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Graduate Student Certification

The goal of graduate certification in a foreign language is to have students skilled in reading proficiency so they can understand scholarly material in their chosen area of study and thus fulfill their department's graduate foreign language requirement.

The department offers a certification exam to fulfill the requirement. A student may also pass an advanced [third year] course in a foreign language with the grade of 'C' or better to meet the requirement. For this latter option, the student should consult with the Associate Department Head before taking the course. An equivalent 300-level FL course taken at another university may also fulfill the requirement, once it is reviewed and approved by FLL Department.

Students needing preparation for the exam should register in the fall semester for either FLF 401 (French), FLS 401 (Spanish), or FLG 401 (German) as "Credit Only" or "Audit." At the end of the course, students may take the certification exam. Graduate certification is given on passing the exam, not taking the course.

Students who already have the requisite proficiency may contact the following faculty members to sign up for the certification exam: French - Dr. Dudley M. Marchi; German - Dr. Helga Braunbeck (515-9320); Spanish - Dr. Mark Darhower (513-4807). For all other languages offered by the Department, contact Associate Department Head Dudley Marchi and he will refer you to a faculty member specializing in that language. For languages not offered by the department, the student will need to identify a faculty member at another institution who is willing to administer and correct an exam, after consultation with the Associate Department Head.

The certification exam consists of translating material from the foreign language into English. The faculty member will discuss the specific nature of the exam with the student. Generally, the certification exam consists of translating: (1) sentences containing fundamental grammatical structures, verb tenses, idiomatic expressions, and vocabulary; and (2) a portion of a scholarly article in the student's general research area. The student is not expected to do a polished translation, but rather a reasonably accomplished translation to demonstrate reading knowledge.

CONTACT THE APPROPRIATE FACULTY
MEMBER TO SIGN-UP FOR THE CERTIFICATION EXAM
IN FRENCH, GERMAN, OR SPANISH.

Please give faculty adequate notice in order
to prepare your certification exam.

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