Land Forces Academy Research Articles

Military English language education: a scoping review of 30 years of research

ABSTRACT Purpose This scoping review investigates research on Military English (ME) language and teaching over the past three decades. Despite the growing need for English proficiency among military personnel due to increases in international joint operations [Niculescu, B.-O., G. Obilişteanu, and I. A. Dragomir. 2019. “Contribution of Foreign Languages to Building the Professional Career of the Land Forces Academy Cadets.” Land Forces Academy Review 24 (3): 213–219], ME as a field of study lacks comprehensive research. The features and patterns of ME and effective approaches towards ME language instruction remain insufficiently explored. Methodology The study employs a scoping review approach [Arksey, H., and L. O’Malley. 2005. “Scoping Studies: Towards a Methodological Framework.” International Journal of Social Research Methodology 8 (1): 19–32] to map the current state of ME research, including language features, themes, and pedagogical approaches. The study initially identified 1778 articles across major databases. This initial data set was then examined and narrowed down to 34 articles based on the inclusion criteria. Findings and Originality The findings indicate a diverse range of research themes and learner background within ME education, including motivation, needs analysis, and the description of Military English itself. The research also highlights the distinct domain of ME and the necessity of efficient, relevant, and tailored language instruction to meet the practical ME needs of learners. It also points out the limited number of studies that adequately evaluate the effectiveness of various teaching approaches. The study emphasizes the importance of alignment among the various stakeholders and calls for more rigorous research in the field.

Game-Based Learning in Modern Military Education: Digital Wargaming as a Tool for Tactical Training

Abstract This study examines the effectiveness of digital game-based scenarios and wargaming in developing tactical skills and decision-making abilities among military cadets. Utilizing the ARMA 3 game, three tactical scenarios—offensive, defensive, and stability and support operations—were tested. The study involved cadets from “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy (NBLFA) Sibiu, selected for their interest in gaming, familiarity with ARMA 3, and knowledge of military tactics. The results showed multiple advantages of using game-based scenarios in military training. The immersive environment provided by ARMA 3 enabled cadets to simulate realistic combat situations, enhancing their involvement and enthusiasm, leading to better knowledge absorption and skills development. Wargaming offered a safe learning environment, eliminating the risks of real exercises while allowing cadets to experience specific events and incidents. In the offensive mission, cadets faced challenges due to incomplete map analysis, highlighting the need to complement map analysis with real terrain reconnaissance. The defensive scenario underscored the importance of flexibility and adaptability of the combat forces’ disposition. In the stability and support scenario, cadets effectively managed civilian-military interactions, demonstrating the potential of digital games to develop broader competencies in multicultural communication and negotiation. The study concludes that digital game-based scenarios effectively prepare leaders for contemporary conflicts marked by conventional or hybrid threats. It recommends implementing a specific wargaming discipline in the military higher education curriculum and extending this approach to Land Forces units for continuous professional development.

Integrating Students with Disabilities at the “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy of Sibiu

Abstract In 2010 Romania ratified the provisions stipulated in the Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities. Various studies have highlighted the lack of opportunities, in almost all the domains of social life, for those that struggle with physical or cognitive disabilities, despite the fact that with adjustments, which sometimes require minor investments or just a change of mentality, they could become valuable resources for society. Our paper focuses on the manner in which the education of the students with disabilities can be facilitated at the “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy. Even though at present, in Romania, the military recruitment criteria do not permit the admission of students with disabilities for various reasons of security, numerous modalities can be found to integrate and to employ them, especially due to the endowment of the Academy and to the rapid advancement of technology.

Unpacking the Perception of Gender Roles in the Military

Abstract The paper presents the main results of an exploratory research conducted in 2022 within an Erasmus+ international project, entitled “Military Gender Studies”. The aim of the investigation was to identify military students’ perceptions, thoughts, behaviors, and expectations concerning several peculiarities of gender issues in the daily life of the military organization: gender balance, gender differences, equality, equity, and discrimination. The respondents – Land Forces Academy students – were also asked about the opportunity/necessity to insert aspects related to gender perspectives into the academic curriculum. The structured interview method was used for data collection, which subsequently informed the qualitative data analysis. The findings presented synthetically could guide a future gender education approach, addressed to both male and female cadets and aimed at providing important tools for promoting the gender perspective in the military.

