The 10 Most Innovative Colleges for Foreign Language Learning for 2019
As the world becomes increasingly connected, knowing how to speak two or more languages is a skill that's in growing demand no matter where you live. Whether you choose to major in a language, minor in one, or just take a load of language classes in college, there are some schools that offer experiences that are unique, innovative, or just plain awesome for foreign language learning. While we couldn't highlight every great foreign language program out there, here are a few we think stand out from the crowd, offering students a chance to learn their choice from a wide variety of languages, immerse themselves in a new culture and language, or even blend language learning with dormitory life.
The 10 Most Innovative Colleges for Foreign Language Learning for 2019
Middlebury College, located in Vermont , offers a number of outstanding programs and opportunities for students looking to learn a language, but perhaps the most notable are the Language Schools. Starting in 1915, the school began offering language learning programs over the summer and today provides instruction in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish. Students must take a language pledge stating that they'll use the language of their course exclusively during the duration of the program. When it comes to advanced foreign language degrees, Middlebury is also the only school in the U.S. to offer a doctor of modern languages degree, which requires fluency in two foreign languages, and one of the few schools to offer a graduate degree in language translation and interpretation, offering some innovative ways for students to pursue their love of languages.
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To determine the 10 best schools for foreign language learning, we looked at the most important factors prospective students, mainly common predictors of future success and a school's commitment to online programs. This boils down to admissions rate, student loan default rate, retention rate, graduation rate, and the percent of students enrolled in online classes. All data points are taken from information provided by colleges and universities to the National Center for Education Statistics.
Each factor is weighted evenly in order to give an objective view and determine the top 10 schools for foreign language learning. To calculate our rankings, we looked at a school's ranking when organized by a single factor, and then averaged each category's ranking to find an overall score: Admissions Rate (20%) + Default Rate (20%) + Retention Rate (20%) + Graduation Rate (20%) + Percent of Students Enrolled in Online Classes (20%) = Final score.