The institute is housed on the Pitzer College campus, which also hosts a wide range of summer programs for international students. American students learning foreign languages thus have opportunities to live with and learn from native speakers. The Claremont Summer Languages Institute is open to non-Claremont students as well. Students are in class for four hours of class per day, plus labs and a host of cultural activities. Everyone signs a formal pledge to use only the language they are studying as their means of communication during the entire session .
Faculty live on campus and take their meals with the students.
Middlebury believes that this approach results in language acquisition which is the equivalent of at least a year of study in a more traditional academic setting. Student tutors receive special training, work closely with professors in the languages, and work with individual students and in groups. Language House has been revitalized to better integrate the goals and interactions of several language and international studies programs and resources with the functioning of language house. A small pilot course in French is being launched to experiment with the use of interactive video technology and international media to both enhance language skills and develop literacy in current affairs. Several new course modules and tutorial programs have resulted.