The role of personality traits in mediating the relation between fear of negative evaluation and social interaction anxiety.

Social interaction anxiety and fear of negative evaluation have many maladaptive outcomes and, in order to counteract their effects, it is essential to identify those psychological or social factors that make people vulnerable to them. One of these factors is the individual's personality structure: some personality traits increase the individuals' vulnerability to symptoms of social anxiety, while others protect them. The aim of this paper is to analyse the role of HEXACO personality traits in mediating the relationship between fear of negative evaluation and social anxiety, in a sample of 352 cadets from the Land Forces Academy of Sibiu. The relationships between these concepts were analysed using structural equation modeling (SEM) in several hypothetical models, two of which were ultimately validated. In the first model, the fear of negative evaluation has an indirect effect on social interaction anxiety through the mediation of extraversion, conscientiousness, and altruism, separately. Furthermore, extraversion, conscientiousness, and altruism play a serial mediating role in the association between the fear of negative evaluation and social interaction anxiety. In the second model, the fear of negative evaluation has an indirect effect on social interaction anxiety through the mediation of social boldness, liveliness, and organization, separately, but not through altruism. Social boldness, liveliness, and organization played a serial mediating role in the relationship between the two constructs, while altruism moderated the relationship between liveliness, organization, and social interaction anxiety. Analysing the relationship between the individuals' personality traits, social anxiety, and fear of negative evaluation facilitated the identification of ways to cultivate desirable behaviours in social environments typified by compliance, discipline, uniformity, and rigor.

Conscious or Indifferent - Concerns on Digitalization and Sustainability of the Military Higher Education Institution

Abstract University sustainability is a topical concept, which tries through complex approaches regarding the integration of the valences of the economic - social - environment, to create a new strategic model of adapting the organization to the environment and to a context characterized by change, dynamism, and innovation. Achieving sustainability at university level involves identifying methods and tools to underpin development strategies and through which the objectives specific to the functioning of each organization can be achieved. In an era marked by the intensification of the use of technology and digitalization of systems and processes used at the organization level, the question arises about the opportunity of digitizing them as a prospect of achieving sustainability at the organization level. Starting from this reality, the present paper aims to identify the extent to which at the level of a military university the valences of sustainability are known and harnessed in the processes taking place at its level. In this regard, a quantitative analysis was conducted, based on the completion of a questionnaire, which aimed to assess the perception of students who are studying at the bachelor programs organized at “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy in Sibiu, regarding sustainability and digitalization at the level of the organization.

Gender Perspectives in the Military Academic Environment

Abstract This paper is the result of the Military Gender Studies project. The aim of the project is to analyze the dynamics of gender perspectives in some military institutions in Europe, namely the Military Academy, Lisbon, Portugal, the University of Turin, Italy, “Vasil Levski” National Military University, Veliko Tarnovo, Bulgaria and “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy of Sibiu. The project started with the application of a questionnaire to military students and this paper will present part of the results obtained only in “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy of Sibiu, after analyzing the discrimination dimension.

Preface

The ICEMS-BIOMED conference (https://icems-biomed.emcsb.ro/) was conceived as an biennial itinerant one, which - at the first edition, was organized by a consortium of three prestigious academic institutions from Romania, which share the same values, goals and scientific concerns: Technical University of Cluj-Napoca, “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy of Sibiu and “Ştefan cel Mare” University of Suceava.The first edition was hosted by the “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy of Sibiu, Romania, in May 2022, and the next editions will be organized in Cluj-Napoca, Romania, (2024) and Suceava, Romania (2026).List of Steering Committee, Conference Co-Chairs, Scientific and Reviewers Committee, Organizing Committee, Local Organizing Committee of “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, Romania, Sponsors Acknowledgements, Editors of The Proceedings Volume are available in this pdf.

