Advanced study requires high proficiency in spoken and written English. The requirements below are designed to insure that international students have the language skills needed to do their own work, to complete their educational programs, to write theses and dissertations, and to function well in university classrooms and laboratories in the United States as students and instructors. In itself it does not demonstrate the proficiency in English the University and Graduate School requires of enrolled international graduate students. Before registering, graduate students whose native language is not English must take an examination to demonstrate their proficiency in written English. Students who arrive after orientation are placed by a one-hour essay.
All placement is double-checked by a second diagnostic essay written during the first week of class.
Students must continue to register for classes each semester until they complete the sequence or are ruled proficient writers on the basis of the final essays. Based on this reading, students may be required to repeat the course, or they may move to the next course in the sequence, skip a course, or, if judged proficient, exit the sequence. To make certain that all international graduate students on assistantships meet oral proficiency standards and thereby satisfy requirements of University policy and of state law, the Spoken English Program certifies the oral proficiency of all international graduate assistants. No students can be assigned to any assistantship duties requiring direct contact with LSU students until they have been certified in one of two ways. The first is by showing proficiency in an oral interview.