Middlebury language schools begin

Through its Language Schools, Middlebury College offers 13 intensive language programs. Known for its Language Pledge®, students are entirely immersed in their language of study and are not allowed to speak any other language during the six- to eight-week program.

The Middlebury College campus will host students of the eight-week Russian, Korean, Chinese and Japanese programs; and the seven-week programs in German, French, Hebrew, Italian, Portuguese and Spanish. The College also hosts a two-week program in Abenaki, an indigenous language in northern New England and southern Quebec.

Arabic, Italian and Portuguese students will also be hosted at Bennington College. The seven-week English program will take place at the MIIS campus in Monterey, California.

While many students at the Language Schools are Middlebury College undergraduates seeking to fulfill degree requirements, the Language Schools are open to people of all ages and backgrounds. Artists, corporate executives and government employees live and study together, intent on mastering a new language.

MAT LAUNCHED

This year, the Master of Arts in Teaching (MAT) graduate program will launch. The MAT is an 18-month master’s degree program which offers a teaching license in world languages valid in the U.S. public school system. The MAT program offers a new pathway for graduates of the Language Schools to apply their learning in the professional world.

Scholarships are awarded to language teachers each year, including those based in Vermont. Seven and eight-week programs are available to language teachers seeking to immerse themselves in a new language, or to top up their proficiency in the language they already teach.

Thor Sawin, a Middlebury College professor and associate dean of the Language Schools, said that the Middlebury Language Schools have served teachers seeking professional development since its inception in 1915.

Sawin said that for decades, the Language Schools have been receiving requests to develop an Educator Preparation Program like the MAT, which has been years in the making and offers public school teaching licenses to world language teachers.

“Teacher licensing is a complicated system, as each state manages its own teaching workforce and sets its own requirements,” Sawin said.

However, the national shortage of world language teachers motivated Middlebury to prioritize the creation of the MAT program. The percentage of schools that have found it very difficult to fill world language positions has increased drastically within the past 15 years.

“When schools can’t fill a language teacher position, this is the main reason — not lack of community or student interest — why language programs get cancelled at schools. Schools’ cancelling of language programs results in fewer students having the opportunity to discover an interest in languages, or to turn a heritage language into a language useable for job purposes,” Sawin said.

The Language Schools also offer other scholarship programs and grants, including the Fellows for Peace. Fellowships cover tuition, housing, and food for the summer and are awarded to people of all backgrounds who have notable experience in peace work and conflict resolution around the world. The fellowship program challenges Middlebury to train and recruit future peacemakers through a focus on language and policy studies.

Alistair Nalle, an undergraduate student at Middlebury College, spent last summer at the Arabic School in Bennington. At the time, Nalle’s Arabic was at a beginner’s level, and he worried that being a newcomer to the language would make it difficult for him to learn and connect with others.

“I was kind of expecting to talk about the weather for eight weeks, but that turned out not to be the case. I found my development really surprised me and I was able to hold more mature conversations with my other friends on the program,” he said.

Nalle is currently interning at the Amman Center for Human Rights Studies in Jordan, where he contributes to the monthly Human Rights Monitor. 

“I feel like it paid off because I’ve been at the internship for over a week now and I feel like I’m contributing to something that puts more positivity into the world, and I feel like Middlebury Language Schools really contributed to that,” Nalle said.

The Middlebury Language Schools have long been recognized as global centers of language learning, as well as peace and conflict resolution; training teachers, healthcare professionals and peacemakers. Together, students abide by the Language Pledge® and spend the summer learning and living entirely in a different language.

Editor’s note: Ian Curry is a rising senior at Middlebury College interning with the Addison Independent this summer.

Gather your materials to apply to the graduate or immersion programs at the Language Schools.

Applications for the summer 2026 session open on November 3, 2025.