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The Language Requirement

Since its founding, the College has had a strong commitment to the teaching of languages; competence in languages has traditionally been a sign of a well educated person. Such experience is a means of access to the cultural and intellectual heritage of the world's non-English-speaking majority (for those whose first language is English). The study of another language is also a way to gain a new reflective understanding of language and communication systems. In the modern world, this age of growing global interdependency, it is necessary that its citizens be able to communicate with and adjust to people from other cultures. The College's language requirement is a step toward that vital skill.

The language requirement for a Bachelor of Arts or Bachelor of Science degree (fourth-term proficiency in a language other than English) usually is met in one of three ways:

1. Certified proficiency on a University of Michigan reading and/or listening test. Tests are administered regularly during the Orientation period for proficiency/placement in French, German, Hebrew, Latin, Russian, and Spanish. Tests in other languages must be arranged through the appropriate Department Office. On the basis of this test, you may be exempted from the Language Requirement, or you may be placed into a first-, second-, third-, or fourth-term course.

If you have previous experience in a language you plan to continue, you must take a language placement test. If a test in your choice of language is not offered at Orientation, an advisor will help you choose the most likely placement and course for registration. Course adjustments can be made in the first two or three weeks of the term.

You may not elect for credit a language course below the placement level determined by the test results without written departmental permission.

2. Credit for a University of Michigan fourth-term language course with a passing grade of "C-" or better. See list on this page.

You may place into a course for which you have already earned AP credit. If you elect a course at the same or a lower level than that for which you have earned credit, you will lose that credit. If you decide to forfeit 4th term transfer credit for the election of a lower level course, you also forfeit satisfaction of the language requirement by transfer credit.

In meeting the language requirement, you must earn a grade of "C-" or better to proceed into the next course in the language sequence.

The final course in a sequence used to fulfill the Language Requirement MAY NOT be elected on a Pass/Fail basis. (Effective for all students admitted to the College in Fall Term, 1995 and thereafter.) The final course in an elementary language sequence used to fulfill the Language Requirement must be elected on a graded basis, or, for Residential College students in a Residential College language course, with a narrative evaluation.

3. Credit for a University of Michigan language course which presumes a fourth-term proficiency in a language (except for 305 and/or 306 in French, German, Italian, and Spanish and 307 in Spanish/American Culture).

AB/BS students are expected to elect a course to meet the language requirement during their first term in residence and in each subsequent term until the requirement is met.

Please direct any questions regarding fulfillment of the LS&A Language requirement to your advisor or to the Office of Student Data and Publications at POINT- 10

You are encouraged to continue a language already begun, but you may choose from the following thirty-six choices offered by LS&A departments.

American Culture: Ojibwa

Asian Languages and Cultures:

Chinese (Mandarin), Hindi-Urdu, Indonesian, Japanese, Korean, Punjabi, Sanskrit, Tagalog, Tamil, Thai, Tibetan (Calssical), and Vietnamese.

Greek (Classical and Modern) and Latin.

Dutch, German, and Swedish.

Near Eastern Studies:

Arabic, Hebrew (Biblical and Modern), Persian, and Turkish.

French, German, Russian, and Spanish.

French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

Armenian, Czech, Polish, Russian, Serbo-Croatian, and Ukrainian.