Doctor of Modern Languages

April 15th is the application deadline for the DML.  All applicants must have a COMPLETED application to us at this time.

The Doctor of Modern Languages degree, established in 1927, is unique to Middlebury College and differs from the more traditional Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in several important respects. The purpose of the D.M.L. is to prepare teacher-scholars in two modern foreign languages, providing them with the skills and resources that will help them develop as teachers of second language acquisition, literature, linguistics and language pedagogy.

Middlebury's intent in the design of the D.M.L. program is to provide an alternative to the Ph.D. that retains the traditional focus on depth in research while meeting the special needs of language teachers and administrators for competence in the areas of language pedagogy and cultural studies. The D.M.L. curriculum incorporates pedagogical and cultural elements and is sufficiently flexible to accommodate the professional commitments of in-service teachers. All of the course requirements for the D.M.L. can be met by attending summer sessions of the Middlebury Language Schools.

There are approximately 70 students enrolled in the D.M.L. program, studying French, German, Italian, Russian, and Spanish.

Most of Middlebury's D.M.L. graduates are active language teachers in elementary, secondary, and post-secondary institutions, or in educational administration. Fifty-one percent of D.M.L. alumni responded to a recent survey with information about their current careers. The professional affiliations of these respondents may be categorized as follows:

The D.M.L. is administered by the Dean of Language Schools and Schools Abroad of Middlebury College, who consults closely with the directors of the various Language Schools in advising their D.M.L. students.