Specifically, the Monterey Defense Language (www.dliflc.edu)- "the acknowledged leader in foreign language education throughout DoD and the federal government"
[WS:] Acknowledged leader? Do not make me laugh, please. I wasted six years of my life working for that institution. The best description of it I heard is a dumping ground for defense dept employees near their retirement who are too incompetent to be entrusted with more serious jobs.
The Arabic department was their largest operation after the Russian/ Eastern European departments even in the early 1980s. They slashed their Eastern European languages departments after the "fall of communism" - so by definition their Arabic dept became the largest.
BTW, their main training emphasis is intelligence gathering (i.e. listening to foreign language communications, as the NSA does all the time) rather than combat-related tasks (e.g. on the ground operations, interrogation of prisoners, etc.).
As to the overall effectiveness of their training - dog save us all, if we were to depend on their trainees in a war. Their goal is the so-called "level 2" (out of 5 possible) language skill which means the ability to understand a simple everyday life communication (e.g. understanding reports of facts, directions, or tell basic personal info). As far as I can tell (again this was in the 1980s) - few if any of their trainees actually reached that level. Most of them reached level 1 or less (basically, the ability to understand a few phrases and simple sentences) - albeit most of them were certified at level 2 (DLI did its own testing, so nobody else could verify it), because otherwise many jobs would be in jeopardy.
Wojtek