Concordia Language Villages creates a community of learners in which opportunities to interact in a second language and experience other cultures permeate life at the Villages. The ultimate goal of all immersion programming is to create an experience in language and culture that motivates participants to be life-long learners and to become responsible citizens in a global community.
It is often said that the best way to learn a language is to go to a country where it is spoken. This is not necessarily true, unless, of course, you can go there and be surrounded by language teachers. In other words, a stay in a foreign country, although surrounding the visitor with language, will produce little actual learning absent the support it takes to make it comprehensible. That’s where the Villages come in.
At Concordia Language Villages, our approach to language teaching puts villagers into a grand simulation of a trip abroad and into a culturally authentic setting—similar to what you might find in that foreign country—but filled with carefully designed learning opportunities and well-trained language teachers who help villagers understand what they hear, learn how to respond and converse, and practice new skills all day, every day.
Because language education alone does not lead to the formation of world citizens, our language immersion program teaches language and culture in global contexts. The disciplines of geography, history, political science, physical science, environmental science, the Arts, and international relations are drawn upon to create learning situations that prompt villagers to use language as a tool for understanding the complexities of the world around them and to “live the language” in significant and meaningful ways.
Experience-based learning is emphasized in every aspect of the curriculum. The educational objectives of Concordia Language Villages are reinforced through the everyday living, learning, social and recreational dimensions of Village life.
The CLVway is the method of immersion at Concordia Language Villages, and reflects the Asian concept of 道 or the “way” to excellence through practice.