Welcome to the online home of the Drake University Language Acquisition Program.
Our program offers students the opportunity to learn languages in a unique environment. Our faculty and staff are committed to helping students develop skills that will allow them to communicate with the language they study, not simply to learn about the language.
How do students learn to communicate with their language of choice? The structure of the program offers an explanation. Students work with native speakers in groups of five or fewer three times per week. The native speaker helps them learn how speakers of that language really speak. This immersion experience simulates, on a small scale, the way in which students learned their first language.
Please click on the video below to watch a presentation on how the program structure at Drake differs from traditional language instruction.
For each of the languages currently offered at Drake, the opportunity to practice grammar and to have questions answered in English is available from a professor with a Ph.D. in the language. These faculty members meet regularly with students, train the native speakers, design curriculum, write a 
culture blog specific to the language, and do many other things to assist students improve their proficiency as they study.
Another feature of the program, one that few other colleges and universities offer, is a “strategies” course, a course taken by students who are in their first semester of language study. The course has several goals: providing students with a variety of strategies for becoming better speakers, better writers, better readers, etc., of the language they are studying; allowing students to learn how to use technology to enhance their language-learning experience; and to as
sist students approach the culture they are studying through a non-ethnocentric lens.
A significant percentage of each language student’s grade is determined by the student’s performance on the midterm and final examination. For these examinations, a professor from another college or university has an oral interview with the students to determine how well they are able to talk about the materials the students have been studying.
Our experience has shown that many students benefit significantly from this approach. Former students have gone on to teach in China, to become Fulbright scholars, to become the director of translation services, to do non-profit and church work in El Salvador, to complete Master's degree programs in Chinese and German, and to do business work as well.
Drake also offers numerous study abroad programs for each of the languages offered. Some of our students who have studied abroad have reported that they were much more proficient than students who had studied language in a more traditional approach. We strongly believe that self-motivated and responsible students will come out of the Language Acquisition Program able to communicate effectively with native speakers of the language. (You can find out more information about Study Abroad opportunities here)
Currently, the Language Acquisition Program does not offer majors or minors. Students are able, however, to obtain a certificate acknowledged on their transcript that verifies their linguistic and cultural proficiency. Additionally, several majors do require students to study a language, e.g., International Relations, International Business, and Vocal Performance. Studying a language also compliments several majors very well. For example, students who major in history with an emphasis on Asia might get a much different view if they are able to read documents in the original language.
The faculty and staff of this program are committed to assisting students as they develop their linguistic and cultural competence. Please do not hesitate to contact us as you explore the information here.