The Foreign Language Program at ICLS
offers training and testing in over 85 languages at all proficiency
levels, in a range of class sizes, both on and off site. Although the
majority of our students are government officials, business
professionals, diplomats, and employees of international organizations,
we welcome all students who have a serious interest in learning and/or
being tested in a foreign language. ICLS offers a wide range of language
courses, including Familiarization Courses, Basic Courses, Advanced
Courses, Refresher Courses, and Conversion Courses. The curriculum of
these courses is based on the levels of the Interagency Language
Roundtable (ILR) scale. We also set up classes to meet the specific
needs of our students. Such classes include, but are not restricted to
courses in Presentation Skills, Negotiation Skills, Writing, Workplace
skills, etc.
ICLS fosters a strong student-centered
and communicative approach to teaching. We recognize and cater our
language instruction to the different language styles of our student
body. Focusing on the communicative needs of our students, we emphasize
active use of authentic language and view grammatical knowledge not as
an end in itself, but as a tool to convey and comprehend intended
meaning in the target language. Although we teach all four language
skills, developing proficiency in Speaking, Listening and Reading are
the goals of most of our students.
In our attempt to facilitate an
environment conducive to achieving communicative competence, we
emphasize each student’s learning process. Working from the premise that
students will successfully acquire new knowledge and language skills by
engaging in the target language, we encourage them to speak from the
very beginning of instruction and to actively form and try out new
language structures. While grounded in meaningful and context-based
interactions, the verbal exchanges between students and teachers are at
the same time controlled, ensuring that new structures are introduced
and recycled.
The ICLS teaching staff of over 250
individuals is a group of highly-trained and experienced native speakers
who have chosen teaching as their profession. Our teachers are our
greatest assets; many of them have taught at ICLS for over 10 years
Language Testing
Our testing service offers tests in a
wide range of foreign languages. The tests are conducted by qualified
testers and administrators. They take the FSI format and are designed to
measure Speaking, Listening, and/or Reading according to the ILR scale.
Individual Counseling
Our job as educators is to help
students in defining their language learning goals and to set out
realistic expectations with which they can work. At ICLS we will discuss
your language
needs before you start your training; we will give you an idea of how
long it will take you to reach your goals, based on the difficulty of
the language and the number of hours you have to devote to instruction.
Location
ICLS is conveniently located in the
heart of Washington, a few blocks away from the White House and within
walking distance of the McPherson Square and Farragut North subway
stations. Our custom-designed facility includes 37 tutorial and group
classrooms, student and faculty lounges, a conference room and
administrative offices. All of our classrooms and the 15-seat language
laboratory are fully equipped with the latest Internet ready computers.
ICLS invites individuals and
organizations needing foreign language instruction and testing to call
or visit our Center to discuss specific language goals. ICLS can tailor
instruction to
small groups or individuals and can arrange for training to be held
off-site at client offices. Whether training is conducted for 500 hours
or 30 hours, the ICLS mission is the same excellence in language
training!
