Graduation Requirements: COAS (Foreign Language Proficiency)

  • Florida State University requires study of a foreign language in high school as a condition for acceptance to the university (two years at the high school level). However, all students who intend to graduate with a bachelor's degree (either a B.A. or B.S.) from a department in the College of Arts and Sciences must show language proficiency beyond that required for university admission. Specifically, students must demonstrate proficiency equivalent to or beyond that attained upon completion of the intermediate level course (2000-level) in a language other than English. Hours used to fulfill the foreign language requirement may not be counted toward a major or minor.
  • Proficiency in an ancient or modern foreign language can be demonstrated by successful completion of enrollment in a 2000-level course in Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Greek, Hebrew (Biblical or Modern), Italian, Japanese, Latin, Portuguese, Russian or Spanish. All coursework used to fulfill the language requirement must be completed with a grade of “C-“ or better, or an S grade if taken on an S/U basis. Proficiency equivalent to completion of a 2000-level language course may be demonstrated through exemption or placement examinations. 
    • Modern Languages Exemption and Placement Options
      • Students who have prior knowledge of a language, either as a native speaker or are continuing a language from high school and have not earned college-level credit through an accelerated credit mechanism such as AP, IB, AICE, CLEP, or dual enrollment, should take the placement exam before enrolling in a college-level course to determine their proficiency level. It is possible to complete the proficiency requirement through a placement exam. If you have collegiate credit in a language, you can simply register for the next level in the sequence that you have the pre-requisite for. If your credit is transfer credit that does not have an equivalent at FSU, please consult with the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics before registering for your first language course at FSU.
      • Students wishing to place out of Spanish, French or German should review the Department of Modern Languages and Linguistics Exemption and Placement website.
      • Native speakers of other modern languages should review the information found here.
    • Classical Languages Exemption and Placement Options
      • Students who wish to demonstrate proficiency in Latin should review this site for information about courses and exemption options.
      • Students who wish to demonstrate proficiency in either Biblical or Modern Hebrew should contact Dr. David Levenson (dlevenson@fsu.edu) in the Department of Religion for information about exemption and enrollment options.
    • American Sign Language Exemption and Placement Options
      • Students may use ASL to satisfy the Arts and Sciences Foreign Language requirement. The intermediate level proficiency course for ASL is ASL2160C.
      • The College of Communication and Information (CCI) offers ASL courses at FSU and does not allow these courses to be taken on a Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory basis.
      • Information about the ASL courses offered at FSU and ASL placement exam options can be found here.
      • As these courses have limited enrollment at FSU, please communicate with your departmental advisor regarding options for completing the required ASL courses before your junior year.
    • Students with no prior experience in the language they wish to study are not required to complete a placement exam and would enroll in the 1120 level of the language of interest. If a student is starting with the first level of a language, e.g., SPN1120 (4 credit hours), they would then complete the sequence by taking and passing the second level, e.g., SPN1121 (4 credit hours) and the intermediate level, e.g., SPN2220 (4 credit hours).
    • Students with college-level credit in a language will have their course placement level determined based on the evaluation of the transfer work completed.
Graduation
Major Information and Advising