Admission requirements

Students majoring in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian, or Spanish are required to demonstrate proficiency at a level determined by the individual language program before being admitted to 400-level courses.

Placement

Students with prior experience in French, German, or Spanish are required to take an online placement examination. You may access the test under “Advising” at www.pdx.edu/wll.

Students of Arabic, Chinese, Greek, Modern Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Norwegian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Swedish, or Turkish may contact the Department of World Languages and Literatures for placement advising.

Credit by examination

Credit by exam may be granted for first-year and second-year language sequences only. A student may be awarded credit by exam for a maximum of one language sequence (12-15 credits). Credit by exam is awarded only for those languages taught by the department. Credit received by examination is graded P/NP only.

Students of French, German, or Spanish may receive credit for first- or second-year by taking a CLEP exam (administered by Testing Services). The amount of credit awarded will depend on the score received. Students of Arabic, Chinese, Danish, Greek, Modern Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, Korean, Latin, Norwegian, Persian, Portuguese, Russian, Swahili, Swedish, or Turkish should contact the department for individual testing.

Restrictions

The language sequences 101, 102, 103 (or 150, 151) and 201, 202, 203 must be taken in order. Students who have received credit for any one of these may not subsequently receive credit for any of the lower numbered courses. This restriction also applies to transfer credits and credits earned by examination.

Native speakers (defined as students whose formal secondary education was completed in the foreign language) may not register for first- through fourth-year language courses in their native language, nor may they receive credit by exam for their native language.