For over two years, cooperation with the Ukrainian side has been a key part of the Language Centre’s international activities. This cooperation is coordinated with the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic and the NATO Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP).
The Language Centre (LC) is making a long-term and systematic effort to promote language education in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. Despite common misconceptions about the challenges posed by a war-torn country, the opposite is true: Ukraine has ample resources and capacity for military language training. The need to cooperate with countries that provide military support to Ukraine, to share intelligence information, to train military personnel to operate Western military equipment, and to develop the linguistic competence of soldiers, especially in English, is paramount.
In response to the expressed needs and preferences of the Ukrainian side, the LC, with the support of the NATO Defence Education Enhancement Programme (DEEP), is developing a series of activities that have the potential to contribute to the maintenance and development of the language training capability of the Ukrainian Armed Forces. The offer encompasses language courses for members of the Armed Forces, internships for Ukrainian teachers at LC sites, professional seminars and training for teachers and examiners, the sharing of learning and teaching materials, and joint conversational online discussion clubs for LC and Ukrainian language courses attendees. The implementation of these activities is achieved through physical visits by Ukrainian colleagues at the LC and, when deemed suitable, through video conferencing.
Many of the planned activities have been implemented so far. In 2024, these included two English language courses for Ukrainian officers: one to obtain Level 2 and one to obtain Level 3 in accordance with STANAG 6001. Furthermore, the LC facilitated teaching internships for six English language teachers from Ukraine. These teachers were provided with the opportunity to gain comprehensive insight into the system of MoD language courses, encompassing their planning, pre-testing, and, most notably, the organisational framework and implementation of teaching in these courses. Furthermore, the LC’s specialists in the domain of test materials development, adhering to the standards of STANAG 6001, played a pivotal role in the formulation and execution of the virtual seminar titled „Ask the Expert.“ This seminar was meticulously designed for the participants of the Ukrainian STANAG 6001 Testing Familiarization Course in November 2024.
In 2025, the LC also provided the Ukrainian side with a relatively large number of „American Language Course“ teaching and study materials, which are no longer used in the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic. In March 2025, a one-week workshop on quality assurance in language training in the Armed Forces was held for ten managers (heads of divisions and other language departments and language schools of the Ukrainian Armed Forces). The LC also organised a videoconference calibration seminar for Ukrainian teachers on the correct interpretation of NATO STANAG 6001 Level 2 and 3 descriptors.
A two-week workshop is expected to be held later this year, focusing on the development of test materials, process management related to STANAG 6001 pre-testing and testing, calibration of language exam raters and related issues. Further internships for Ukrainian English language teachers in LC departments and joint video-conferencing for students on Ukrainian English language courses and students on MoD language courses at LC, as well as students from the University of Defence, are being prepared.
