All students are expected to take a placement exam before registering for language classes! This is to assist in placement of your level.

Current Undergraduate and Graduate students must request access to placement exams. After a student has requested and received access, the exam will become available via MySlice within 24 hours. Questions?

Students are expected to follow exam protocols and adhere to the ethical standard outlined in the Academic Integrity Policy when taking a language placement exam which states “examinations and quizzes of all kinds, including online and take-home as well as in-class exams, must reflect only the work of the submitting student without assistance from other people or resources such as texts, websites or notes."

The placement exam is designed to determine the appropriate level of language study. It is not a pass or fail exam.

1. Using your NetID and password, log in to MySlice.
2. Select the “Advising” tile and then the “Placement Exam” link on the left.
3. Then complete needed exam.

The exam can be taken at any time during the day. The placement exams where you have prior knowledge of the language will take at most, 1 hour and must be completed in one sitting. These include: Arabic, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Latin, Russian and Spanish.

Some of our placement exams have an online survey and then you would meet with the Program Coordinator for the exam. Once you have completed the online survey, email lll@syr.edu to let us know you need to take the exam for one of these languages: Ancient Greek, Chinese, Hindi, Japanese, Korean, Portuguese and Turkish.

ESF students must contact the department once the exam has been completed. To be given registration access to the appropriate language course. Please email Christine Palmer, cepalmer@syr.edu, include that you are an ESF student requesting your language placement information with your name and student ID number.

First term undergraduate students (new first year and new transfer students) can access and take the placement exams after accepting the admission offer and becoming term activated (in May for Fall admits, on a rolling basis beginning in December for Spring admits).

Non-English Language Exams

If you have studied any of the following languages either formally or informally, lived in a country where that language is the dominant spoken language, or grown up in a household that spoke that language, you must take a placement exam before being allowed to register for any course in that language. Please contact <lll@syr.edu> or the Program /Language Coordinators below with questions.

• Arabic, Dr. Rania Habib
• Chinese, Darwin H. Tsen
• French, Nicole G. Karam
• German, Professor Karina von Tippelskirch
• Greek, Professor Jeffrey Carnes.
• Hebrew, Erella Brown Sofer
• Hindi, Professor Tej Bhatia
• Italian, Lauren Surovi
• Japanese, Tomoko Walter
• Korean, Seungmin Yun
• Latin, Professor Jeffrey Carnes.
• Portuguese, Elizabeth Juarez-Cummings
• Russian, Professor Erika Haber. Note, admittance into LIT courses that are cross-listed with RUS courses does not require a placement exam but you cannot use LIT courses towards the Russian major or minor; instead, you must register for the RUS side of the course.
• Spanish, Elizabeth Juarez-Cummings
• Turkish, Professor Jaklin Kornfilt

ESOL, English Language Assessment Exam (ELAE)

This exam is not to be confused with the placement exams for foreign languages.

The ESOL exam consists of two parts: a composition on an assigned topic and a test of grammar and vocabulary. If you are an undergraduate student, the results of the exam will tell you which ENL/WRT course you should take to begin completing your undergraduate writing requirement. The exam is required for all undergraduate students for whom English is not their dominant language. If you are a student entering from the ELI, you should also take the exam.

If you are a graduate student, further language study might be recommended or required by your college (not by our department). Graduate students should contact their college if they are unsure of whether they are required to take the exam.

ELAE Fall 2023 exam date and the registration link:

1. The next ELAE will have two online sessions in June:

Held on June 8th and June 10th EDT 2023

1. You must register for the exam by end of day June 6th, 2023 here:

https://syracuseuniversity.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_88s3EhVKXYIkaMe

The exam can be taken at any time during the day of your chosen exam date at registration. The exam will take at most 2 hours and must be completed in one sitting. Instructions on how to access the exam will be emailed to you by the day before your exam date.

For more information, please contact the ESOL Program -Dr. Meichan Huang <mhuang01@syr.edu>.