Lragir, Armenia
Feb 15 2008
U.S. OFFICE OF DEFENSE COOPERATION UPGRADES ENGLISH LANGUAGE
LABORATORY
U.S. Charge’ de Affaires, a.i. Joseph Pennington and Armenian Deputy
Minister of Defense Mikayel Harutiunian inaugurated the recently
upgraded language laboratory at the Aviation Institute in Yerevan on
Friday, February 15. The U.S. Embassy’s Office of Defense Cooperation
(ODC) provided the $93,000 upgrade which featured fifteen new desktop
computers. The new computers will enable Armenian military students
that use the English language laboratory to individually utilize
language learning software. Each student station is networked to the
instructor’s computer to provide flexibility for instruction. The
laboratory, which was originally set up by the U.S. contractor Dal
Media Solutions in 2006 and funded through ODC at a cost of $92,000,
is already equipped televisions, CD players, and DVD/VHS players to
help students learn English. Its purpose is to prepare Armenian
military personnel for study in U.S. military training facilities.
About twenty-five Armenian officers and sergeants attend military
courses each year in the U.S. though the ODC’s International Military
and Education (IMET) program. This same program, currently funded by
the U.S. State Department, is what also provided the funding to
upgrade the laboratory
The new lab upgrade will help fulfill the joint goal of the U.S. ODC
and the Armenian Ministry of Defense to centralize English language
instruction standards, and develop an intensive English language
course to support Armenian military personnel preparing for their
studies in the U.S. The ODC plans to provide an American English
language instructor later in the year to assist with instruction and
English course standards.
The U.S. Office of Defense Cooperation in Armenia works to foster
U.S. government and industry assistance in the Armenian defense
sphere. The U.S. ODC works for the U.S. Chief of Mission in Armenia
and the U.S. European Command, located in Stuttgart, Germany.
U.S EMBASSY TO ARMENIA