One US university is turning the tables by launching its own language school
While English language schools are launching university experience programmes, a US university has launched its own English language school. Middlebury College is opening its new California-based language school this summer with the first session beginning 27 June.
Middlebury, a liberal arts college with its main campus in Vermont, is rated as the 40th best university in the US in this year’s TES University Rankings. Long highly rated for its foreign language programmes, it’s been offering foreign language summer schools since 2015, when it launched its German Language School. It now offers schools in 12 languages ranging from Arabic and French to Abenaki, an endangered indigenous North American language. The Middlebury language schools, some operated in partnership with highly respected fellow Vermont college Bennington, have enrolled a total of 58,000 students year-round since their inception.
The new English language school is based at the Middlebury Institute for International Studies in Monterey, California, which was acquired by Middlebury in 2010. The English Language School, which will adopt Middleybury’s signature immersion method, is accredited by CE and will offer courses year round in eight- and 16-week sessions, as well as an eight-week summer course.
The English language school’s director, Rogers Walker, explains Middlebury students must take “…the Language Pledge to communicate only in the language they’re studying. This time-tested immersive approach results in rapid progress for our students.”
Middlebury Monterey may be the only university English language school in the USA, but it joins a small if elite club, including Dublin City University’s centre and Malta University Language School, which is now 50 years old.
