Language level after univ. degree (Immersion, Schools & Certificates) Language Learning Forum

Language level after univ. degree
Tags: CEFR Language Levels \| College/University
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Language Learning Forum : Immersion, Schools & Certificates

18 messages over 3 pages: 1 2 3

daegga
Tetraglot
Senior Member
Austria
lang-8.com/553301
Joined 4531 days ago
1076 posts - 1792 votes

Speaks: German*, English^C2, Swedish, Norwegian
Studies: Danish, French, Finnish, Icelandic

Message 17 of 18

19 August 2012 at 1:46am | IP Logged

In Austria, there is a placement test for the most popular languages (at least English, French, Spanish, those you can learn at high school) and you have to be at least at B2 level before being admitted (the tests are stupid though and focus mostly on weird vocabulary, at least in English). So people would on average graduate at a C1 level I guess.
For Scandinavian languages, no prior knowledge was required, and most got to B1 or B2 after 2 years of instruction without a stay abroad (the exception is Icelandic, people progress a lot slower in this language). Many stay abroad for 1 year afterwards and their language ability increases.

2 persons have voted this message useful

justonelanguage
Diglot
Groupie
United States
Joined 4472 days ago
98 posts - 128 votes

Speaks: English, Spanish

Message 18 of 18

12 September 2012 at 4:16am | IP Logged

It depends also on the person! In my college, I was dismayed at how little people spoke Spanish in the normal University language classes. Thankfully, my school had an immersion language program where you did lunch tables and coffee hours in Spanish, Latin, German, French, Russian, and Japanese. This was all in our dorm; we had classes in the same building where we lived and it was kind of like a language bubble. Also, there were about 8 students/class and we had a very rigorous "proficiency" test at the end of the program; this program was used to train US students to speak Japanese interpreters during WW2.

When I was abroad, I spoke completely (literally) in Spanish but my American friends would just associate with English speakers, which is fine, it's their choice. But your language skills will suck if you don't practice.

I know people that actually spoke better with very intense language study and practice while in the US than people that studied abroad for 8 months!

Of course there is individual variation for language talent, but motivation is a big part of it.

James29 wrote:

In general, what level of competency does a 4 year college degree in a language accomplish? Are there speaking/listening requirements for people to graduate?

I understand this varies quite a bit from language to language and school to school. I also understand there is more than just speaking/listening in terms of studying a language in college.

One of the reasons I am asking is that some people I speak to with degrees in Spanish do not really seem to be able to speak or understand Spanish at a high level (A2 or B1). On the other hand, when I was at the bookstore today I took a look through a study guide for AP Spanish and it seemed quite challenging.

It seems to me that if a college is going to give a degree in a foreign language to a student the student should be at least at a C1 level in the language. Is this unreasonable? Are there any sort of standards?

Edited by justonelanguage on 12 September 2012 at 4:18am
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