Advanced Linguist Course (ALC)

• ALC graduates enhance MARSOCs ability to work bilateral missions, counter insurgency operations, foreign internal defense, Irregular and Unconventional Warfare operations by communicating directly with partner nation forces.

• ALC graduates are able to communicate effectively with host nation personnel, in their trained languages, to enhance Theater Security Cooperation Plans (TSCPs) including: Humanitarian Assistance, Joint Combined Exercises for Training, Counter Terrorism, and Humanitarian Demining Operations to name a few.

• ALC graduates provide MARSOC with a military interpreter capability that can easily be integrated to enhance any MARSOF operation, thus decreasing the dependency of contracted support, while adding to the security of each mission.

U.S. Marine Corps Forces, Special Operations Command (MARSOC) was formally established on 24 February 2006.  It was charged with developing a variety of special operations capabilities and providing those capabilities to Commander, U.S. Special Operations Command.  MARSOC’s language program was established to provide MARSOC the necessary language capability in order to carry out a variety of missions that ultimately require working and communicating with indigenous host nation personnel to succeed in the ongoing and emerging populace-centric engagements.  Marine Special Operations School established the ALC on 1 June, 2009 with the mission to provide MARSOC a minimum of one linguist, a 2/2 (Speaking/Listening) language capability or better, to each Marine Special Operations Team by FY 12. 

MARSOC’s missions require Marines to communicate directly with foreign partners.  For this reason, speaking a foreign language is determined to be the key in building the personal and professional relationships necessary for access, support, and interoperability in order to improve MARSOC’s ability to interact directly with foreign counterparts and other members of the international community; therefore, the ALC focuses on the communicative approach to learning the language, thus concentrating on the spoken aspect of each language that ultimately determines success.

The ALC is divided into two separate tracks determined by the categories of languages taught.  The four categories of languages, determined by the Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center, range from the easiest languages for native English speakers to learn (e.g. CAT 1:  French, Spanish, Portuguese) to the more difficult to learn (e.g. CAT 4:  Arabic, Pashto, Chinese).  Training for Categories 1 and 2 languages is 36 weeks, while the Categories 3 and 4 languages are extended to 52 weeks.  Currently, the category 1 courses being taught consist of French and Brazilian Portuguese; category 3 and 4 consist of Arabic, Pashto, Urdu and Tagalog.  The ALC is comprised of five phases of training referred to as blocks, not unlike building blocks, that when stacked becomes dependent on each other for stability.

Block I:  16/24 weeks of classroom training with the purpose of providing a solid foundation of the target language. 

Block II:  Is a two week Iso-immersion conducted within the continental U.S. evaluating their skills while providing a higher degree of self-efficacy.

Block III:  Returns the students to the classroom for another 12/18 weeks expanding and improving their knowledge of the target language.

Block IV:  CENTCOM languages will have a two week intensive Language Final Exercise where the students interact daily in role-play scenarios targeting the skills that are needed to accomplish real-world missions; while the other languages (e.g. Tagalog, Brazilian Portuguese, French) will conduct Live Environment Training (LET) in their perspective countries.

Block V:  Consisting of the two remaining and final weeks of review and testing.

The ALC is a rigorous academic course; where students repeatedly demonstrate a strong determination, high intellect, serious commitment, and strong ethos that will serve any Marine Special Operations Team extremely well for years to come.  The ALC Marines provide MARSOC with the ability to be successful in any emerging missions requiring the need for interpersonal communication, developing rapport, and conducting bilateral missions with host nation forces.