MIDDLEBURY, Vt.—Forty teachers from Spain spent a month in the U.S. this summer and they didn't visit the Grand Canyon, the White House, or the Statue of Liberty.
The teachers were here under the aegis of the government of Madrid, in cooperation with Middlebury College and the Monterey Institute of International Studies, to develop bilingual teaching methodologies to enhance their use and teaching of the English language in subject areas such as science and art.
In other words, the educators from Spain learned how to teach their subject matter in English while helping their students to grasp the content and learn a second language at the same time.
Integrating language learning with content studies and teacher training is a method that Middlebury College and the Monterey Institute (MIIS) have practiced for a long time. And what made this summer's program unique is that a cadre of teachers from Spain came to two sites in the U.S. – one in Vermont and the other in California – for a month of formalized immersion in English for pedagogy purposes.
The teachers were in class four to five hours a day, five days a week, during the month of July. They signed an English Immersion Agreement – a modified version of the Middlebury's renowned Language Pledge – and, when they weren't in class, they were engaged in English-language activities from service learning to cultural immersion to practicum teaching and observation.
Reflecting on the significance of the program, Dean Renée Jourdenais of the Graduate School of Language and Educational Linguistics at Monterey Institute said:
"Middlebury and MIIS are well-situated and well-suited to collaborate in order to meet the world's growing need for quality language education and trained language educators. Our shared educational missions and global perspectives really make collaboration easy. Independently, we're both excellent institutions; combined, we're a formidable powerhouse of expertise in language education."
The instructors for the program included Monterey alumni with Master's degrees in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL), Monterey students currently enrolled in the Graduate School of Language and Educational Linguistics, and a Middlebury graduate with a Master's degree in Spanish.
Half of the visiting teachers were based at Champlain College in Burlington, Vt., while the other half were located at California State University at Monterey Bay. Both groups spent valuable time off campus employing their language skills, observing how English is used colloquially, absorbing American culture, and engaging the local community. For example, the group in California observed a bilingual elementary-school classroom and visited the Monterey Bay Aquarium, while the Vermont troupe volunteered at a picnic for seniors at Oakledge Park and toured the Ben & Jerry's Factory in Waterbury.
Concurrent program in Spain
Additionally, Middlebury, MIIS, and the Madrid government collaborated on a similar program that took place in Madrid this summer. Kim Griffin, the director of Middlebury's School in Spain, and Carmen Aguilera, the subdirectora general de programas de innovacion in Madrid, along with Dean Jourdenais from Monterey, organized a program for 50 elementary education teachers from Spain who work in bilingual (Spanish-English) schools.
The participants in Madrid spent two weeks in a modified immersion program at the C.V. Starr-Middlebury School in Spain headquarters at 19 Calle Prim in the heart of the city. According to Director Griffin, the program was designed to give the teachers an opportunity to improve their English-language skills, learn methods of English instruction in a bilingual environment, and be immersed in American film, food, and culture.
"Hopefully," Griffin said, "this is the first of many summers that the regional government of Madrid will work together with Middlebury and Monterey to offer programs designed for teachers from Spain to enhance their methods of using and teaching English in bilingual settings."
The summer program at Vermont, Monterey Bay, and in Madrid illustrates Middlebury's daily endeavor to achieve global action through the liberal arts, or as President Ronald D. Liebowitz has said, "Middlebury combines a human-intensive education with an expansive global perspective and an international network of educational resources that no other liberal arts college can offer."
The team of instructors in Spain – all bilingual, of course – included an educator from Monterey Institute, two alumni of Middlebury's School in Spain, and an intern from the University of Madrid.