UCLA: Foreign Language Requirements Beyond IGETC

nick_scheu
Fri, 04 Jun 2010 02:19:43 +0000

I found some more information.

The requirements for a UCLA degree exist on three levels: university, school/college, and department.

University requirements include the entry-level writing requirement, American History requirement, etc.

College/school requirements include math, writing, foreign language, and others. For the College of Letters and Science, here are the college requirements regarding foreign language:

[quote]
The foreign language requirement can be satisfied by one of the following methods: (1) completing a college-level foreign language course equivalent to level three or above at UCLA or (2) scoring 3, 4, or 5 on the College Board Advanced Placement (AP) foreign language examination in Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, or Spanish, or scoring 4 or 5 in Latin, thereby earning College credit or (3) presenting a UCLA foreign language departmental examination score indicating competency through level three. Consult the Schedule of Classes for times and places of the regularly scheduled examinations. Students who wish to demonstrate proficiency in a language that is taught in a UCLA department that has no scheduled examination should contact the appropriate department to arrange for one. Students wishing to take an examination in a language not taught at UCLA should contact a College counselor./quote

That’s essentially what you posted above.

However, the School of Theater, Television, and Film specifies the following:

[quote]
Students may meet the foreign language requirement by (1) scoring 3, 4, or 5 on the College Board Advanced Placement (AP) foreign language examination in French, German, or Spanish, or scoring 4 or 5 on the AP foreign language examination in Latin, (2) presenting a UCLA foreign language proficiency examination score indicating competency through level three, or (3) completing one college-level foreign language course equivalent to level three or above at UCLA with a grade of Passed or C or better.

For transfer students from California community colleges, completion of the Intersegmental General Education Transfer Curriculum (IGETC) does not fulfill the school foreign language requirement. Students need to complete level three or above of a foreign language course at the community college with a grade of Passed or C or better to complete the requirement./quote

Note that those requirements specifically disallow use of the IGETC to satisfy this school’s foreign language requirements—no such section exists for Letters and Science, as far as I can tell.

Departmental requirements include lower-division major preparation courses, upper-division major courses, and, in some cases, a subset of the university and school/college rules. For the English department, the following is specified with regard to foreign language:



[quote]
All English majors must have completed either (1) level five or equivalent in any one foreign language or (2) level three or equivalent in one foreign language and two additional courses in foreign language or foreign literature, including foreign literature in translation (see course listings under Foreign Literature in Translation later in this section). Transfer students who have satisfied the College of Letters and Science foreign language requirement at the high school level through the IGETC program may satisfy the departmental requirement with five foreign literature in translation courses. The courses may be taken on a P/NP grading basis./quote

This section is saying how a departmental requirement that expands upon a college requirement (level 5 rather than level 3) may be satisfied if the college requirement has been satisfied previously.

Specifically, note this line:

Transfer students who have satisfied the College of Letters and Science foreign language requirement at the high school level through the IGETC program



However, Every IGETC form I’ve seen says that the community college foreign language it specifies is equivalent to two years of high school instruction. This line says that the Letters and Science requirement can be satisfied at the high school level. In doing so, it strongly implies that the Letters and Science foreign language graduation requirement is, in fact, satisfied by the IGETC foreign language section no matter how it is completed. I don’t see how the College of Letters and Science would accept high school instruction on IGETC for the foreign language requirement, but not college coursework on IGETC.