General Education, Foreign Language, and Composition I Requirements

All undergraduates must study core courses called General Education courses in order to graduate. The purpose is to improve your knowledge base and your analytical skills by introducing you to a variety of disciplines.

The foreign language requirement is one area of Gen Ed courses. The intent of this requirement is that all undergraduates should be proficient in two different languages. For most native-born Americans, this means English and another language such as French or Spanish. For international students, it also means English (or ESL) but the “other language” can be your native language.

If you are an international student...

The Colleges of Business, Communications, and Liberal Arts and Science as well as the Division of General Studies require that you have studied your native language for four years AND English for four years in your secondary school in order to have met the General Education requirement for studying a foreign language prior to coming to UIUC.

If you are entering a college other than Business, Communications, LAS or the Division of General Studies, you are required to have studied four years of English (or ESL) in your secondary school and three years of either your native language or another foreign language in order to have met the General Education requirement for studying a foreign language prior to coming to UIUC.

If you begin UIUC without this Gen Ed requirement fulfilled, you will need to either take an appropriate course at UIUC or pass a proficiency exam to meet the requirement. Please note that if you pass a proficiency exam in your native language, you might fulfill your language Gen Ed requirement but you will NOT necessarily earn academic credit. Consult with your advisor.

The Composition I requirement is another area of Gen Ed courses, completely separate from the language requirement. Its purpose is to help you learn how to write in English in a manner that is appropriate for academic inquiry.

Native-English-speaking students fulfill this by taking a Rhetoric course.

Students for whom English is a second language can fulfill it by taking either the English as a Second Language sequence of courses “ESL 114-115” or by taking a Rhetoric sequence.

 
Last updated May 1, 2008