Foreign Language Reading Requirement Guidelines

The candidate must meet a foreign language reading proficiency requirement. This may be accomplished in one of three ways: 1. Completion, with a grade of B or above, of twelve semester hours in a foreign language no earlier than five years before admission to graduate studies 2. Completion, with a grade of B or above, of French 210, German 210, or Spanish 202 or the equivalent transfer hours no earlier than five years before admission to graduate studies. 3. Passing a reading proficiency exam, administered by the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures, on materials chosen by the candidate’s thesis advisor in consultation with the foreign language examiner.

Reading Proficiency Exam:

WHO (selects the text and grades the test): The M.A. candidate’s faculty advisor (not the student) will choose a text in consultation with a foreign language faculty member who will grade the test.

WHEN (text will be selected): The graduate faculty advisor will contact the consulting foreign language professor at least by the fourth week of the semester in which the student hopes to graduate. Summer exams can be administered only if scheduling arrangements are made well in advance during the preceding spring semester. It is recommended that graduate students begin with their foreign language development early enough so that they have ample time to avail themselves of the materials, courses, experiences and faculty assistance appropriate to their language learning needs.

WHAT (text will be selected): The translation passage on the exam will be selected from the chosen foreign language text of a total length of at least fifty pages that both the faculty advisor and the foreign language professor have approved. After the text has been agreed upon, the student will be informed of the text chosen but not of the exact passage (300-400 words) that will appear on the exam. This text and the passage selected will be representative of the kind of primary or secondary reading appropriate in topic and level for the research purposes of the graduate student in question.

HOW (the student will be tested): The student may consult a dictionary. A two hour time limit will be imposed. In order to pass the Graduate Foreign Language Reading Proficiency Examination, a minimum of 70% of the material will have to be correctly translated.