Mountain Language Institute

About Mountain Language Institute

Mission
The mission of the Mountain Language Institute is to offer high quality, innovative, and effective English language instruction while encouraging mutual respect and understanding through the cross-cultural experience.

Within each of its programs, MLI aims to create and deliver course content that allows students to acquire core skills while growing in their personal understanding of themselves and the world. By engaging students in discussions and work on topics that are interesting, important, and personally relevant, MLI strives to create an environment where students can improve their English language and develop the academic and cross-cultural skills needed to succeed professionally and personally in a more global, peaceful, and intelligent world.

With directors and teachers who are passionate about culture, excited about the future of technology, and firm in their belief that education is a human right, the institute seeks to assist students around the world to explore and achieve their educational dreams.

Philosophy
There are 10 core beliefs that underlie the MLI philosophy of English language teaching and programming. These are the following:

1. Becoming competent and confident in using a language requires a solid foundation in grammar and vocabulary;

2. There are four essential skills in using a language: listening, speaking, reading and writing;
3. Language learning is developmental and different learners may excel in different skills in different rates and ways;
4. Culture impacts how students learn and how teachers teach; learning a language is as much about learning a new culture as it is a new language;
5. Education is most effective when it is tailored to students' needs;
6. Students learn best when they are interested in the subject matter; and some areas of language will be more important to some students than others;
7. Students are experts on their own learning processes and have a responsibility for their own learning;
8. Learning from mistakes is an important part of the language learning process, and the receipt of immediate feedback is an essential factor in learning to use a language accurately;
9. Students who put effort into their study of a language will make progress; and
10. Using language in authentic contexts to negotiate meaning is an effective learning process.

Guided by these core beliefs, MLI has developed both its online and local programs using materials that allow for the acquisition of core skills but which are also adaptable to the needs of individual learners.