| University Undergraduate Advising Handbook | |
SCHEDULING FOREIGN LANGUAGE COURSES
Any student may schedule any foreign language by following the University's foreign language placement policy. Some students are required to schedule a foreign language to meet either major or bachelor of arts (B.A.) degree requirements. When a student is required to take a foreign language, this requirement is listed in the Undergraduate Degree Programs Bulletin under the requirements for the major, or—if the degree is a B.A.—the heading "Bachelor of Arts Degree Requirements" is listed.
Although a foreign language is not a requirement for General Education, a foreign language course at the twelfth-credit level or higher (e.g., GER 003) might be used as a General Education substitution.
Placement Policy
Exemption from Foreign Language Requirement
Foreign Languages Offered
The Foreign Language Placement Policy Web site provides an explanation of this policy, which has been approved by the Interdepartmental Council on Languages and Literatures. A student who has questions about his/her language placement should contact the department offering the language of interest.
The only exception to this policy is for enrollment in accelerated language courses. These courses are offered in some languages, such as, French 111 and 112, German 011 and 012, and Spanish 010 and 011. Accelerated courses are also offered by Penn State's Summer Intensive Language Institute.
Determining High School Background for Placement
Authorized advisers can use ISIS to check a student's high school background in foreign language. On the AUOG screen, next to "FLCR," the number of years of study is listed, and language studied is indicated: F (French), G (German), L (Latin), R (Russian), S (Spanish), and/or O (other). For example, if a student studied French for three years and Arabic for two years in high school, the following would be listed in the FLCR field: 3.0 F, 2.0 O. If a student studied Arabic for two years and Hebrew for four, the FLCR field would list the following: 2.0 O, 4.0 O.
If a student who completed high school in May 2001 or later did not complete at least two units of the same foreign/second language at the high school level, he/she must make up this deficiency (see Foreign/Second Language Admission Requirement).
If you have questions about a student's foreign language background, contact Undergraduate Admissions.
EXEMPTION FROM FOREIGN LANGUAGE REQUIREMENT
A student who is competent in a foreign language (either as a native speaker of that language or as a native English speaker) can become exempt from a foreign language requirement by contacting the department offering that language to request proficiency verification.
Courses in the following foreign languages are offered at Penn State:
Arabic Latin Chinese Polish French Portuguese German Russian Greek Serbo-Croatian Hebrew Spanish Italian Swahili Japanese Ukrainian Korean
The University may make changes in policies,
procedures, educational offerings, and requirements at any time. Please
consult a Penn State academic adviser for more detailed information.
This page is part of the University Undergraduate Advising Handbook, which is maintained by the Division of Undergraduate Studies, DUS@psu.edu.
Reviewed: October 2007
Last Update: August 2004