May 31, 2002
Contact: Travis Fahey
802-443-5198
tfahey@middlebury.edu
Posted: May 31, 2002
MIDDLEBURY,
VT- Residents of the Middlebury community and visitors to the area
can expect to overhear a diverse mix of languages again this summer: Arabic,
Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.
Friday, June 14, marks the beginning of the Middlebury
College Language SchoolsÂ’ summer sessions, known internationally
for a rigorous approach to the teaching of languages and cultures.
This year, approximately 1,175 students will come to Middlebury to participate
in the language schools throughout the summer. During the course of the
language schoolsÂ’ 87-year history, more than 37,000 students from
all walks of life-including more than 11,000 advanced degree holders-have
attended one or more of the schools. Corporate executives study side-by-side
with writers, journalists, doctors, lawyers, missionaries, government
officials and diplomats. Undergraduates and graduate students from Middlebury
College and other institutions also attend the summer sessions to fulfill
language requirements or complete degrees.
Under
the guidance of approximately 200 faculty members from colleges and universities
throughout the world, students of all ages and numerous nationalities
live on campus, totally immersed in their target language. Students eat,
sleep, drink and live the language they have come to study, and all agree
to abide by the language pledge, a formal commitment to speak the language
of study and no other for the entire summer session.
Each summer, the College offers three sets of summer sessions for foreign
languages. The nine-week session for Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian
begins Friday, June 14; the seven-week session for French, German, Italian
and Spanish will begin on Friday, June 28; and the six-week session for
graduate-level French, German, Italian, Russian and Spanish will begin
on Monday, July 1.
In
the summer of 2003, the language schools will inaugurate a ninth school,
the Portuguese School. The opening will signify the first new language
taught in the summer at Middlebury College since the Arabic School opened
in 1982.