Foreign Language Resource Center

Tutors can help you with:

• Gaining a better understanding of the grammatical structure of the language you are learning in class.
• Improving your ability to speak and read in the language you are learning.
• Refining your knowledge from week to week. This will help you keep up with the material more consistently rather than trying to cram at the last minute.
• Recognizing a pattern of mistakes in your assignments, tests, and exams. You may need to work on that particular grammar item. A tutor can review that concept with you in-depth.
• Reviewing for tests and exams.
• Preparing for oral presentations and correcting your pronunciation.

Tutors cannot help you with:

• Tutoring is not teaching. Teaching provides students with new information; tutoring helps students master that information by providing alternative explanations, examples, and exercises. Tutors cannot substitute for attending class.
• Editing your compositions/papers.
• Correcting your mistakes in compositions/papers or any other assignments.
• Providing direct help for assignments.

Helpful hints

The goal of tutoring is to provide individualized assistance that enables students to develop academic mastery and independence. To make your tutoring sessions as productive as possible please:

• Come prepared. Bring your textbook, notes, review sheets with you. Read your assignments and do your best to work through your homework problems before tutoring sessions.
• Attend classes regularly. Tutoring is designed to supplement class instruction, not to replace it.
• Use tutoring services efficiently. You will benefit more from tutoring if you come when you first begin having problems. If you wait until the last minute, you may not be able to master the material in time to succeed on tests and exams.

We also offer Language Conversation Tables to enable students to practice and improve their oral proficiency. Please email the FLRC Coordinator Prof. Gina Siddu Pilia ([email protected]) to get the schedule for the current semester.

Students seeking to determine the appropriate level of a language course at JCU may take the Foreign Language Placement Test in Italian, French, or Spanish. 

Students enrolled at John Cabot University cannot take the placement exam for a language that they have studied and received credit for at JCU.

Students need to make sure that they have received their JCU Net ID to access JCU Moodle and the Foreign Language placement tests. If you have not received your JCU Net ID, please contact [email protected].

Once you have received your JCU Net ID, go to Foreign Language placement tests. You will choose your language and self-enroll by clicking "Enrol me." Should you experience any technical problems with Moodle, please contact [email protected].

Degree-seeking students who wish to be placed out of  the foreign language requirement should complete the Foreign Language Proficiency Test in the selected language with Professor Gina Siddu Pilia. For further information or to schedule the test, please contact her at [email protected].

Foreign Languages Offered: Italian, French, and Spanish (Spanish is not an option for AH Master’s students).

Exam Guidelines

• Students will summarize in English a B2 level article/book page in the target language.
• The length of the examination will be one hour.
• Examinations are graded based on accuracy. The student must demonstrate a clear understanding of salient points in the text.
• The grade assigned will be either Pass or Fail.
• The results of the examination will be sent to the student's Graduate Director via email.

Graduate Language Exam procedure for Faculty

The GR Reading Exam will take place twice a year, in Fall and Spring semesters. The exams will be administered by a faculty member of the MA program who is in charge of collecting the papers from the students and delivering them to the FLRC Coordinator for assessment. The GR Reading Exams will be provided to the Director of the MA program via email by the FLRC Coordinator a few days before the exam is to take place. The dates of the exams and the assigned room will be posted on the Reading Exam Moodle page by an MA faculty member so that everyone who is involved in the process is informed.

Please feel free to use the following statement on your course syllabi to inform students about the Foreign Language Resource Center:

The JCU Foreign Language Resource Center offers tutoring sessions free of charge. The FLRC is located at the Frohring Campus on the first floor. To schedule an appointment with a tutor (or a writing coach for upper-level courses), please use the online booking system.

How to get the most out of your tutoring session:

• Come early in the semester. You will benefit more from tutoring if you come when you first begin having problems.
• Come prepared. Bring your textbook, notes, and review sheets with you.
• Attend classes regularly. Tutoring is designed to supplement class instruction, not to replace it.