Contribution of Foreign Languages to Building the Professional Career of the Land Forces Academy Cadets

The new requirements regarding the professionalization of the Romanian armed forces derived from our country’s becoming a NATO and EU member state. The challenges of the 21^st century battlefield demand the development not only of certain soldierly skills, but also of the abilities to properly function in a multicultural context. The cadets of the military academies are the future officers that will operate in the international theatres of operations. Being engaged in multinational formations and having to work side by side with foreign military personnel, our cadets need to have a good command of the English language, as well as to acquire and develop the intercultural skills necessary to appropriately function in a multicultural environment. Thus, a shift in the curricula of the Romanian military academies has been made, from an emphasis on the transmission of knowledge content to a focus on relating language to the target culture and developing cadets’ linguistic and intercultural competences. This paper suggests some methods and techniques that have proven efficient when teaching basic military English in the Land Forces Academy.