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The Department of Anthropology has a two-part language requirement, which students can fulfill in many ways. The two parts are referred to as "Competency" and "Mastery." Competency in a language means a working knowledge of the language sufficient to carry out simple tasks using the language. Mastery constitutes near-native fluency in the language and the ability to read, write, and converse in the language across a wide range of topics and contexts. We require students to demonstrate either Mastery of a second language (in addition to the language the student grew up using), or Competency in two languages (in addition to the language the student grew up using).
Timing for Completing the Language Requirement(s)
We require at least the first part of our language requirement to be satisfied by the end of the student's first year in the program. The second part of the language requirement (either Mastery of the same language or Competency in a different (i.e., third) language) can be satisfied at any time up to the student's thesis defense. We urge students to get the requirements out of the way as early as they can.
Many ways to satisfy these requirements.
We will work with you to find the best, quickest, and/or most intellectually useful way for you to satisfy our language requirements. Accordingly, we are happy to have students satisfy the requirements using just about any language at all. For anthropology graduate students this classically includes using their "field language," which many students come to know and use during their field research. Similarly, we are happy to accept various other kinds of competencies that are essential to a student's research, such as statistics for archeologists, or programming languages for those employing digital research strategies. See the information below for details, or if you have questions about your languages or our requirements, please contact our Language Requirement Coordinator.
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Speakers of Other Languages
If you grew up using a language other than English, we consider your ability to study at the graduate level in English to constitute Mastery of a second language (thereby satisfying all of our language requirements). Satisfactory completion of the university's ESL requirements (either before matriculation or during your first year at UVA) constitutes credit for Mastery of English as a second language.
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Students Who Studied Languages at College
Incoming students who completed 2 years (or 4 semesters) of a language program can claim Competency in that language. All that we need is a copy of a college transcript showing the course credit -- so long as the course was taken within the past 5 years. Students also have the option of completing language courses at UVA (see below for ideas about this).
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Taking Tests to Demonstrate Competence or Mastery
Students who know other languages well, or who studied them formally more than 5 years before matriculation, can opt to take a test demonstrating their level of proficiency in the language. UVA language departments offer exams in French, Spanish, Italian, German, Russian, and Polish. See our Graduate Language Requirement Testing page for specifics on dates, times, and contact people for these languages.