January 9, 2002

Contact:

Sarah Ray

802-443-5794

sray@middlebury.edu

Posted: January 9, 2002

MIDDLEBURY,

VT - Middlebury College has established a Portuguese

Language School, which will open in the summer of 2003. As

Middlebury’s ninth language school, it will be the

first new summer program since the Arabic School was

inaugurated in 1982. The College will also offer its

undergraduate students beginner-level Portuguese during the

2002-2003 academic year, and plans to provide opportunities

to study abroad in Brazil starting in 2003.

According to

Michael Katz, Middlebury College dean of language schools

and schools abroad, recent data on Portuguese language

studies indicates there are approximately:

• 200
  
  million speakers worldwide
• 150
  
  language programs at United States institutions of higher
  
  education
• 6,500
  
  undergraduate students taking courses in Portuguese in
  
  the United States
• 500
  
  graduate students taking courses in Portuguese in the
  
  United States

Although

Portuguese is the world’s sixth most commonly spoken

language, at present there is only one summer program in the

United States devoted exclusively to its study.

In Brazil,

where Portuguese is the primary language, close to 170

million people make up the world’s sixth largest

population. It ranks fifth in size, has the eighth largest

economy, and is the United States’ largest trading

partner in South America.

“Portugal

itself is a cultural and historic jewel, a vital member of

the European Union, and an important ally of the United

States. Portuguese is still widely used in many of its

former colonies in Africa and Asia,” said Katz.

During the

spring of 2002 Middlebury will recruit a director for the

Portuguese School. The director will spend the summer of

2002 observing the other eight language schools in

operation, meeting with staff and administrators, and

planning for the following year. The Portuguese School will

begin full operation in the summer of 2003 with

approximately 30 students. Undergraduate language

instruction will be offered in a seven-week program on three

levels— beginning, intermediate and advanced.

Last summer,

approximately 1,150 students came to Middlebury to

participate in the Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian,

Japanese, Russian and Spanish Language Schools.

During the

course of the Middlebury College Language schools’

86-year history, more than 36,000 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

shop 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 sessions for foreign languages: a

nine-week session for Arabic, Chinese, Japanese and Russian;

a seven-week session for French, German, Italian and

Spanish; and a six-week session for graduate-level French,

German, Italian, Russian and Spanish.