At the 2011 TESOL Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana USA,ICIS was pleased to welcome professionals from the field of intercultural training to present at our Academic Session entitled “Intercultural Training in the U.S. Military: Implications for ESOL Educators.” The session presented interactive web tools and training workshops that have been developed for military use in multinational settings, and panelists discussed how elements of these materials could be used by EOSL instructors and learners.

Ruth Sasaki from Aperian Global introduced us to the GlobeSmart Commander and GlobeSmart Soldier online cultural training programs for soldiers in Afghanistan. Jenifer McCune from the Academic Consortium for Global Education presented ISLET―the Integrated System for Language Education and Training―for Navy personnel headed for Iraq. Martine Danan showed us activities from the intercultural workshop she developed at the Defense Language Institute for military Farsi students and their Iranian instructor. Finally, Esther Hay spoke about the British Council’s Peacekeeping English Project.

It was fascinating to learn from the experts that intercultural training is considered significant in the military context. Various materials that the panelists generously shared during the session were interesting and full of insights for EOSL instructors. Many activities introduced dealt with concrete critical incidents that soldiers might encounter in the target culture and they were well organized to teach effective strategies to cope with those critical moments that could be serious enough to the point of risking their lives. As ESOL educators, it’s not enough that we are aware of the importance of culture in language learning. We need to start developing materials and intercultural training tools for our learners to develop their intercultural communicative competence effectively in their context.