Placement and Proficiency Testing

Placement Testing for LCTL Classes

Heritage speakers of a language and students with past experience learning the target language need to contact the LCTL Coordinator (Dr. Emily Heidrich Uebel) to determine which level is appropriate. Native speakers of a language who are fluent and literate in a language should reach out to the coordinator or, if interested in placing out of a language, should read the recommendations for waiving foreign language requirements (below).

LCTL Proficiency Requirements for College of Arts & Letters and International Business Minor

This section outlines the proficiency levels needed in less commonly taught languages (LCTLs) to fulfill the College of Arts & Letters (CAL) or the International Business Minor‘s language requirement of “fourth-semester proficiency.” This covers languages that do not have a program or a full-time faculty member; LCTL programs with their own faculty members will determine their procedures for fulfilling the language requirement. If you are fulfilling the language requirement for another program/college, you will need to check with your program’s academic advisor to understand the requirements.

Policy updated January 2026

Required Proficiency Levels

We generally expects students to be achieving somewhere in the Intermediate proficiency level on the ACTFL scale at the end of the fourth semester of language study. This policy takes into account that LCTL students have been shown to achieve lower levels of proficiency with similar length of study (see e.g., MSU Proficiency Flagship Initiative data) and the fact that receptive and productive skills do not progress at the same pace.

  • Receptive Skills (Reading and Listening or “Receptive Skills” in ASL): Intermediate Mid
  • Productive Skills (Speaking & Writing or “Expressive Skills” in ASL): Intermediate Low

(Some languages do not have reading and listening tests readily available. In such cases, we will accept test results for the productive skills of speaking and writing. Please note that only a speaking score will not be accepted, as CAL’s requirement of fourth-semester proficiency would include both written and oral skills.)

How does a student prove proficiency?

Language proficiency level can be proven by any qualified proctored test that can demonstrate the student’s proficiency on the ACTFL proficiency scale, which can include tests like the STAMP test through Avant Assessment or the ACTFL tests through LTI.*

Note: If the students reach Intermediate Mid in all skills, they can elect to receive a “Functional Fluency” certificate from the Global Seal of Biliteracy, which would demonstrate their language abilities to external constituents, including employers. This is free, as is the Global Seal of Biliteracy’s Digital Language Profile, where a student’s language credentials can be authenticated directly from LinkedIn profile.

*We do not require that the student use certain testing companies, but do require that the results are from an official test: other proficiency tests may be considered if they are approved as a qualified proctored test accepted by the Global Seal of Biliteracy. (That organization has done the work in evaluating tests and their equivalencies.) In such cases where students do not receive an ACTFL-level rating, students will need to meet the threshold for a “Functional Fluency” certificate (equivalent to Intermediate-Mid proficiency in all skills), as MSU cannot independently assess all test rating systems.

How do I take a proficiency test?

Students can schedule their own test(s) with an approved testing company (including remote proctoring) as described above and have the score sent directly to MSU. We highly recommend that students reach out to the LCTL Coordinator (Dr. Emily Heidrich Uebel) with their testing plan and get confirmation that their planned test will be accepted.

Can MSU help me schedule a proficiency test?

At MSU, we likely will have options each semester for students to take the STAMP test through Avant Assessment for a relatively low cost (probably around $40-50 including proctoring fees, although some rarely taught LCTLs may cost ~$180 including proctoring fees). Please contact the LCTL Coordinator (Dr. Emily Heidrich Uebel) if you would like to pursue this.

Waiving Foreign Language Requirements for Students Educated in a Language Other than English

Students who have completed at least 8 years of formal education at an institution where the language of instruction was not English may be able to have their language requirement waived for that particular language. The student must be able to provide documentation of such schooling. If these documents are not written in English, the students must locate and pay for a translation of these documents, and submit a copy of the original and translated versions to the LCTL Coordinator (Dr. Emily Heidrich Uebel).