Arabic and Russian Language Online Training Courses for the United Nations Capacity Development ...

Arabic and Russian Language Online Training Courses for the United Nations Capacity Development and Operational Training Services BACKGROUND The United Nations Secretariat, in accordance with its learning and development strategy, encourages staff to learn one or more of the six official United Nations languages as part of their professional and personal development. In addition to learning opportunities provided in person, language learning is now supported remotely. Throughout the global Secretariat and the United Nations family, staff members require flexible learning solutions. To make language learning available for staff away from Headquarters and who may not be able to attend synchronous, tutor-led classes, the United Nations Capacity Development and Operational Training Services (CDOTS)/Language & Communications Training Unit (LCTU) is aiming to offer online language courses which can be accessed at any time, from home or work, wherever a suitable web connection is available. The proposed course of study should provide training and practice activities in multiple skill areas – listening, speaking, reading, writing, grammar, and vocabulary - and at multiple levels, i.e., from beginner to higher levels. The UN is looking for a product that would include opportunities for oral and written practice, have varied and contextualized communicative language activities that are authentic and appropriate in social and cultural settings. The program should have high-quality instruction and practice in work-related, professional skills. Ideally, this instruction will have options for written input, such as drafting emails, as well as real live audio, such as dialogue completion or oral description tasks. Objective This program of online learning should provide training that helps learners achieve their personal and professional goals in Arabic, Russian and increase their overall proficiency in a holistic way and at their own pace. The United Nations is seeking an experienced online language learning provider (for Russian and Arabic) that would offer participants a minimum of a 6-month self-paced license access to full courses at all proficiency levels hosted in learning platform and accessible 24 hours a day, 7 days a week, preferably with a flexible online tutoring option. The learning platform must be able to automatically place the students in their correct level through a placement test and allow administrators to automatically generate students’ “progress reports”.