Extended Exam Time and Verbal Clarification of Exam Questions for Multilingual Students
Extending exam time and providing verbal clarification of exam questions for first- and
second-year multilingual students is a Good-Will Policy at St. Olaf. It is solely
the professor’s discretion whether to provide time-and-a-half for exams for a student who
is still developing fluency in writing in English.
This Good-Will Policy reflects research that shows that writing is the last skill in which multilingual
students become fluent. The Good-Will Policy also reflects that students are adjusting culturally
as much as they are linguistically during their first two years at St. Olaf.
- Extra exam time and verbal clarification of exam questions would be considered
appropriate if a student could “show what they know” if given a little more time to
process in English. - Please understand that the decision to allow extra time and provide verbal clarification
for multilingual students rests entirely with you, the professor. - Accommodations for multilingual students are not legally required; this is a procedure of good-will.
- A letter of advocacy from Center for Advising and Academic Support is not required nor will be provided.
- Whenever possible, if granted extra exam time, a multilingual student should take the exam
in the same room as the rest of the students, and either begin early or stay late in that
room, or finish in the professor’s office. Center for Advising and Academic Support does not provide
alternate testing rooms for multilingual students. - After the first two years, multilingual students are expected to complete exams under normal
conditions as part of meeting the learning outcomes of a St. Olaf education.