Spanish, AB

Location(s): On Campus

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The Spanish program at Wesleyan prepares students with a firm foundation of skills and knowledge to take advantage of opportunities for Spanish-speaking employees and volunteers in the United States. Such opportunities expand each year with the ever-increasing Hispanic population and the opening of more free trade zones within the Americas. A major or minor in Spanish complements study in majors such as Business Administration, Education, History, Politics, and Global Affairs or preparatory programs for law, seminary, human services, and the medical field.

Major Program. All Spanish majors are encouraged to participate in a year-or a semester-abroad program either in Spain or in Latin America, or an intensive summer course in a Spanish-speaking country. Courses taken abroad may be substituted for some of the required courses, on the recommendation of the Spanish faculty and with the approval of the Study Abroad Director and the Registrar.

Faculty advisors provide counsel on graduation requirements, overseas programs, jobs, and graduate study. Students are encouraged to declare their major by the beginning of their sophomore year. In addition to the courses listed below, the major includes an integrative experience and a professional development experience.

Major Requirements: Bachelor of Arts in Spanish.

The Spanish major contains a total of 36 semester hours beyond SPA 101 , SPA 102 :

Upon completing this program…

a student will demonstrate oral skills in Spanish.
a student will demonstrate knowledge of important people and places in the Hispanic world.
a student will demonstrate geographic awareness of the Hispanic world.

While every class in the Spanish curriculum enables students to strengthen these skills, each class foregrounds one or two, which are noted parenthetically below. In addition to completing 36 hours of coursework, the major includes an integrative experience (completed as part of SPA 401: Senior Seminar in Spanish).

The requirements for the Spanish major and the goal that each fulfills are as follows:

I. Required (18 hours)

SPA 211: Intermediate Spanish Credit: 3 *
SPA 212: Intermediate Spanish Credit: 3
SPA 250: Spanish Phonetics Credit: 3
SPA 307: Advanced Spanish Conversation Credit: 3
SPA 318: Advanced Composition Credit: 3
SPA 401: Senior Seminar Credit: 3

II. Required (12 hours; select 4)

SPA 300: Seminar in Latin American Studies Credit: 3
SPA 305: Spanish Culture and Civilization Credit: 3
SPA 306: Latin American Culture and Civilization Credit: 3
SPA 352: Early Spanish Peninsular Literature Credit: 3
SPA 354: Spanish Literature: 19th Century to the Present Credit: 3
SPA 358: Survey of Latin American Literature Credit: 3

III. Required (6 hours)

SPA 220: Intermediate Medical Spanish Credit: 3
OR
SPA 320: Advanced Medical Spanish Credit: 3
SPA 327: Business Spanish Credit: 3
SPA 281: Tertulia Credit: 1
SPA 396: Special Topics in Spanish Credit: 3
SPA 399: Teaching Assistant in Spanish Credit: 1
SPA 451: Directed Independent Study Credit: 1-6
TRA 242: Travel Study Seminar in Humanities Credit: 1 - 3; Every hour of experiential credit equals 48 contact hours. Cumulative limit is 12 credit hours for all Travel-Study courses. (only when the travel is to a Spanish-speaking country)

Note:

Or an additional course not taken to fulfill the requirements of section II.

*Declared Spanish majors who have placed out of SPA 211 or SPA 212 may retroactively receive up to 6 hours credit for these courses by completing two more Spanish courses above the 212 level. Upon completion of a course, the student must fill out the departmental form in order to receive credit. Students may not surpass the College limit of 30 credit hours by examination.

**The student must maintain a C average (minimum 2.0) in the major.

Integrative Experience.

Spanish majors will meet the integrative Experience requirement through SPA 401: Senior Seminar (3 hours).

Professional Development.

Throughout her Wesleyan education each student is given opportunities to explore professional and career choices, and to develop and demonstrate the knowledge and skills essential for professional success. Each student will complete PDE 400: Professional Development Experience and PDE 401 Professional Practice Seminar. In addition, students who major in Spanish are encouraged to participate in a workplace experience by means of one of the following: an internship taken as the SPA 452: Field Study Course: a summer employment experience; volunteer work or any other comparable work experience deemed acceptable to the Modern Foreign Languages Department.

Postgraduate Opportunities.

Students who major in Spanish often go on to jobs in fields such as international business, foreign service, marketing, education, translation/interpretation, and journalism, or to graduate study in Spanish, Romance languages, linguistics, the teaching of English as a foreign language, foreign relations, international law, and medicine, where knowing Spanish may be a necessary component of their major.