Starting in fall 2005, high-school students will be able to take Italian language courses for Advanced Placement credit at colleges. The College Board recently announced that for the first time since the AP program first began, four new languages would be added. Until now the languages have predominantly been Spanish, French and German. The four new languages will be Italian, Mandarin Chinese, Japanese and Russian.

In 2005 Italian AP courses will be implemented in high schools that have indicated an interest in doing so, and the exam for college credit will be administered in May 2006. Mandarin Chinese will begin to be offered at high schools in 2006, with the exam administered in May 2007. Japanese and Russian are expected to follow at some point, although College Board officials are unsure of the exact dates, as the Chinese program is still in the developmental stage.

“The College Board’s expansion of its AP language courses absolutely reflects an increasing trend towards globalization,” Jennifer Topiel, spokesperson for the College Board, said.

When Chinese is introduced into the AP exam system, it will be the first non-European language offered.

In June, the Trustees of the College Board approved the plan for the four new courses and also “committed to evaluate support for potential new offerings in other areas of history and ethnic or cultural studies, such as African-American history, Latino studies and Asian studies,” a press release from the College Board stated.

Topiel noted that while the AP exams are available worldwide, schools that offer AP courses outside the United States are usually associated with American universities in some way or located on overseas military bases.

Luigi Giuseppe Ferri, an Italian lecturer at the University of Wisconsin, said the College Board’s decision to offer AP Italian courses can only have positive benefits.

“Obviously, there will be the opportunity for students to be exposed to the Italian language and culture and receive college credit,” Ferri said. “So there’s a higher possibility students will go on to major in Italian in college and will have an increased interest in studying abroad.”

Ferri also pointed out that the rise in digital communication has increased people’s interest in foreign languages and other cultures, as this information is more readily available.

The cost of researching and creating the new AP exams has been covered partly by funds from the Italian and Chinese governments and partly from private groups. Topiel said the Chinese government has contributed half of the $1.4 million necessary for the development of the Chinese exam, and she expects the remaining half will come from private sources.

Keith White, associate director in UW’s office of admissions, said he expects the College Board’s expansion of its AP courses to have a minimal effect on UW.

“UW currently offers credit for every AP exam there is, and we haven’t seen a syllabus yet for the Italian exam,” White said. “We don’t expect huge numbers of students to be taking the Italian AP exam, but it should work out like the other [language exams].”