Language Center

Need a language placement test?

Language placement testing during the academic year is limited. Check the link below for information on the next testing opportunity.

Placement testing details

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"If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to him in his own language, that goes to his heart."

- Nelson Mandela

Over 25 years of excellence in teaching foreign languages

Academics Overview

Students taking a language test with headphones and microphone

Accurate language placement test sets you up for success in learning a new language

Learn more about placement tests

Meet with a peer to practice your conversation skills in a foreign language

Available to current -LANG students, language conversation partners can help you develop conversation skills to meet oral proficiency objectives of the Language Center courses.

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Welcome

About us

The Stanford Language Center has been offering the highest quality language instruction and assessment since its establishment in 1995. With course offerings in more than forty languages, SLC programs are proficiency-oriented and standards-based.

Our language programs emphasize doing rather than knowing, so that students learn to speak, listen, read, and write in ways that are immediately useful in a real world setting.

At the Language Center, we prepare all Stanford students to have a foreign language capability that enhances their academic program and enables them to live, work, study, and research in a different country.

Placement Testing

Placement testing information

Accurate initial placement is a key factor in successfully learning a foreign language. The Language Center administers placement tests to all students who intend to continue studying a foreign language at Stanford. The purpose of testing is diagnostic: it assesses students' current language abilities in order to match them to the course most suitable for that level. Accurate initial placement is a key factor in successfully learning a foreign language.

If you have any exposure to the language, take the placement exam before enrolling in a language course.

Placement exams in each language consist of both text and oral components. Proficiency testing measures what students are able to do with the language. 