Students who have taken Chinese courses off-campus and who wish to continue their study of the language should use the articulation values of the course they took to determine the course they should take at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.

“Articulation value” refers to the equivalency of your college’s course to Illinois' courses. If you look at your transcript from Undergraduate Admissions, you’ll notice most Chinese courses have two articulation values. The first indicates its level of study for our General Education requirements (UFL1 1--, UFL2 1--, UFL3 1--, UFL4 1--), where UFL1 means “first level,” UFL2 means “second level,” and so on. The second articulation value indicates what your course corresponded to in Illinois' system (CHIN 201, CHIN 202, etc.). Students wishing to continue their study of the Chinese language should take the next course in the basic language sequence, as indicated by the second (departmental) articulation value of the course they took off-campus.

For example, a student whose course has been articulated as UFL2 1--/CHIN 201 (please see yellow highlighting in the illustration below) has satisfied through the second level the ‘Language Other than English’ General Education requirement and should start with CHIN 202 if he or she wishes to take additional Chinese courses here. Similarly, someone whose articulation value is listed as UFL4 2--/CHIN 202 has satisfied the General Education LOTE requirement by completing the fourth level, but because the content of the course matches only the content of our CHIN 202 course, the student should start with CHIN 203 if he or she wishes to take additional Chinese courses here. Courses without a second articulation value, those that have been articulated solely as UFL1 1-- or UFL1 2-- , indicate a student has completed through the first level and should take CHIN 201 if he or she wishes to take an additional Chinese course here. Similarly, a course that articulates solely as UFL2 2--  indicates a student has completed through the second level and should take CHIN 201 if he or she wishes to continue to take additional Chinese courses here.

The level discrepancy is due to our courses being five-hour courses and most transfer courses earning four or even three hours. As that suggests, we quite literally teach the language in much greater detail and depth, so very few transfer courses will articulate as direct level equivalents.

Because the course articulation values already serve for course placement, students who have taken Chinese courses off-campus do not need to take the Chinese Placement Exam. Please contact Bob Steltman < steltman@illinois.edu > or Dustin Tarter < dtarter@illinois.edu > if you have questions.