ABSTRACT
The post-cold war era of international affairs has seen the United States take military actions in concert with its allies abroad. U.S. soldiers and leaders must be able to communicate with their friends as well as with their foes. Military personnel who need foreign language skills are usually formally schooled in a classroom setting, such as the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, and then proceed to advanced militaryspecific training that may cover such tasks as how to gather intelligence information. Often this advanced training does not include any further language training, and it is up to the soldiers to maintain their language skills during their off-duty hours. Most training installations provide a language lab for self-study for these purposes. Nevertheless, it has been found that soldiers' language skills, particularly productive skills, decay rapidly during this advanced training period (Jackson, 1994; Lett & O'Mara, 1990).
