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Multinational Academic Program, MAP

International Language Study

The Multinational Academic Program for Study Abroad makes innovative language immersion programs accessible to students nationwide by providing affordable credit-bearing opportunities for independent, international language study at the college level. The immersion language experiences provided through this program are an economical means for students to experience valuable language and cultural immersion programs that meet college-level rigor and form a sound basis for more advanced study of the language. Participants in MAP have the opportunity to earn undergraduate language credit from Brookhaven College while participating in intensive study of nine different “target languages” at more than 40 Partner Language Institutes in more than 50 cities and 20 countries.

Affordable and Convenient

Traditional models of student exchange and faculty-led travel programs can be costly and inconvenient – exchange programs that traditionally last a full semester and travel programs that require groups of students to coordinate their schedules don’t work well for many students. In contrast, MAP is an affordable and flexible alternative for students who want to have international study opportunities. MAP enables students to take advantage of curriculum programs that are coordinated with language schools – Partner Language Institutes – at locations around the globe while enrolled as credit-seeking students at Brookhaven College.

MAP students may schedule their study for any time of the year when language instruction is offered by the Partner Language Institute and may receive between three and 17 semester hours of language credit per fall, spring or summer study abroad term. The number of credits a student is seeking determines the minimum number of weeks the student must study in order to meet one of the requirements for credit – generally, successful completion of at least one week of intensive language study per credit hour requested. Some MAP Partner Language Institutes have more than one instructional site, and students who attend one of these are welcome to divide their stay and study among those different locations.

Language Immersion Programs - More Bang for Your Buck

Through the Multinational Academic Program for Study Abroad, students make their own travel arrangements, setting their own dates to travel abroad at their own convenience. In addition to providing intensive language instruction, Partner Language Institutes at the travel destinations arrange pick-up at the airport, room and board, and activities for the students. MAP Partner Language Institutes are proprietary language schools that are typically located in city centers and housed in beautiful, often historic, buildings located close to bus or subway systems. Students may borrow books, videos or music CDs from the school library and can often access e-mail and Internet free of charge.

Students who select MAP Partner Language Institutes for their immersion language experience will typically receive good value for their money. After arrival at the Partner Language Institute, MAP students are placed into individualized language classes at the appropriate level of study based on their academic background and level of ability in the target language. Meeting in small groups led by highly qualified instructors who specialize in teaching the target language as a foreign language, all courses focus on the development of communication skills and emphasize oral proficiency. At the Partner Language Institute, students receive intensive language and cultural experiences that include a minimum of 20 hours of instruction per week and include activities that offer opportunities to interact with native speakers and to learn about the local culture. City and museum tours, trips to neighboring towns, group dinners, dance lessons, cooking classes, and travel to cultural and historical sites in the region are just some of the extracurricular activities available to highlight specific cultural aspects and help students experience the culture surrounding the language they are learning. At most locations, students are encouraged to live with a local host family in order to interact with native speakers and to learn the culture first hand.

Language Immersion Programs - The Gold Standard for Language Learning

Immersion Language Programs are the ‘gold standard’ for language learning, allowing for greater time-on-task in learning and more immediate, better-quality feedback; consequently, MAP offers students much more than a mere equivalency to regular classroom instruction by adding the ability to contextualize the language through the student’s experience. While MAP students receive their immersion language experience at a Partner Language Institute abroad, letter grades are assigned to the language study abroad outcomes by a Brookhaven College faculty member and are based on 1) evaluations and scores included in a school report furnished by the MAP Partner Language Institute, in combination with 2) a final essay or project completed and submitted by the student. MAP students are registered at Brookhaven College and receive an official college transcript when the language study abroad is completed and the evaluation criteria have been satisfactorily met.

Since each institution, district or state has its own policies regarding the amount and types of credit it will accept, students are strongly advised to communicate study abroad intentions with their current or future institution by seeking prior approval from a department chair, transfer advisor or registrar to make certain the credit they could earn will be accepted. Getting advance approval in writing will go a long way toward ensuring that academic credit from Brookhaven College will transfer and be applied to meet degree or graduation requirements in the way that students expect. In order to ensure this, it is very important for students to find out whether the specific language courses offered through this program will not only transfer to the home institution but also meet degree and graduation requirements. Currently, there are 63 credit-bearing language courses in nine languages available that are designed for undergraduate university transfer; because Brookhaven is a two-year college, all courses are designated as freshman and sophomore courses. A descriptive list of the different courses available through this program, including course names and numbers, number of contact hours, and amount of credit for each, is available on request.

For more information and to learn how to participate in the Multinational Academic Program for Study Abroad contact bhcStudyAbroad@dcccd.edu.

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Page modified July 7, 2009.