Objectives

Training for an engineer in Centrale Lyon involves 2 minimum requirements as far as foreign languages are concerned:

all students must graduate with a minimum level in English;

all students must, over their 3 years, study at least one foreign language.

Content

The languages taught are:

 English (mandatory at least until the minimum level has been reached)
 German
 Russian
 Italian
 Spanish
 Japanese (with classes of 4 hours a week)
 Chinese (with classes of 4 hours a week)
 Brazilian Portuguese (if numbers permit)
 French as a foreign language

Choices are binding for the whole school year.

Registered students are divided into groups by a preliminary level test.

Classes open only if at least 12 students have registered.

Examination

The end-of-the-year grade is calculated from:

 Class grades
 Examination (varying in form from one language to another).

Modern Languages Unit grade:

Arithmetic mean of the various languages being studied by the student.

N.B.: All students sit the TOEFL test at the end of 2nd year, whether they have been doing English or not.

A grade of 550 on TOEFL is a requirement for graduation.

Other information

ARRANGEMENTS IN COMMON FOR ALL LANGUAGES

Students are divided into groups by level according to a preliminary assessment test (at least in English, German and Spanish: the Russian, Italian, Chinese and Japanese classes have other arrangements), or else according to performance on the previous year's courses in that language (secondary and/or classe préparatoire classes, or 1st year in Centrale Lyon)

After a 3 week probationary period, registration is binding, and students are committed to attending all classes over the entire year.  Non-justified absences count against the year's class grade.

Tests are mandatory: non-justified absence entails a zero grade.

For the end-of-the-year grade, class and exam grades count as follows for all languages except English and Japanese:

Class grade: 60%                                 Exam: 40%

Quite apart from the end-of-the-year results, lack of commitment to a course the student has registered for can lead to penalties and even exclusion from the course.

The 1st year's results serve as a basis for setting up the 2nd year groups.

Conversion of grades into ECTS credits

To make the language grades meaningful for outsiders and to draw up coherent ranking for ECTS credits, after the juries grades in each language are converted, taking into account the level the student was studying in, following a specific rule.

NB:

 Language grades under 10 are not converted, and correspond to F (for Fail) in ECTS terms.
 These conversions do not count within the School: the grades considered by the Juries are those given by the teachers and passed on by the Teaching Unit.
 If a student has made special progress with respect to his or her baseline level, they may be moved up to the next highest level by the teacher.