Isabelle Kaplan Center for Languages and Cultures

The mission of the Isabelle Kaplan Center for Languages and Cultures at Bennington is to develop strategies for teaching languages that recognize the central importance of content in achieving language literacy at all levels of instruction. Just as in mastering one’s native language, the urgency and importance to the speaker of what is being talked about matters a great deal.

Language courses at Bennington focus on a particular aspect of a culture (including history, art, literature, and popular culture). Through discussing the ideas that emerge from exploring that subject matter, students simultaneously increase their fluency in a language and their understanding of the cultures in which it developed.

In addition to serving as the source of all foreign language study at the College, the Center works in collaboration with schools in the local community offering professional development to language teachers.