The Middlebury Language Schools are language schools administered by

Middlebury College Middlebury College is a Private university, private Liberal arts colleges in the United States, liberal arts college in Middlebury, Vermont, United States. Founded in 1800 by Congregationalism in the United States, Congregationalists, Middlebury w ...

. Immersion and graduate programs are offered in 13 languages during two-, six-, seven-, or eight-week summer sessions. The schools enroll approximately 1,500 students every summer. The pedagogical approach of the programs relies on

immersion Immersion may refer to: The arts * "Immersion", a 2012 story by Aliette de Bodard * ''Immersion'', a French comic book series by Léo Quievreux * ''Immersion'' (album), the third album by Australian group Pendulum * ''Immersion'' (film), a 2021 ...

-based instruction and acquisition. All students in the Language Schools are required to live on campus and must sign and abide by

's "Language Pledge", a pledge to use exclusively their target language during their time in the program. Immersion programs are offered in

Abenaki The Abenaki ( Abenaki: ''Wαpánahki'') are Indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands of Canada and the United States. They are an Algonquian-speaking people and part of the Wabanaki Confederacy. The Eastern Abenaki language was pred ...

Arabic Arabic (, , or , ) is a Central Semitic languages, Central Semitic language of the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family spoken primarily in the Arab world. The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) assigns lang ...

, Chinese, English, French, German,

Hebrew Hebrew (; ''ʿÎbrit'') is a Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language within the Afroasiatic languages, Afroasiatic language family. A regional dialect of the Canaanite languages, it was natively spoken by the Israelites and ...

, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Additionally, graduate-level instruction is offered in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish. The Language Schools also offer a Doctor of Modern Languages (D.M.L.) degree, currently unique to Middlebury. Middlebury launched a pilot School of Abenaki in 2020; the first accredited session occurred in the summer of 2021. Students come from all ages and parts of the world.

Founding and expansion

In 1915, the School of German was founded as the first of Middlebury Language Schools by a German professor from Vassar College. The most recent School, the English Language School, was established in 2022. Middlebury Language Schools have historically all been conducted at the College's campus in

Middlebury, Vermont Middlebury is the shire town (county seat) of Addison County, Vermont, United States. As of the 2020 census, the population was 9,152. Middlebury is home to Middlebury College and the Henry Sheldon Museum of Vermont History and the adjacent ...

. In Summer 2009 the College opened a satellite campus at

Mills College Mills College at Northeastern University in Oakland, California is part of Northeastern University's global university system. Mills College was founded as the Young Ladies Seminary in 1852 in Benicia, California; it was relocated to Oakland in ...

Oakland, California Oakland is a city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area in the U.S. state of California. It is the county seat and most populous city in Alameda County, California, Alameda County, with a population of 440,646 in 2020. A major We ...

, to accommodate growth in the enrollments in several of the schools. Since Summer 2020, Middlebury no longer operates at Mills College but instead at Bennington College in

Bennington, Vermont Bennington is a New England town, town in Bennington County, Vermont, United States. It is one of two shire towns (county seats) of the county, the other being Manchester (town), Vermont, Manchester. As of the 2020 United States Census, US Cens ...

; in 2023 Arabic, Italian, and Portuguese were held in Bennington. The English Language School is located in

Monterey, California Monterey ( ; ) is a city situated on the southern edge of Monterey Bay, on the Central Coast (California), Central Coast of California. Located in Monterey County, California, Monterey County, the city occupies a land area of and recorded a popu ...

at the Middlebury Institute of International Studies.

Language instruction

All of the thirteen Middlebury Language Schools use an

-based approach to language instruction and acquisition. The schools also stress cultural instruction in addition to pure language instruction. Students in all of the Language Schools are required to commit to and sign the "''Language Pledge''." The Pledge, which has been in continuous use since the 1920s. It reads:

In signing this Language Pledge, I agree to use ______________ as my only language of communication while attending the Middlebury Language Schools. I understand that failure to comply with this Pledge may result in my expulsion from the School without credit or refund.

The focus on immersion learning in a residential environment and the exclusive use of the target language allows the schools to offer the equivalent of a year of language instruction in either six-, seven-, or eight-week summer sessions.

Graduate study

Ten of Middlebury's summer schools – Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Russian, and Spanish – offer graduate programs in addition to the undergraduate component. These are completed over four six-week summer sessions (over a ten-year period) or with an option of combining the summer sessions with an academic year abroad (Italy, France, Germany, Spain, or Russia) or online, depending on the language. The graduate degree most often conferred is the Master of Arts, but Middlebury also has a Master of Arts in Applied Languages. The MA in French, German, Italian, and Spanish require one summer on the Middlebury campus. A second summer is required for the MA in Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, Japanese, Korean, and Russian.

Doctor of Modern Languages (D.M.L.)

Middlebury offers a Doctor of Modern Languages (D.M.L.) degree. Unique to Middlebury, the D.M.L. prepares teacher-scholars in two modern foreign languages, helping them develop as teachers of second-language acquisition, literature, linguistics, and language pedagogy.

References

External links