Note About Foreign Language at UNL
"The UNL College of Arts and Sciences strongly recommends a third and fourth year of one foreign language in high school. Four years of high school coursework in the same language will fulfill the College of Arts and Sciences language requirement."
This means that students who take only two years of foreign language in high school will have to take two more while at UNL. Foreign language at the college level will be much more difficult than at the high school level. Classes taken at the Link will have a much smaller teacher-to-student ratio, and they will be taught by a believer with a Christian worldview. We strongly encourage students to get all four years completed in high school.
When should my student take foreign language classes?
The following write-up is by Jill Greff, Spanish teacher at the Link. While it was written specifically for Spanish, it would apply to other foreign languages as well.
College bound students need to consider two things before they decide when to enroll in Spanish:
A. Is there a high school language requirement at the college or university in which the student plans to enroll? Most colleges require 2 years in the same foreign language in high school for admission. If the student needs language only for college enrollment, take 2 years of Link Spanish consecutively when it is the most convenient.
B. Is there a college language requirement at the college or university in which the student plans to enroll? Several colleges and universities require that additional language classes be taken for certain majors at the college level. If this is the case, there are several ways to approach high school language study at the Link with the goal being to skip college Spanish classes and save on tuition and time.
1. Take Spanish I as a junior, and Spanish II as a senior. This approach allows you to complete your admission requirements and also puts you in a good position to continue with the language requirement at the college level. It is recommended that you take college level Spanish immediately in the fall after graduating from high school. It is not a good idea to wait even a semester to continue as much can be lost in a few months time. A student who completes Link Spanish I and II with an A grade, should place into a second semester college level Spanish class. (This means you will skip one college class and save on tuition.)
2. Begin Spanish as a sophomore and continue through Spanish III. This approach allows you to complete your admission requirements and also puts you in a good position to skip certain classes in the language requirement at the college level. It is recommended that you take Spanish immediately in the fall at the college level. It is not a good idea to wait even a semester to continue as much can be lost in a few months time. A student who completes Link Spanish I, II and III with an A grade, should place into a third semester college level Spanish class. (This means that you will skip two college classes and save on tuition.)
3. Begin Spanish as a freshman and continue through Spanish IV. This approach allows you to complete your admission requirements and may also exempt you from further Spanish study at the college level. If the college wants you to "prove your level" for their college requirements, take the 4th (or higher) semester of Spanish. It is recommended that you take Spanish immediately in the fall at the college level. It is not a good idea to wait even a semester to continue as much can be lost in a few months time. A student who completes Link Spanish I, II, III and IV with an A grade, should place into a fourth, fifth (or even higher!) semester college level Spanish class. (This means that you will skip three to four college classes and save on 12-16 hours of tuition.)
4. The eighth grader who takes Spanish I and completes Spanish IV their junior year should take a college level Spanish class his/her senior year at a place like SCC, UNL or Wesleyan (Union College does not offer a Spanish class that will be advanced enough). By doing this, a student will be able to skip 3 or more semesters of college Spanish and will receive college credit while still in high school.
5. The college-bound senior is also invited to take Spanish I at the Link. It is an excellent way to prepare for a college-level language class. A senior who completes Link Spanish I should then take a beginning level college Spanish class. The first half of the college class will be review and will give the student some extra time to adapt to college life. (No tuition is saved, but it will make the transition from high school to college much easier. It will also lessen the severity of being admitted to college with a "language deficiency".)