Bem-vindos! Welcome to the Portuguese Language School at Middlebury College. Spoken by more than 200 million people, Portuguese is the official language of eight countries on four continents: Portugal, Brazil, Angola, Cape-Verde, Guinea-Bissau, Mozambique, São Tomé e Príncipe, and East Timor. It is also widely spoken in Goa and Macau, although not the official language there. Each area of the world has contributed to the cultural richness that provides context for the study of Portuguese.
Each year, students who wish to learn Portuguese or to improve their language skills converge in Vermont for seven weeks of immersion into a Portuguese-speaking environment. Their needs vary. Some are undergraduates completing language requirements; some are graduate students interested in the Lusophone world; some are professionals who find themselves in need of Portuguese to succeed; some are heritage speakers who wish to learn more about their ancestors' language and culture. All students who attend the Portuguese school report amazing increase in language fluency and in cultural knowledge.
During its 93-year history, the Middlebury College Languages Schools have developed a worldwide reputation for innovative pedagogy anchored on the Language Pledge: a commitment by students to speak only the target language in all situations during every hour of the day and supported by an array of co-curricular activities.
The seven-week program will begin on June 27, 2008, and will end on August 15. Data from the first five summers indicate that one summer in the Portuguese school is equivalent to more than one year of study in a regular college classroom. In many cases, students showed even greater gains as measured by oral and written proficiency examinations.
Faculty and students live in the same residence halls and take meals together. This Portuguese speaking community attends four to five hours of classes daily. In addition, a full program of co-curricular activities: films, lectures, soccer, capoeira, samba, theater, radio broadcasting, cooking and much more enhance the learning experience. Cable television from Brazil is fed into the school's social space, so that students may watch programs in Portuguese.
During the summer of 2003, a writer from the Associated Press spent a day with the Portuguese School.
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