Language Requirements

 

Foreign Language Proficiency Requirements

Degree candidates who are native English speakers are required to demonstrate oral and reading proficiency in a modern foreign language. Non-native speakers of English may fulfill this requirement with English.

Native English Speakers
Students who are native English speakers are expected to have completed significant coursework or have significant proficiency in their target foreign language at the time of their admission to the program. Normally a minimum of 22 credit hours of language course work is necessary to achieve the required proficiency level (though this will vary depending on the quality and intensity of the instruction).

Students are required to be proficient in a modern foreign language to receive the degree. Language proficiency is certified by an exit examination administered upon successful completion of 20 credit hours in the graduate program. Exit exams are offered by the foreign language departments once in the fall and once in the spring semester. (Note: MIS students should plan to take the first scheduled examination after they arrive at GW.) Students are given three opportunities to pass the exit examination. Failure in the third attempt results in dismissal from the program. Please see the required proficiency levels that follow.

Non-Native Speakers of English
In addition to doing well on the TOEFL exam taken prior to admission, non-native speakers of English are expected to pass an English proficiency exam before the end of their second semester in residence. Students whose English proficiency is deficient may be required to take courses in English as a Foreign Language (EFL). Please be aware that these courses may require additional time in residence at GW. For details, please consult our web site at www.gwu.edu/~elliott/academicprograms/ma/international.html.

The following are the required proficiency levels for languages offered on a regular basis at the George Washington University:

Language	Reading	Speaking
Arabic	Intermediate High	Intermediate High
Chinese	Intermediate High	Intermediate High
French	Advanced	Intermediate High
German	Advanced	Intermediate High
Hebrew	Intermediate High	Intermediate High
Italian	Advanced	Intermediate High
Japanese	Intermediate High	Intermediate High
Korean	Intermediate High	Intermediate High
Portuguese	Advanced	Intermediate High
Russian	Intermediate High	Intermediate High
	Advanced for EES
Spanish	Advanced	Intermediate High

 

Reading--Intermediate High

The student can: fully understand simple connected texts dealing with basic personal and social needs; comprehend main ideas and information in texts at the next higher level featuring description and narration. Structural complexity may interfere with comprehension; e.g., basic grammatical relations may be misinterpreted and temporal references may rely primarily on lexical items. Some difficulty with the cohesive factors in discourse may be evident, such as matching pronouns with referents. While texts do not differ significantly from those at the Advanced level, comprehension is less consistent. The student at this level may have to read material several times for full understanding.

Reading--Advanced

The student can easily read and understand several paragraphs if the text has a clear underlying structure and familiar sentence patterns. The student comprehends the main ideas and facts but misses some details. Comprehension arises from situational and subject matter knowledge as well as increasing control of the language. Texts at this level include descriptions and narrations such as short stories, news items, bibliographical information, social notices, personal correspondence, business letters and simple technical material written for the general reader.

Speaking--Intermediate High

The student can: handle most communicative tasks and social situations successfully; initiate and sustain a general conversation with strategies appropriate to diverse circumstances and topics, but errors are evident. Limited vocabulary causes some hesitation and may produce unexpected circumlocution. However, there is emerging evidence of connected discourse, particularly for simple narration and/or description. The Intermediate-High speaker is generally understood by interlocutors, who are unaccustomed to dealing with speakers at this level, but repetition may still be required.