Language Requirements
MA students must demonstrate an ability to work at the graduate level in at least one language other than English. There are a couple of ways to demonstrate this language proficiency by:
• Successfully completing a graduate course that is taught in a foreign language.
• Arranging with a graduate instructor for you to write, speak, and read in a foreign language within the context of a seminar that is taught in English. These arrangements must be made in the first week of the semester and confirmed by the Graduate Professor via email to the Associate Director.
• Arranging an evaluation of your language proficiency by a graduate faculty member at the U of T.
• Providing official academic transcripts from post-secondary school/institution in which instruction was conducted in the language.
Adequate reading knowledge of a second language other than English must be demonstrated BEFORE the MA is received. A reading exam can be taken in a language department or given by a Professor willing to administer and grade the test. Upon completion of the foreign language reading test, that Professor should write a letter to the COL Director or Associate Director providing them with the test mark.
PhD students must demonstrate graduate language proficiency (reading, writing, speaking) in three non-English languages. You can satisfy these language requirements by:
• Successfully completing a graduate course that is taught in a foreign language.
• Arranging with a graduate instructor for you to write, speak, and read in a foreign language within the context of a seminar that is taught in English. These arrangements must be made in the first week of the semester and confirmed by the Graduate Professor via email to the Associate Director.
• Arranging an evaluation of your language proficiency by a graduate faculty member at the U of T.
• Providing official academic transcripts from post-secondary school/institution in which instruction was conducted in the language.
• NOTE: the third language can be substituted with two graduate courses in a non-literary/language discipline (e.g. Art History, Philosophy, Cinema) taken outside of the Centre.
updated: November 5th, 2020
