Language Requirement Petition Guidelines

Students with disabilities that significantly impact language acquisition may petition for a substitution of the requirement. Per ORC guidelines, all students should complete the language requirement or be approved for a substitution course before the end of their 7th quarter.

Students who are granted substitutions tend to have auditory and/or orthographic processing, learning, speech/language, and/or related disorders. To be considered for a substitution, students who are not registered with SAS need to apply and submit documentation to Student Accessibility Services regarding their language learning aptitude. Key measures to assess language learning aptitude, especially for students with learning disorders, are described below. This level of assessment is generally not required for a student who is D/deaf or hard of hearing, who will want to refer to our documentation guidelines for D/deafness or hard of hearing. Alternatively, our documentation guidelines regarding auditory processing disorders may be more relevant to students with these conditions than the tests listed below. Medical and other forms of documentation that highlight impacts of a disability on language acquisition may also be relevant.

If you are already registered with SAS and have submitted documentation related to your difficulties with language acquisition, SAS will review that documentation and any new information you submit as part of your language waiver/substitution petition.

Effective documentation should include objective measures of listening, speaking, reading/spelling, and writing as well as the cognitive processes that underlie them. If you are being evaluated and plan to apply for a language substitution at Dartmouth, please share this page with potential evaluators in advance of scheduling, and verify that they have access to and are familiar administering the types of tests below. This list is provided to highlight examples of tests that are likely to be appropriate as part of an evaluation; however, not all tests are required to be administered: 

• Memory
  • WAIS-V: Digit Sequencing, Running Digits, Digit Span-Process, WMI
  • WJ V: Story Recall, Understanding Directions, Sentence Repetition, Memory for Words, Numbers Reversed, Verbal Attention, Animal-Number Sequencing, Nonsense Word Repetition
  • PASAT: Auditory memory/attention + processing speed + cognitive load (calculation)
  • CVLT-3 
  • WRAML3: Story Memory, Story Memory Delayed, Story Memory Recognition, Verbal Learning, Verbal Learning Delayed, Verbal Learning Recognition, Verbal Working Memory, Sentence Memory
  • TAPS-4: Number Memory Forward, Word Memory, Sentence Memory, Number Memory Reversed
  • CELF-5: Recalling Sentences
  • WMS-IV: Logical Memory I and II
  • WIAT-4: Sentence Repetition
• Phonological Processing
  • CTOPP-2: Clusters -> Phonological Awareness; Phonological Memory; Rapid Naming, Segmenting Nonwords and Blending Nonwords
  • WJ V: Spelling of Sounds, Segmentation, Sound Blending, Visual-Auditory Learning, Phonemic Word Retrieval, Sound Substitution, Sound Deletion, Sound Reversal, Rapid Phoneme Naming
  • TAPS-4: Word Discrimination, Phonological Deletion, Phonological Blending, Syllabic Blending
• Expressive / Receptive Language
  • TOAL-4: spoken and written language subtests
  • TAPS-4: Processing Oral Directions, Auditory Comprehension, Auditory Figure-Ground
  • WJ V: Oral Comprehension, Story Comprehension, Oral Language Samples, Semantic Word Retrieval, Rapid Picture Naming, Picture Vocabulary, Oral Vocabulary, Understanding Directions
  • WIAT-4 (Oral Expression, Listening Comprehension)
  • PPVT-5
  • EVT-3
  • COWAT
  • CELF-5 Formulated Sentences, Recalling Sentences, Word Structure, Sentence Comprehension, Sentence Assembly, Understanding Spoken Paragraphs
• Language Learning Ability
  • MLAT
  • TLC-E (level 2)
  • WJ V: Visual-Auditory Learning
  • WISC-V: Immediate Symbol Translation, Delayed Symbol Translation, Recognition Symbol Translation
• Reading (in addition to above-mentioned batteries, GORT-5 may be appropriate)
  • pseudoword decoding
  • single-word reading
  • reading in context
  • comprehension
  • automaticity of word reading and nonword decoding (TOWRE-2: Sight Word Efficiency, Phonemic Decoding Efficiency; WIAT-4: Orthographic Fluency, Decoding Fluency)
• Writing
  • handwriting (VMI-6 VMI, Visual Perception, and Motor Coordination subtests; and informal observations of grip, letter/word formation)
  • spelling
  • grammar/syntax
  • WJ V: Sentence Writing Accuracy, Written Language Samples, Sentence Writing Fluency, Spelling of Sounds, Spelling
  • written formulation (TOWL-4: Sentence Combining, Story)
  • WIAT-4: Sentence Composition (Sentence Building, Sentence Combining)

Often challenges learning one's primary language and secondary or even tertiary languages are linked (Scott & Manglitz, 1997), and students who experience difficulties acquiring a second language may have been delayed in learning to speak and/or engaged in speech therapy related to their primary language. Moreover, students may have had learning challenges in reading, spelling, and grammar. Please include these details in the your personal statement for the petition form provided by SAS, as well as details of your history pertaining to listening, speaking, reading, and writing acquisition in any languages (including your primary language). Please also reference any academic services such as tutoring, accommodations, or language waivers/substitutions received prior to Dartmouth.