Peer Review Statement

All papers published in this volume have been reviewed through processes administered by the Editors. Reviews were conducted by expert referees to the professional and scientific standards expected of a proceedings journal published by IOP Publishing.1. Type of peer review: Double anonymous2. Conference submission management system: Morressier3. Number of submissions received: 514. Number of submissions sent for review: 485. Number of submissions accepted: 426. Acceptance Rate (Submissions Accepted / Submissions Received × 100): 82.3 %7. Average number of reviews per paper: 2.088. Total number of reviewers involved: 349. Contact person for queries:Name: Simona MiclausAffiliation: “Nicolae Balcescu” Land Forces Academy, Sibiu, RomaniaEmail: miclaus@armyacademy.ro

Considerations Regarding the Organization and Development of Night Tactical Training at the “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy

Abstract The present study aims to demonstrate the thesis that, in a future conflict, in which there is predominantly a wide range of military missions, it is necessary to study the military actions that can be carried out at night, and presents the directions of action for the efficient equipping and training of the military students from the “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy for the successful management of these types of operations.

Study on the Students’ Aptitude and Openness for the use of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Technologies in Education and Instruction

Abstract This paper is designed to quantitatively measure the level of aptitude and availability of the students from the “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy in Sibiu for the use of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technologies as teaching tools in the process of education and instruction. The paper is a first stage of a broader research topic, the results of which will be addressed to both teachers and researchers, as well as students and other categories of trainees. The introductory part of the paper analyses the importance of VR and AR technologies as learning environments for the military education system in particular and the advantages of using them for the cadets’ combat training. Also, the main characteristics of the three types of reality, environmental, virtual and augmented, are highlighted, which allow a better understanding of the structure and operation of AR and VR. The research methodology was then developed, establishing a survey by applying a questionnaire on a sample of 300 students from the academy and then processing and interpreting the results obtained. The conclusions of the paper show the general predisposition of students to understand and use the two technologies both as tools of learning in didactic teaching and as instruments of improving the skills of fighters in modelling and simulating military actions.

Considerations Regarding the Possibility of Implementing a Model for the Evaluation of the Level of Cadets’ Physical Training

Abstract The analysis of military conflicts in the latter part of the twentieth century has led to a revision of ideas about the concept of physical training in modern armies in Europe and America. The dimensions of the scientific and technical revolution show that the power of military imposition depends on the intensive technologies of knowledge, and physical training has been redefined as an urgent need in the training of the military and placed in its proper place. Not only is it no longer neglected, but, as if more than ever, from the data provided by foreign military literature, it is clear that the training of the fighter begins and ends with physical exercises. Military specialists say that in increasing combat capability, physical condition comes immediately after the technical and tactical experience in terms of importance, representing 20-30 % of the time allocated to training for combat. This orientation includes the theory of the training practice of future students in the Land Forces Academy, the assessment of the level of physical training being an essential objective in the training system.

Supporting Cadets to Develop Their English Reading Skills during the Covid-19 Pandemic at the “Nicolae Balcescu” Land Forces Academy of Sibiu

The paper analyses the manner in which the developing of reading skills of the second year military students of the “Nicolae Balcescu” Land Forces Academy was done during the second semester of the academic year 2019-2020, when the COVID-19 Pandemic was declared and the cadets had to leave the Academy. We consider that English Language course taught during the second semester, a course meant to help students hone their reading skills and to acquire basic military vocabulary was a success. The Academy provided the laptops, the high quality platform and online support necessary for the online courses. There were also certain qualities of the cadets that played an important role in the very good results they obtained at the end of the online English Language course: their age, their discipline, the good command of technical skills and particularly their motivation; all of them being aware that “since the end of the Cold War, foreign language training—especially the learning of English, the de facto operational language―has become increasingly important within armed forces. This is especially the case at NATO due to an ever-increasing number of peace-support operations, on the one hand, and the Alliance's enlargement and partnership activities, on the other. Language skills—in both Allied and Partner countries—are primarily a national responsibility. However, language training must be of concern to NATO as a whole since linguistic interoperability is as important to ensuring that countries are able to participate effectively in both NATO missions and wider Alliance activities as any other form of interoperability”. [1]

Psychometric Properties and Factor Structure of the Satisfaction with Life Scale in a Military Students Sample

Abstract The purpose of this paper is to present the results of a study that examined the factorial structure of Satisfaction with Life Scale – SWLS through confirmatory factor analysis and to analyze its psychometric properties in a 124 students sample from Land Forces Academy from Sibiu. The fit indices support the validity of the single factor structure of SWLS. The internal consistency of the SWLS was. 75. This scale can be considered a useful tool in measuring the level of life satisfaction in a military student environment.

