Dodging the language requirement

[Harold Schiffman]

Obscure policy lets some dodge requirement: Students can petition
advisers to opt out of language classes

By By Mara Gay, Daily Staff Reporter on 2/12/08

 For many students, the University's two-year foreign language
requirement is a chore. But for those with language disabilities,
completing a sequence in a foreign language can be downright
impossible. What many students don't know, though, is that even
students without a documented learning disability can petition the
University for a foreign language waiver that will exempt them from
the requirement altogether. LSA sophomore Brittany Stembridge said
she's an 'A' student. But when she started her Spanish 100 course
earlier this term, she knew right away it would be too difficult for
her.

"The professor talked primarily in Spanish, so it was very difficult
to understand what she was saying," she said. "I took a test and I
didn't do so badly, but I figured it was going to get harder." After
dropping the class, Stembridge talked to her academic adviser to find
out whether she could opt out of the foreign language requirement. In
order for students to obtain a foreign language waiver, they must
petition the Academic Standards Board, which requires students to
write a letter detailing their difficulties with the language and
submit at least one letter of support from a professor. They then take
the Modern Language Aptitude Test - a two-hour exam measuring skills
correlated with the ability to learn a foreign language. Using the
exam results and letters of support, the Board decides whether to
grant the student a waiver.

Split into five parts, the exam measures skills like listening
comprehension and memorization. It's given twice a semester, and
students who have taken the test said it's somewhat colorful. "It was
really weird," said Stembridge, who took the test last week. "It was
like a made-up language." Part of the exam actually is administered in
a made-up language, said Stuart Segal, the associate director and
coordinator of Services for Students with Learning Disabilities, which
administers the exam. Segal said that while some of the test is in a
fake language, the final section is written in Kurdish. "In one part
of the test we measure short-term memory," Segal said. "You're given
20 words and then we see what you remember."

Though the exam is evaluative and students don't technically pass or
fail it, Segal said there's no way to prevent students from trying to
bomb the exam on purpose. "You can purposefully tank the test," Segal
said. "It's something that we're well aware of and we wonder about,
ourselves." Segal said the committee would notice, though, if a
student's test results were wildly different from everyone else's. "We
compare the results of the aptitude test with your academic record,"
he said. "If you bomb the exam and you got into the University, it's
usually going to be pretty obvious, and you're not going to get what
you want."

When asked how often waivers are granted to those who apply, Segal
said "frequently," but that there were no official statistics to prove
his estimate.

Many students said their academic advisers told them about the exam,
but that the option isn't well publicized. LSA sophomore Ebony Sunday
said she heard about the exam from her friend's older sister.

Mary Lambert, an LSA sophomore, said she struggled through a Spanish
class last year and had no idea she could receive an exemption.

"Last year I was at office hours all the time," Lambert said. "And
this year, I don't think my professor even knew the test existed."

Jeffery Harrold, chair of the Quantitative Reasoning Committee and a
member of the Academic Standards Board, said students shouldn't rush
to take the exam after a disappointing quiz score.

He suggested that struggling students seek help from their professors
or graduate student instructors.

But when that's not enough, he said, sitting down with an academic
adviser and determining candidacy for a language waiver is the next
step.

"Once they've talked to the instructor about what's happening in that
class, the first person I tell them to talk to is their academic
adviser," Harrold said.

Chalmers Knight, the chair of the Foreign Language Waiver Committee,
said the process is holistic and that the committee tries to assess
each case on its own merits.

"We give everyone due process and we are quite diligent about being
fair to both students and the college," Knight said.

Cathleen Conway-Perrin, director of the Academic Standards Board, said
students who think they might have a learning disability should seek
help at the University's Office of Services for Students with
Disabilities.

http://media.www.michigandaily.com/media/storage/paper851/news/2008/02/12/Academics/Obscure.Policy.Lets.Some.Dodge.Requirement-3203112.shtml
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