The Middlebury Campus

Issue date: 10/18/07 Section: News

Media Credit: Bente Madson Students are required to adhere to the language pledge at daily lunch tables much in the way they are while abroad. [Click to enlarge]

The 2007-2008 academic year will see more than 350 Middlebury students study abroad in more than 40 countries at more than 90 different programs and universities, including 30 current locations for the C.V. Starr-Middlebury Schools Abroad, which have been in operation for over a half-century. The College reports this much on its Web site, which is loaded with information about the various limbs of excellence which drive its global vision, a vision unveiled on Oct. 6 with the launch of The Middlebury Initiative. The College's Schools Abroad, an integral part of this vision for the future, employ the same strategy that has facilitated success at its Summer Language Schools: complete immersion.

But does the concept of complete immersion have the same affects abroad as it does here in the summer?

"It is clear that students going abroad do not necessarily make gains as significant as those made by students in the Middlebury immersion program," wrote Benjamin Rifkin of the University of Wisconsin-Madison in a 2005 study of Russian language acquisition, specifically referring to Middlebury's Summer Language Schools.

The College's Schools Abroad also require students to abide by the same language pledge as its summer programs, which requires that they speak only the target language while enrolled in the program. Still, members of the College recognize the limits of enforcing the pledge in an abroad setting.

"We can't expect [students] to observe the language pledge at all times in the way that we expect them to do here," said Michael Geisler, vice president for Language Schools, Schools Abroad and Graduate Programs, "because here on campus we can create a somewhat simulated environment where you really don't need to use English."

It is not uncommon for Middlebury students who study a foreign language to first attend one of the College's summer language schools before going abroad. Many students claim that the abroad experience to them is more about learning the culture and expanding their personal horizon, while at summer school the most important thing is language learning.

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