Nov 01, 2024  
2024-2025 Catalog 
    
2024-2025 Catalog

Spanish, BA

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 study abroad program either in a Spanish-speaking country, whether for an intensive summer course, a semester, or an academic year. 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.

Students should begin taking department courses in their first 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…

  1. a student will demonstrate oral skills in Spanish.
  2. a student will demonstrate knowledge of important people and places in the Hispanic world.
  3. 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:

Notes


*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 a student’s Wesleyan education they are 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 350: Professional Practice Seminar  and PDE 400: Professional Development Experience . 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.

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