Languages Requirement

SECOND LANGUAGE CORE REQUIREMENT:
*For students entering in Fall 2017 or later: 201-level proficiency
*For students entering prior to Fall 2017: any two three-credit hour courses, or 202 proficiency

In Spring 2014 Faculty voted that the Core requirement for language would include "201 competency or 102 plus experience abroad." (See below for details.) For students entering before Fall 2017, the language requirement will continue to be that of the old Core, any two language courses (101 and 102, or 103 and 201, for example) or demonstration of proficiency at the 202 level (through testing prior to entrance to Xavier, or through successful completion of 202 at Xavier, for example).

Further Details:

Following conversations with faculty in relevant departments in the university, the Core Curriculum Committee delayed implementation of the new second language core requirement until Fall 2017. Students enrolling at Xavier prior to Fall 2017 are subject to the language requirement of the old Core.

"201 Competency": When the new core was proposed, it was thought that fewer than 3% of students would require a third semester of language. However, conversations with faculty in the department of Classics and Modern Languages indicated that that number would likely be higher. In response to this challenge, CLAS worked to develop a 103-level language course in Spanish, French, and German. These courses condensed material from 101- and 102-level courses into a single semester. They were designed for 1. students who took two years of a language in high school, but did not test into 102, 2. students who did test into 102, but chose not to begin at the 102 level, or 3. students who were highly motivated. These courses will enable many students to complete the new language requirement in two semesters, by taking 103 and 201. After running this new 103 course in 2015-2016, and evaluating its effectiveness, we are now prepared to lift this portion of the postponement of the requirement for which faculty voted in 2014.

For students entering before Fall 2017, the second language requirement will revert to the old core requirement for incoming freshmen in fall 2015: six hours or intermediate proficiency (i.e. testing out of or completing 202). Majors' block schedules can reflect this by indicating "Second language 1" and "Second language 2."

"102 Plus Experience Abroad": The faculty vote of April 2014 also affirmed that somewhere in the core "experience abroad" should be encouraged (not as a requirement of the core, but as a possible option). This vote assigned authority to Classics and Modern Languages to determine which experiences abroad would amount to completing this requirement. In Spring 2016, Classics and Modern Languages agreed that students could satisfy the language requirement through their study abroad experience as long as students acquired the equivalent of 201-level competency, as determined by the assessment of Classics and Modern Languages.