ALTA and ACTFL – Validation
Foreign Language Validation
If you are a native (or near-native) speaker of a language other than English and graduated from high school in the United States, you may request a foreign language validation test through The Ohio State University Testing Center. If you reach the appropriate level on this test, your foreign language requirement will be validated. This means that you will be allowed to substitute 12 hours of approved courses to fulfill the foreign language requirement. You should then meet with your academic adviser to find out which courses can be used in lieu of the foreign language requirement. You will NOT be awarded EM credit hours for a validation.
You may complete the validation every 90 days. You may not enroll in any language course for which you received a validation. In order for your exam to count towards validation, you must take it in the Testing Center at The Ohio State University. If this exam is proctored by someone other than the Testing Center, it will not count for validation.
The Ohio State University Testing Center offers the ALTA Listening and Speaking exam, the Certified ACTFL Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI), and the Certified ACTFL Written Proficiency Test (WPT). Students should take the ALTA exam unless ALTA does not offer testing their language.
FEES:
Each exams requires a $25 proctor fee payable to OSU.
Exams themselves range from $57-$200 depending on the type of exam and how many you need to take.
When signing up for an ACTFL test, select The Ohio State University Testing Center as your proctor, click on the orange link that says ‘Search for your institution or school program’ in the upper right hand corner of our main website. If you do not click on this orange link, you will not be able to select Ohio State University as your proctor site.
The languages available for validation are subject to change but can include:
Afrikaans
Akan-Twi
Albanian
Algerian
Armenian
Azerbaijani
Baluchi
Bengali
Bulgarian
Cambodian
Cantonese
Cebuao
Czech
Dari
Dutch
Egyptian
GA
Georgian
Gujarati
Haitian Creole (OPI and WPT)
Hausa
Hiligaynon
Hmong-Mong
Hungarian
Igbo
Indonesian
Japanese
Kikongo
Krio
Kurdish-Kumanji
Lao
Malay
Nepali
Pashto
Punjabi
Slovak
Somali
Swahili
Syrian
Tagalog
Tajik
Tamil
Tausug
Telugu
Thai
Turkmen
Urdu
Vietnamese (OPI and WPT)
Wu
Yoruba