Dr. Ray Clifford has been awarded the 2017 International Federation of Teacher Associations International Award.
Associate Dean of the College of Humanities and Director of the Center for Language Studies Ray T. Clifford was awarded the 2017 International Federation of Teacher Associations (FIPLV) International Award at the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages (ACTFL) Annual Convention and World Language Expo in Nashville, Tennessee, November 2017.
The International Award is FIPLV’s highest distinction and, as Secretary General and former President of FIPLV Terry Lamb explained, the award is presented to “FIPLV members who . . . have distinguished themselves by being exceptionally active, innovative, valuable, and talented in one or more fields of language learning and language teaching.” Lamb also praised Clifford, saying, “We have never had a candidate as qualified as Dr. Clifford for this award.”
Over the years, Clifford has significantly contributed to international language learning through his leadership, teaching, and publications. He has served as president of the Joint National Committee for Languages, the National Federation of Modern Language Teachers Associations, and ACTFL. He is the only ACTFL president to be elected twice.
Reflecting on his career, Clifford acknowledged the unpredictability of his life’s trajectory—an incredible journey in language, academia, and the military ultimately produced a lifetime of work that cannot be replicated. Clifford first came to Brigham Young University in the 1960s to study physics. However, after serving an LDS mission in Austria and teaching German to missionaries, he found teaching to be “so much more rewarding than labs” and earned a bachelor’s degree in German.
In 1968, while preparing to attend the University of Bonn in Germany for a master’s program, Clifford was about to be drafted into the Vietnam War and would not be allowed to leave the country. Longing to continue his education, Clifford witnessed the Lord’s hand in his life when he was accepted into a new on-campus ROTC program at BYU, where he could become a commissioned officer and earn a master’s degree in language teaching simultaneously. After finishing the program, Clifford stayed at BYU for a year to be a teacher and administrator for the German department.
While on active duty, Clifford’s language teaching skills appeared to have little use to the army. Luckily, the math minor and computer classes Clifford acquired at BYU as a physics major qualified him to be an administrator over 100 data analysts and programmers in the military. Together, they created the first successful automated personnel system for the army. Clifford recalled, “I was being given a lot of incentives to stay in the military, but they didn’t offer me a road to a PhD. And that’s what I really wanted to do, so I got out.”
After Clifford obtained his PhD at the University of Minnesota, he received an unexpected call. “It was the strangest phone call I’ve ever received . . . It was the CIA!” After giving a speech at a conference, Clifford was offered a job at the CIA language school, where they needed knowledgeable administrators in the Germanic and Slavic languages division.
Clifford was drawn to the school because “it was a real-world language school where everything that was taught every day made an immediate difference; these people were going to be out in harm’s way upon graduation.” When a new administrative position opened at the world’s largest language school, the Defense Language Institute in Monterey, California, Clifford’s previous experience placed him at the top of the applicant list. He served as head of the academic programs at the Defense Language Institute for 22 years, during which time he converted the institute into a fully-accredited college.
While working in California, Clifford received a call from BYU—they wanted a director for the new Center for Language Studies. Having put the idea aside, he went for a drive after attending government meetings in D.C. “I remember it was dark, and coming around the beltway, what happens? The temple just floats in the air after dark there. And I said, ‘Okay, I’ve got to resolve this.’” Consulting with the Lord in prayer at the temple, Clifford asked if he should apply for the job at BYU. Clifford recalled, “I could just hear the voice, ‘Yes, and when you do, you will get it.’”
Through Clifford’s efforts, the BYU Center for Language Studies now offers both undergraduate and graduate programs. At the undergraduate level, the program has expanded from teaching one or two foreign languages to teaching 53 languages. The center has also developed a competency-based language certificate that students of all majors can earn for their official transcript. Funded by generous contributions from alumni and donors, the Center for Language Studies is thriving and continues to grow. Commenting on the winding path of his career, Clifford said, “I could not have planned probably any of those steps. But here I am. And here, what have we done?”
At the 2017 ACTFL conference, Terry Lamb congratulated Clifford, saying, “His devoted colleagues call him the godfather of the proficiency movement in the United States, the consensus builder who was needed to bring the language field together . . . and would bring us into the global arena as a player in developing linguistic and cultural competence.”
(Shannon W. L., BA Communications ’20)