Alternative Language Study Options
Many Wesleyan students study or intern abroad in countries whose languages are not regularly taught at Wesleyan. Those students are encouraged to explore various options to receive partial-credit for instruction in the relevant language, both prior to and following their experience abroad, through one of the following modalities.
SMALL GROUP LANGUAGE CLASSES
Each semester, Wesleyan offers a number of language courses outside of currently existing departments. The enrollment in these courses is smaller– typically about 6 students in a course– and the course is 1/2 credit. Languages offered through this modality usually included Modern Greek, Swahili, and Tamazight. Current offerings can be found in the "Alternative Language Study Options" page on Wesmaps.
SUPERVISED INDEPENDENT LANGUAGE PROGRAM (SILP)
The Supervised Independent Language Program (SILP) enables students to submit petitions to continue the study of a language that is offered through the Alternative Language Study Options (ALSO) Program or study a language which is not offered at Wesleyan.
Students whose petitions are approved work independently with the help of a native speaker of the language through weekly meetings. Students also maintain a weekly blog demonstrating their work and progress, including examples of their written and spoken language use. First-year students may not undertake SILP study. A student may complete up to four semesters of language study through a SILP, however, only two SILP credits may be counted toward graduation (each SILP course is 1/2 credit and CR/U). Petition deadlines are: November 15 for the Spring semester and May 1 for the Fall semester, and a limited number of petitions will be approved each semester.
The online petition form is available here and further information about the program can be obtained from Emmanuel Paris-Bouvret, Coordinator of the ALSO program: eparis@wesleyan.edu.
MANGO LANGUAGES
Mango Languages affords the entire Wesleyan community – students, faculty, staff, and alumni—the opportunity to be introduced to the over 70 world languages offered through this online resource. Anyone can create an account and begin to learn a language at any time!
Take a Mango Language course for .25 credit:
Students can take self-paced .25 credit language study through the Mango Languages platform during the Fall, Winter, Spring, and Summer semesters at no extra tuition cost. Credit is only available for study of languages not offered at Wesleyan.
Languages available through Mango are listed here.
Students interested in receiving credit should contact either Emmanuel Paris-Bouvret or Marie McKenna
You may only count 1.0 credit towards any self-paced language courses, which includes .25 Mango courses and .5 SILPs.