The application deadline for the Teaching Foreign Language program is February 1st.BAT initial licensure programs for Grades K-12 include the French, German, Italian, and Spanish languages.
Admissions Requirements
Students interested in applying to the BAT mustattend the fall information meeting, which will be held in October. Meeting announcements will appear on the FLTE website at the beginning of fall semester. Please note that students wishing to apply for the BAT program may not hold a previously earned bachelor’s degree in any field.
If admitted to the BAT, teacher candidates are expected to complete the three semester sequence in the order they are offered & without deviating from the established sequence in any way. If there is uncertainty about eligibility requirements, interested students should meet with the undergraduate language advisor well in advance of the admissions application deadline.
GPA
It is expected that applicants to this program will have a minimum GPA of 2.5(A = 4.0) in the language they plan to teach and a 2.5 cumulative GPA at time of application.
Coursework
You must complete transfer coursework equivalent to the following University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign courses before or during the term you’re submitting your application:
Experience & Involvement
In order to submit a complete application packet for admission to the BAT, applicants are required to complete the following experience and involvement opportunities:
- Fulfill 25 field hours in a Foreign Language classroom at the secondary level by working with a teacher & students in the language the applicant intends to teach
- Complete 5 hours shadowing a principal or other building leader in a secondary school
- Complete 5 hours shadowing a member of Student Services in a secondary school
- Attend one meeting of the school board in the district where they completed their shadowing
Documents
In order to submit a complete application packet for admission to the BAT, applicants are required to submit the following documents:
- Respond to a series of essays that address issues professional dispositions in education
- Submit a copy of all undergraduate transcripts
- Submit a copy of a current résumé
Admissions Recommendations
Coursework
Although it isn’t required that you do so in order to be admitted, we also highly recommend that you complete transfer coursework equivalent to the following University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign courses before or during the term you’re submitting your application:
Readiness for the Professional Education Sequence
Students should meet with their undergraduate language advisor prior to the fall semester of their first year as a transfer student to construct an 8 semester or other academic plan that ensures all content and general education requirements and electives will be satisfied prior to the fall semester of the senior year, when the last phase of the professional education sequence begins.
Study Abroad
All BAT teacher candidates are strongly encouraged to study abroad for a summer, semester, or full academic year. The experience enhances authentic cultural knowledge & will prepare teacher candidates for the Oral Proficiency Interview (OPI) assessment that must be taken & passed to advance to Student Teaching. To ensure that students are on campus for the last three semesters prior to graduation when the professional education sequence takes place, seeking direction about study abroad from the language department advisor is critical as it will permit the advisor to assist in an out of country experience when the academic plan is constructed prior to the beginning of the first semester on campus.
Graduation Requirements
To graduate, all students are required to complete at least 45 semester hours of credit at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. At least 21 of these credit hours must be at the 300 or 400 level.
General Education Courses
Included in our graduation requirements are general education (gen ed) courses. These classes allow you to gain and use broad knowledge beyond the specialized learning you’ll do through your major. Learn more about our general education requirements. You may be able to use Transferology to find gen ed courses that will transfer over from your institution to UIUC.
Language Other than English
Although this program doesn’t require you to complete our language graduation requirement for admission, we strongly encourage you do so before transferring.
| For Admission | For Graduation |
| No Requirement | Level 3 |
Learn More About This Major
To learn more about this program, including degree requirements and similar majors, we encourage you to check out the below resources.