A STUDY WAS MADE OF THE LEVELS OF PROFICIENCY ATTAINED BY FOREIGN LANGUAGE MAJORS IN U.S. COLLEGES AND UNIVERSITIES, AND OF THE FACTORS ASSOCIATED WITH THE ATTAINMENTS OF THESE LEVELS. THE MLA FOREIGN LANGUAGE PROFICIENCY TESTS FOR TEACHERS AND ADVANCED STUDENTS WERE ADMINISTERED IN 1965 TO 2,775 SENIORS MAJORING IN FRENCH, GERMAN, ITALIAN, RUSSIAN, OR SPANISH AT 203 INSTITUTIONS. ALSO USED IN THE STUDY WERE THE CARROLL-SAPON MODERN LANGUAGE APTITUDE TEST AND QUESTIONNAIRES FOR MAJORS AND DEPARTMENT CHAIRMEN. THE RESULTING DATA PROVIDED NEW EVIDENCE ON A NUMBER OF ISSUES SIGNIFICANT IN THE SELECTION AND TRAINING OF FUTURE LANGUAGE TEACHERS, THOUGH CONCLUSIONS MUST BE DRAWN WITH CAUTION. AMONG THE STUDENTS SAMPLED THERE WAS A GENERALLY LOW ACHIEVEMENT ON LISTENING AND SPEAKING SKILLS. THERE WAS EVIDENCE THAT TIME SPENT ABROAD HAS A POTENT EFFECT ON A STUDENT'S LANGUAGE SKILLS, THAT STUDENTS OF SPANISH OR FRENCH WHO STARTED THE LANGUAGE IN ELEMENTARY SCHOOL AND CONTINUED IT TENDED TO HAVE AN ADVANTAGE OVER OTHER MAJORS, THAT THOSE FROM HOMES WHERE FOREIGN LANGUAGE WAS SPOKEN ATTAINED GREATER COMPETENCE, AND THAT MANY LOW-APTITUDE STUDENTS ARE ABLE TO COMPENSATE BY DILIGENT STUDY AND PRACTICE OR BECAUSE OF SPECIAL OPPORTUNITIES SUCH AS STUDY ABROAD. MALES AND FEMALES WERE EQUAL IN LANGUAGE LEARNING ABILITY. STUDENTS AT LARGER INSTITUTIONS OUTPERFORMED THOSE AT SMALLER ONES, AND STUDENTS AT PRIVATE INSTITUTIONS DID BETTER THAN THOSE AT PUBLIC ONES. STATISTICAL DATA ARE PRESENTED IN 99 TABLES AND 13 FIGURES AND OTHER BACKGROUND INFORMATION IS CONTAINED IN FIVE APPENDIXES. (AM)