Prospective Students
Welcome to all students who are ready to start learning a new language or continue to develop your bilingual skills!
If you are starting a new language, register for the 111 first-year course. The course is offered for all of our languages.
Placement exams and credit for previously acquired proficiency
If you have previous experience in a language, you can take our Online Readiness Test in French, German, or Spanish to determine the appropriate level for you. For other languages, contact Academic Advisor Laura Edwards.
If you earn a C or better in your first Illinois State language class at the 112 level or above, you can earn up to eight hours for free of Credit for Acquired Proficiency (CAP) credit for prior courses in the sequence. (For example, if you place into and complete 115 with a C or better, you will retroactively receive 8 hours of CAP credit at no cost to you.) CAP can be earned for a total of eight hours for any of the 100-level language courses. Students must fill out a CAP form to request credit.
The department also awards credit for Advanced Placement, International Baccalaureate, and the State of Illinois Biliteracy Certificate. See the Undergraduate Catalog for details.
Foreign language requirements
If you are earning a Bachelor of Science (B.S.) in the College of Arts and Sciences: three consecutive years of high school language study or 112 at ISU (or transfer credit equivalent).
If you are earning a Bachelor of Arts (B.A.): 115 at ISU (or transfer credit equivalent).
General Education: 115 also meets the Quantitative Reasoning requirement for students earning a BA; and 116 meets the Languages in the Humanities Requirement. JPN 116, SPA 244 and FRE 314 or 325 meet AMALI/Global Studies requirement. Other gen ed credit is available through LAN-sponsored study abroad programs.
If you are unsure of your degree and requirements, please check with your major academic advisor.
Language Proficiency Assessments
In order to ensure fairness to any and all students who seek accreditation of their language skills for academic credit for many languages that ISU does not offer, ISU will accept certification via LTI (Language Testing International), an organization affiliated with ACTFL (the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages). ACTFL has developed assessment tools based on decades of research in foreign language acquisition. LTI provides accreditation for schools, universities, and other organizations for a growing list of over 100 languages. Read this pdf for additional information on which assessment to take and the required score. If you decide to contact LTI to take the OPI, OPIc, or WPT, please follow the procedures in this pdf in order to ensure that you understand the proper registration procedures and the credit that you could earn. Here is more information about the structure of the OPI.