DLS has been providing language training to US Government personnel, corporate clients and private individuals since 1985. We offer training in over 85 languages and dialects.

Training is provided at our headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, or at our facility in Hanover, Maryland. Instructors can also be sent to locations around the U.S. for specialized training programs. DLS has expertise in Mobile Training Team support for our military clients.

The basic methodological approach at DLS is proficiency-based training oriented to developing functional proficiency in the target language. This type of training teaches you to apply the language in real situations, and prepares you to work effectively in the language.

Proficiency-based training emphasizes speaking, reading, and listening as well as writing in the target language. Course emphasis may be tailored to one or another skill area to better meet student requirements.

Grammar is seen as an important component of communicative competence, and is taught in the context of communication, with exercises focusing on both accuracy and fluency in the language. In this way, there is a link between grammatical form and communicative function. Fluency is achieved through motivating exercises and role-plays.

Throughout your course, you have the opportunity to personalize the language you learn, to make use of your own lexical knowledge, and to express your own ideas and opinions. Information-sharing activities allow for a maximum amount of student-generated communication.

As a matter of school policy, our native speaker instructors are flexible in their approach, and responsive to student learning style and pace. While following prescribed teaching methodology, they are encouraged to use imaginative exercises and approaches to help you internalize materials and put them into real life practice.

Proficiency-based training employs a variety of learning modes. Different kinds of learning activities are used in training. Teachers are responsible for presenting and modeling new learning items; however, during conversational practice and role-playing, the teacher's role is either conversational partner or facilitator.

Effective proficiency-based training is carefully organized and sequenced, conducted at a comfortable pace, and employs a variety of enjoyable learning tasks. In proficiency-based training you are taught regularly to understand language that is at a higher level than you can produce, which prepares you for the transition from the classroom to the real world.

Cultural Training

DLS regards cultural training to be an intrinsic part of all language training and makes it an important part of our language programs. In addition, DLS often provides dedicated cultural training to agencies and individuals who need a cultural familiarization program. These are often provided at short notice. DLS has prepared Dari, Kurdish, Indonesian, Pashto, Farsi and Arabic cultural familiarization programs for the Defense Language Institute (DLI) and other Department of Defense organizations.  DLS also provided subject-matter experts and voice-over support to VoxTec Int'l in the development of their successful "Phraselator"  field translator.

Immersion Programs

Foreign Language Immersion Programs have become an essential part of the foreign-language learning process.  Whether the students are "immersed" early on or later in their language career, their fluency, vocabulary and listening skills, not to mention their confidence in using the new language, improve exponentially. 

DLS is pleased to offer 2-week Immersion Programs within the United States for a minimum of 4 students (Iso-Immersion).  Teachers and students will live in appropriate and comfortable housing, and students will get first-hand experience of the respective country's food, culture, and way of life. Only the target language will be spoken throughout the Immersion Program.

Extracurricular activities (to be arranged before the start of any program) can include:

♦ Visits to organizations that represent business, social, and government interests of the target-language country
♦ Lectures by guest speakers
♦ Movies and TV shows
♦ Art exhibits
♦ Restaurant visits
♦ Cooking lessons
♦ Dance classes
♦ Poetry/literature readings
♦ And many more.

For 2 weeks, students and teachers will experience life in the cultural and language setting of the country of their choice.