Another principle of the MIL curriculum is that, to learn a new language, “students must interact and negotiate in a meaningful way,” Germain-Rutherford said. Toward that end, the curriculum includes task-based activities rooted in a real-life purpose, such as ordering in a restaurant.
To recreate this kind of interaction online, the curriculum embeds audio inputs within the dialog, and there are also opportunities for students to interact asynchronously or in real time with a certified online instructor.
Provo eSchool chose MIL as its provider of online language instruction because of Middlebury College’s reputation as a “great language school” and because of the level of interaction the courses offer, Dunnigan said.
While all of Provo eSchool’s instruction is delivered online, that’s not the case at UMS-Wright Preparatory School in Mobile, Ala.
An independent day school with about 1,200 students in kindergarten through 12th grade, UMS-Wright has enlisted MIL’s curriculum so students can take languages such as Chinese and German as electives.
“In the global world we live in, students need opportunities to become knowledgeable in world cultures and languages,” said Keith Rice, academic dean.
UMS-Wright begins its language instruction with Spanish in kindergarten, and this instruction continues throughout the Lower School. In sixth grade, students study Latin. In the seventh and eighth grades, they can choose either French or Spanish, and starting in the ninth grade, they must take two consecutive years of a language.
Until recently, students could choose either French or Spanish, but last year UMS-Wright added online language curriculum from MIL and the Florida Virtual School to give students more choices, Rice said.
Students take these online courses in the school’s Virtual Learning Lab, and lab coordinator Cristin Skidmore is on hand to guide them. The online option “lets us provide these opportunities in a way we couldn’t before,” Skidmore said.
Rice, who said he envisions having “more students moving to this model” as a way to expand the school’s enrichment opportunities, told the story of one former student who recently came back to visit. This UMS-Wright graduate had taken part in a Chinese language immersion program while enrolled in a graduate business degree program.
“He said he wished he’d had this opportunity in high school,” Rice said.
- National Survey of Substitute Teachers Across K-12 Districts Reveal Professional Development, Flexibility and Community Engagement as Most Important Factors to Job Satisfaction - May 21, 2026
- Despite concerns, Gen Z students are optimistic about AI - May 20, 2026
- In Illinois, charting a path for responsible AI use - May 14, 2026
Comments are closed.