More Competence in Foreign Languages Needed by Federal Personnel Working Overseas

Concern has been expressed as to whether the foreign language skills of U.S. personnel assigned abroad are less than needed to carry out U.S. interests effectively. Eight principal Federal agencies have positions abroad which require Americans with foreign language skills for programs in educational and cultural exchange, agricultural assistance, military sales, and the general conduct of foreign affairs. Exclusive of Peace Corps volunteers or domestic positions about 16,700 Federal overseas positions require a competency in at least one of over 45 foreign languages. During 1979, Federal agencies spent $30.2 million training 6,235 people in foreign languages. Another $7.4 million was spent training 4,560 Peace Corps volunteers and trainees overseas.

Foreign language competence among Federal employees has improved since the early 1970's, but improvements are still needed. Federal agencies' systems and procedures for defining foreign language skill requirements are inadequate or nonexistent. Most agencies that require a large number of people with language proficiency use general criteria to determine their actual needs. Agencies with lesser language skill requirements have no review procedures or criteria for identifying the language competency needed for overseas positions. In cases where employees did not have the language competency required for their jobs, supervisors said that low foreign language proficiency limited job performance. Factors reducing agencies' ability to meet the foreign language competency needs include the fact that language capability is only one of many qualifications needed by an employee and the potential for career advancement is based largely on elements other than language ability. Efforts to improve agencies' abilities to meet language needs are hindered because: preassignment planning is inadequate and agencies fail to assess alternatives to assigning personnel with less than required language skills; standard training periods at the Foreign Service Institute (FSI) do not always allow enough time for students to attain the required proficiency for their assigned positions; and language courses do not meet job-related needs of certain assignments.

Recommendations

Our recommendations from this work are listed below with a Contact for more information. Status will change from "In process" to "Open," "Closed - implemented," or "Closed - not implemented" based on our follow up work.

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