A statistical analysis of individual success after successful completion of Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center Training

Abstract

"The Defense Language Institute Foreign Language Center (DLIFLC) trains students in various foreign languages and dialects for the Department of Defense (DOD). The majority of students are firstterm enlistees in the basic program. This study uses classification trees and logistic regression to understand the military, academic and personal characteristics that influence first-term success after successfully completing DLIFLC training. Success was defined as completing a firstterm enlistment contract and maintenance of language proficiency. DLIFLC management was interested in the difference in success for individuals that graduated DLIFLC via the different training pipelines. Students graduate by completing the program as originally assigned, or by recycling, relanguaging or taking DLPT enhancement training multiple times and in multiple combinations due to various academic, administrative or other reasons. 63% of students graduated. Only 45% of those that graduated were successful post-DLIFLC. Results identified several factors influential in predicting success; the factors were service affiliation, contract lengths and gender. Training pipelines were slightly influential. Individuals in the Army had the worst odds of success. Contract lengths greater than four years had lower odds of success. Males had higher odds of success than females." p. i.