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Welcome to the Stanford Language Center!
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.
Our Mission
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. Stanford students need to be able to initiate interactions with persons from other cultures but also to engage with them on issues of mutual concern.
Placement Testing
Accurate initial placement is a key factor in successfully learning a foreign language. Prior to their arrival on campus, new Stanford students take their written foreign language placement tests online. Upon arrival on campus, they take the oral portion of the placement test during New Student Orientation week. Both the online reading, writing, and grammar tests, as well as the on-campus speaking tests, are used to place students in courses that fit their current proficiency levels.
