PhD Handbook: Foreign Language
Language competency in a language other than English is not required of all students. However, competency in a foreign language may be deemed necessary by the student's program and faculty adviser. The student's dissertation adviser and the graduate adviser will determine whether proficiency is appropriate. Given the nature of the proposed Ph.D., and the fact that most students' research, specialization and professional activities will call for close and repeated contact with speakers of languages other than English, the most likely language to be required will be Spanish or an Asian language, because these are the most prevalent languages spoken in California schools.
Language proficiency, if required, will be determined either through an assessment of oral language proficiency or of reading comprehension as appropriate for the research. The minimum level of proficiency in the oral language will be assessed to be equivalent to level two of the Foreign Service Institute-Defense Language Institute oral proficiency examination. Reading comprehension will be assessed on the basis of the ability to translate into English 500 words of a research article in the student's field of interest written in the foreign language. The student will be able to use a dictionary and will have two hours to complete the translation.