ARMENPRESS
U.S. OFFICE OF DEFENSE COOPERATION UPGRADES ENGLISH LANGUAGE LABORATORY
YEREVAN, FEBRUARY 15, ARMENPRESS: U.S. Charge’ de Affaires,
a.i. Joseph Pennington and Armenian Deputy Minister of Defense Mikael
Harutyunian 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 desk-top computers.
A press release by the U.S. embassy said 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 with 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.