Program Description

Language House from Students' Point of View  

The Language House Immersion Program, created in 1989, was the first living-learning program established at the University of Maryland. Open to second-semester freshmen and above, it provides students, who are serious about language learning, with the opportunity for daily language and cultural immersion in an organized study environment. Students who choose this program will develop communication skills in both academic and daily life settings through diverse organized activities, informal daily contacts, annual Language House　events, and supplemental coursework in the target language.

The Language House (LH) also provides an international community atmosphere in which residents work together to develop language fluency under the direction of a live-in mentor and a faculty liaison from the School of Languages, Literatures, and Cultures. Students also acquire an appreciation of the specific historical, geographical, and sociological world of the target culture(s). Ten language clusters are available: Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Persian, Russian, and Spanish.

Students admitted to the program are academically sound and genuinely interested in polishing their language skills. LH members must commit themselves to uphold the spirit of the immersion concept. They are the foundation of this program and its success depends upon their ability and willingness to interact and function in language groups, to initiate and attend LH activities, and to participate fully in the community experience.

Students living in the LH are housed in apartment units with other students interested in learning the same language. The LH students are a part of a large campus community, and they have an array of programs including weekly cluster meetings, Coffee Chats, Faculty and Guest Lecture Series and LH Club meetings, which make St. Mary's Hall an easy place to meet other students and faculty.

Program Requirements:

•  Language courses (3-6 credits) per semester.

•  Weekly cluster meetings: Led in the target language by a native graduate or undergraduate mentor, these meetings consist of informal oral presentations or cluster-specific projects by residents, faculty or invited guests. More than two absences in one semester will affect a student's chance of re-admission.

•  Annual House activities: Students are involved in events such as the House Assembly, Around the World Dinner, LH Showcase, and Maryland Day projects. Participation in all the House events is required and counts toward cluster meeting attendance.

•  LH club meetings: Created to facilitate inter-cluster communication, LH clubs are student-run and open to all House members. Clubs typically retain a cultural focus (such as Movie, Cooking or Tai-Chi Club), but can also be interest-related, such as Running or Gardening Club. Five attendances at a specific club or at any five meetings per semester are required.

Program and Resident Life Staff:

The idea of community is furthered fostered by two groups of staff who live in the building. For language immersion, each Language cluster has a Mentor, who is a native speaker, and each apartment has an Apartment Leader, whose language proficiency is either native or near native. St. Mary's Hall also has two Resident Assistants (RAs), who live on each side of the building. For each student-run club, a Club Chair is in charge to make sure the club runs smoothly through the semester. The Program and Resident Staff are responsible for management of the residence halls, and for cultural, social, educational, and recreational programming. Students can aid the Staff in programming and become involved in their living environment.

Security :

To insure the safety of residents in St. Mary's, the residents must swipe their student ID of which the code is unique to their building to enter the building and access the hallways. In addition, Residential Facilities provides a team of Security Staff who work from dusk till dawn inspecting each of the residence halls insuring locked doors and the overall safety of the buildings.

Services :

Students in St. Mary's currently have access to the service desk located in Queen Anne's Hall. The Service Desk is run by Community Assistants (CA) and serves as center for information about student and campus group phone numbers, university resources, and is the place to borrow keys if locked out, and to pickup packages.

Learning Facilities :

St. Mary's Hall features a satellite system providing 24 hour programming in 10 foreign languages, a large multi-purpose room, language lab facilities, a study lounge, an international cafe, data connections to the University's computer system in every room and a less than a 5 minute walk to most academic buildings and libraries.