Massage Therapy - 469

Effective communication is essential for the provision of competent, safe, high quality Massage Therapy services. Language fluency enhances public protection by ensuring that registrants can communicate effectively with clients and other members of the health care team. The College's Certification Examinations are not designed to test language fluency and do not require any writing activities. Therefore candidates are required to meet The Colleges of Massage Therapist of Ontario (CMTO) language fluency requirement prior to attempting the Certification Examinations.

A candidate may meet the language fluency requirement by providing proof, acceptable to the College of one of the following:

1. A candidate’s first language is English or French
2. A candidate has completed his/her secondary school education in English or French¹
3. A candidate has completed a standardized English or French language test approved by the College within the past two years and achieved the required scores set by the College
4. The candidate has successfully completed an approved Massage Therapy program that had a minimum language fluency requirement for admission AND the program's curriculum included at least two full (e.g. 3-credit or 30-hour) mandatory courses in English, French or health-related communications that were successfully completed by the candidate

¹ Please note that this refers to graduation from a secondary school program, not completion
of a high-school English or French course or courses.

The following five methods are acceptable means of demonstrating that the candidate meets the requirement:

1. Signing a self-declaration indicating that his/her first and primary language is English or French
2. Signing a self-declaration indicating that his/her secondary school education² was completed in English or French and indicating the name and location of the school; if the applicant completed his/her education outside of Canada in a country where neither English nor French is the primary language of communication and employment, he or she may be required to provide verification directly from the school regarding language of instruction
3. Providing test results from an approved standardized language fluency test demonstrating that she or he has achieved the minimum scores determined by the College. This report must be submitted directly from the language testing agency to the College. An applicant must meet College-approved minimum scores in each area of one test (i.e., multiple tests cannot be combined); test results will be considered valid for two years from the date the test was administered. The accepted tests are:

4. Providing evidence in the form of a diploma and transcript from an approved Massage Therapy school that includes acceptable information about the language fluency requirement of admission and the communications-related courses successfully completed by the candidate
   or
5. Providing to the College other compelling evidence of language fluency. This could be, for example, evidence that the applicant completed a university degree in English or French.

² Thus includes a minimum of three years' education in the required language.
Completion of single course is not acceptable.

1. A candidate who provides acceptable evidence of fluency by way of one of the five methods listed above will be deemed to have met the language fluency requirement so as to allow them to register for the Certification Examination unless the College has reasonable grounds to doubt the validity of the information provided.

2. A candidate who cannot provide sufficient evidence of fluency will be notified that he/she cannot attempt the certification examinations until he/she has met the language fluency requirement.