of more than thirty languages and dialects , were recruited from all over the world . Russian became the largest language program , followed by Chinese , Korean , and German . The Defense Language Institute English Language Center ( DLIELC ) traces its formal beginning to May 1954 , when the 3746th Pre - Flight Training Squadron ( language ) was activated and assumed responsibility for all English language training . In 1960 , the Language School , USAF , activated and assumed the mission . In 1966 , the DoD established the Defense Language Institute English Language School ( DLIELS ) and placed it under US Army control although the school remained at Lackland AFB . In 1976 , the DoD appointed the US Air Force as the executive agent for the school and redesignated it the Defense Language Institute English Language Center . Cold War language instruction . The U . S . Air Force met most of its foreign language training requirements in the 1950s through contract programs at universities such as Yale , Cornell , Indiana , and Syracuse and the U . S . Navy taught foreign languages at the Naval Intelligence School in Washington , D . C . , but in 1963 these programs were consolidated into the Defense Foreign Language Program . A new headquarters , the Defense Language Institute ( DLI ) , was established in Washington , D . C . , and the former Army Language School commandant , Colonel James L . Collins , Jr . , became the Institute ’ s first director . The Army Language School became the DLI West Coast Branch , and the foreign language department at the Naval Intelligence School became the DLI East Coast Branch . The contract programs were gradually phased out . The DLI also took over the English Language School at Lackland Air Force Base , Texas , which became the DLI English Language Center ( DLIELC ) . During the peak of American involvement in Vietnam ( 1965 – 73 ) , the DLI stepped up the pace of language training . While regular language training continued unabated , more than 20 , 000 service personnel studied Vietnamese through the DLI ’ s programs , many taking a special eight - week military adviser “ survival ” course . From 1966 to 1973 , the institute also operated a Vietnamese branch using contract instructors at Biggs Air Force Base near Fort Bliss , Texas ( DLI Support Command , later renamed the DLI Southwest Branch ) . Vietnamese instruction continued at DLI until 2004 . Consolidation . In the 1970s the institute ’ s headquarters and all resident language training were consolidated at the West Coast Branch and renamed the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center ( DLIFLC ) . In 1973 , the newly formed U . S . Army Training and Doctrine Command ( TRADOC ) assumed administrative control , and in 1976 , all English language training operations were returned to the U . S . Air Force , which operates DLIELC to this day . The DLIFLC won academic accreditation in 1979 from the Western Association of Schools and Colleges , and in 1981 the position of academic dean ( later called provost ) was reestablished . In the early 1980s , crowding and living conditions at the Monterey location forced the Institute to open two temporary branches : a branch for air force enlisted students of Russian at Lackland Air Force Base , Texas ( 1981 – 1987 ) , and another for army enlisted students of German , Korean , Russian and Spanish at the Presidio of San Francisco ( 1982 – 1988 ) . As a result of these conditions , the institute began an extensive facilities expansion program on the Presidio . Base Realignment and Consolidation and annexation . In the spring of 1993 , the Base Realignment and Closure ( BRAC ) Commission rejected suggestions that the institute be moved or closed , and recommended that its mission be continued at the present location . In summer of 2005 , the commission reopened the issue , to include the closure of the Naval Postgraduate School . Supporters of the closure believed that due to the rising property values and cost of living in the Monterey Bay area , taxpayers would save money by moving both schools to a less expensive location in Ohio . Opponents argued that it would be difficult ( if not impossible ) to replace the experienced native - speaking faculty at DLI , as the cultural centers of San Francisco and California ' s Central Coast offer a more diverse pool from which to recruit local instructors , and that the military intelligence community would suffer as a result . The BRAC commission met in Monterey on 8 August 2005 , to hear arguments from both sides . On 25 August 2005 , the commission ' s final vote was unanimous to keep DLI at its current location in Monterey . The European Languages School is partially located at the former Larkin Elementary School , adjacent to the Presidio . After a short stay by the Charter International School through to March 2005 , it was leased to the U . S . Army for 5 years . In February 2006 it reopened as an annex to DLI due to constantly increasing demand for advanced foreign language training to support the Global War on Terror . Today ' s DLIELC . The commandant of DLIELC is an air force colonel ; the deputy commandant is an army lieutenant colonel ; the operations squadron commander / commandant of troops is an air force lieutenant colonel . Other military members consist of army , air force and navy personnel . The over 300 civilian members of the staff include the instructors who are qualified in the area of English as a second language . DLIELC is accredited by the Commission on English Language Program Accreditation which is certified by the US Department of Education . DLIELC is divided into three resident academic training sections : General English , Specialized English and Instructor Development . Depending on the needs of the students , training can range from nine weeks ( in Specialized English , for example ) to 52 weeks in General English . Some students arrive with only minimum English capabilities , then train to a predetermined English comprehension level ( ECL ) in General English . Some who have been programmed for follow - on training ( FOT ) within the continental United States attend Specialized English Training after achieving their required ECL either in country or in the DLIELC resident General English program . In the Specialized English program , students are given a course to familiarize them with the technical terminology and specific language skills they will need at their FOT . In the Instructor Development program , students are trained to become English language instructors or program managers in their respective countries . Annually , students from over 100 countries enroll in the DLIELC resident training programs . Training is paid by the host country ( Foreign Military Sales ) or through US grant assistance programs such as International Military Education and Training Programs . In addition to DLIELC ’ s mission to train international students , DLIELC is responsible for providing English language training to US military service members whose primary language is not English . The DLIELC campus , located on the southwest quadrant of Lackland AFB , provides facilities and equipment that are conducive to effective learning . Students reside in comfortable , modern lodging , which is within walking distance of their state - of - the - art classrooms . A typical class day consists of six hours of instruction ; some of which may be spent in a computer - based language laboratory . All students have access to a learning center , which has a variety of multimedia software and includes a library . Students can bridge cultural barriers by participating in sports events with each other and with US students . They can also take advantage of tours offered by DLIELC ’ s Field Studies Program . In addition , the DLIELC international student sponsor program , called AMIGO , which stands for American Members of International Goodwill to Others , provides interaction with volunteer sponsors from both the US military and the local community . Since attendance at DLIELC is frequently the international students ’ first contact with Americans , the AMIGO program often provides the international students with a much needed opportunity to better understand the American way of life and enables the students to learn about the diversity of American culture and customs . Hall of Fame . During DLIFLC ' s 65th anniversary celebration in November 2006 , DLIFLC named the first ten individuals inducted into the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Hall of Fame . DLIFLC receives nominations for new Hall of Fame members each May . Inductees to the DLIFLC Hall of Fame : References . Cameron Binkley , " A Pictorial History of the Defense Language Institute " ( US Army , 2011 ) .