SLS Distance Learning Mentors

The Foreign Service Institute (FSI) is part of the U.S. Department of State and provides language training and testing to employees of the Department of State and other government agencies in more than seventy foreign languages. FSI's School of Language Studies (SLS) is responsible for the diverse and complex mission of language training for employees of the State Department and other U.S. Government agencies. SLS consists of approximately 450 technical and professional personnel. SLS is staffed by professionals in the field of foreign language teaching, culture, and applied linguistics. In addition to the full-time direct-hire staff, the School makes extensive use, through contract and other arrangements, of other professionals from outside the Foreign Service Institute. The Foreign Service Institute is actively seeking contractors to provide offsite distance learning mentoring. As part of its portfolio of courses, SLS offers Distance Language courses, which are conducted between language instructors (Distance Learning Mentors, hereafter referred to as "Mentors") in Washington, D.C. and students located at various posts around the world. Annual Distance Learning enrollments surpass 1000 students annually. Courses are 12-14 weeks in length and offered at a variety of target language proficiency levels. Students learn through online multimedia activities, supplemented by weekly meetings with a Mentor, wherein the student calls the Mentor at a pre-arranged time and receives guidance, progress evaluation and speaking practice. The role of the Mentor in a Distance Language course is to guide the student's study of the materials in the foreign language and continually monitor their progress. A typical Mentor working as a full-time distance learning Mentor will have approximately 25 students, though a Mentor may work with more or less than that number depending on the student enrollments for a given semester. SLS anticipates 5-20 offsite Mentors per semester, or 15-60 Mentors per option year, though the actual number will depend on the number of students enrolled. Contractors shall provide educated native or near-native speakers of the language(s) requested. Mentor candidates must be proficient in typical office software products, including Microsoft Outlook, Microsoft Word, Microsoft Excel, and Adobe Acrobat Reader. Mentor candidates must be proficient in using the Internet, and in using web-based technologies such as Internet browsers, web-based e-mail systems, web video chat and text chat programs, and social media websites such as YouTube.