Improving Leadership Qualities during Foreign Language Classes

Abstract Numerous specialists agree with the fact that learning at least one other foreign language brings a multitude of advantages both to the individual who makes the effort to learn it, but also to the society he or she is part of. At the “Nicolae Bălcescu” Land Forces Academy, cadets learn about leadership not only from the specialized courses like Fundamentals of Leadership or Military Leaderships, but they can find opportunities to improve their leading skills and qualities during the foreign language classes. The article focuses on some of the most important qualities of a leader and offers suggestions on how these could be developed during the English, French or German classes. We believe that the foreign language courses will help students develop much needed leadership traits like adaptability, flexibility, open mindedness, the capacities of being good team players, good listeners and good communicators. These are qualities without which they will have a very hard time functioning not only in an international environment but also in a national one. As teachers we have to understand that it is more than vocabulary and grammar that we help our students learn, we also help them to learn about life, about being leaders of others.

English – Its Place and Use as a Medium of Instruction at the Land Forces Academy of Sibiu

Abstract The process of European and international integration has led to an increase of the English language use, turning it into the main means of communication at a global level. Thus, having a good command of the English language has become a necessity for every person, being a student’s first option. It is a priority both for the military personnel and undergraduates. In this context, the curricula of the military higher education have included English as a foreign language (EFL) as a compulsory discipline. In addition to this, it has gained in importance with the introduction of an international semester for the cadets attending the Military Leadership program of study, where all the subjects are taught in English. The main issue in using English as a medium of instruction in the teaching of particular subject matters is that this must be done in a correct manner so that it does not result in failure in the educational process. This paper points to the way English is used in the Land Forces Academy and offers some guidelines for specialists in producing their own teaching materials. Some examples are provided from teaching English for specific purposes, in our case military basic English.

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

Abstract 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 21st 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.

Predispoziția spre structurare obsesiv-compulsivă la militari

The main objective of this paper is to identify the combined effect of the training in the millitary (self-perceived), parental relations (self-perceived) and attachment style on soldier’s obsessive-compulsive personality structure. The secondary objectives are to find the relation between each independent variable – training in the millitary (self-perceived), parental relations (self-perceived) and attachment style – and obsessive-compulsive personality structure. The participants were 82 male officers and 12 female officers. The obtained data supported the hypotheses regarding the differences between officers from land forces academy and those from technical academy. Considering the hypotheses with reference to significant correlations and prediction ability of the independent variables on obssesive-compulsive personality structure, they were partially confirmed. Specifically, significant effects were identified only on some dimensions of obssesive-compulsive personality structure, like: hipercorectness, ritualic tendencies and verifications.

Traffic Monitoring Tools to the Site

Abstract Living in a world that inspires and exhales bits, the presence of a site, whether personal or institutional, is mandatory. But is it just enough to exist in the online space? How can we measure, in particular, internet success and after all, are we reaching the target audience? Whether we are talking about a web page for presenting our own business or about an online business itself, knowing the impact it has on the net is just as important. This is called audience, and to measure it there are some instruments that are to be discussed and analyzed in this article. There will be references on the Land Forces Academy's official site

Predispoziția spre structurare obsesiv-compulsivă la militari

The main objective of this paper is to identify the combined effect of the training in the millitary (self-perceived), parental relations (self-perceived) and attachment style on soldier’s obsessive-compulsive personality structure. The secondary objectives are to find the relation between each independent variable – training in the millitary (self-perceived), parental relations (self-perceived) and attachment style – and obsessive-compulsive personality structure. The participants were 82 male officers and 12 female officers. The obtained data supported the hypotheses regarding the differences between officers from land forces academy and those from technical academy. Considering the hypotheses with reference to significant correlations and prediction ability of the independent variables on obssesive-compulsive personality structure, they were partially confirmed. Specifically, significant effects were identified only on some dimensions of obssesive-compulsive personality structure, like: hipercorectness, ritualic tendencies and verifications.