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Course Descriptions

SPA 101, 102: Elementary Spanish
Goal: To teach students to speak, understand, read, and write basic Spanish.
Content: Subjects used in learning the four basic skills include everyday situations relevant to Hispanic culture.
Taught: SPA 101, Fall; SPA 102, Spring.
Prerequisite: SPA 101 or equivalent for SPA 102.
Credit: 3 hours (Students must earn grades of C or better in these courses to fulfill the modern foreign language proficiency requirement.)

SPA 150: Spanish for Advanced Beginners
Goal: To teach students to speak, understand, read, and write basic Spanish.
Content: Subjects used in learning the four basic skills include everyday situations relevant to Hispanic culture.
Taught: Fall and Spring
Prerequisite: 2 years of Spanish in high school / placement between SPA 101 and 102 on placement exam or permission of instructor.
Credit: 4 hours. (Students must earn grades of C or better in these courses to fulfill the modern foreign language proficiency requirement.)

SPA 211 Intermediate Spanish
Goal: To improve and development speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish through dialogues, magazine articles, and literary selections.
Content: Emphasis on grammar, comprehension of advanced conversation and reading, and development of correct sentence structure.
Taught: Fall
Gen. Ed. Category: Exploring; Historical Events & Phenomena; (HUM)
Prerequisites: SPA 102, 150, or placement
Credit: 3 hours

SPA 212: Intermediate Spanish
Goal: To improve and develop speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish through dialogs, magazine articles, and literary selections.
Content: Emphasis on grammar, comprehension of advanced conversation and reading, and development of correct sentence structure.
Taught: Spring.
Prerequisites: SPA 211 or equivalent
Credit: 3 hours.

SPA 220: Intermediate Medical Spanish
Goal: To elicit and to understand necessary medical information from an exclusively Spanish-speaking patient.
Content: Emphasis on vocabulary and grammatical structures necessary for communication in a medical environment and standard medical interviews. Secondary emphasis on providing information that will enhance the student's knowledge of Hispanic cultural attitudes toward health issues. Class conducted in Spanish.
Taught: as needed
Gen. Ed. Category: Expanding; Diverse & Interdependent world; (HUM)
Prerequisites: SPA 102, 150, or placement
Credit: 3 hours

SPA 305: Spanish Culture and Civilization.
Goal:
To provide a geographical, historical, and cultural overview of Spain.
Content: Geographical, historical, ethnic, and religious influences. Focus on historic highlights that have contributed to present-day Spanish society.
Taught: Fall. Alternate years.
Prerequisite: SPA 212 or equivalent.
Credit: 3 hours; cross-cultural; S-course.

SPA 306: Latin American Culture and Civilization.
Goal:
To provide a geographical, historical, and cultural overview of Latin America (which includes for the purpose of this course, all countries in the Western Hemisphere in which Spanish is spoken).
Content: Geographical, historical, ethnic, and religious influences. Focus on how the blend of indigenous civilizations, with the addition of both African and European influences, has produced the multitude of societies in this region.
Taught: Fall. Alternate years.
Prerequisite: SPA 212 or equivalent.
Credit: 3 hours; cross-cultural; S-course.

SPA 307: Advanced Spanish Conversation
Goal:
To improve Spanish speaking and listening skills.
Content: The goal of this course is to offer students as much time speaking Spanish as possible. This goal may be met through activities such as debates, discussions of films, news articles, and culture, student presentations, role play, drama.
Taught: Spring alternate years.
Prerequisites: SPA 211 and SPA 212 or equivalents
Credit: 3 hours; cross-cultural; S-course.

SPA 318: Advanced Composition.
Goal:
To refine writing skills, enrich vocabulary, and emphasize grammar.
Content: Weekly writing assignments, translation, and advanced reading.
Taught: Fall.
Prerequisite: SPA 212 or equivalent.
Credit: 3 hours; cross-cultural; S-course.

SPA 320: Advanced Medical Spanish
Goal: To elicit and to understand necessary medical information from an exclusively Spanish-speaking patient.
Content: This course is designed for those who are currently taking advanced 300-level Spanish courses and who specifically need to practice communication in a health-related profession. It will emphasize role-play exercises for the standard medical interview. Secondary emphasis is placed on providing information that will enhance the student's knowledge of Hispanic cultural attitudes toward health issues. Class conducted in Spanish. A student cannot receive credit for this course if she already has credit for SPA 220.
Taught: as needed
Gen. Ed. Category: Expanding; Diverse & Interdependent world; (HUM)
Prerequisites: SPA 318
Credit: 3 hours

SPA 327: Business Spanish.
Goal:
To provide students with the vocabulary needed to communicate effectively, both orally and in writing, and to transact daily business operations in Spanish. To help students become better prepared for the ever-increasing demands of the growing international market.
Content: The course combines practical language with the study of Spanish business terminology. Emphasis is on conversation and business transactions such as preparing commercial correspondence, reading and writing and translating contracts and other related documents in Spanish.
Taught: Offered occasionally.
Prerequisite: SPA 318 or equivalent and permission of instructor..
Credit: 3 hours; cross-cultural; S-course.

SPA 352: Early Spanish Peninsular Literature
Goal:
To introduce major writers of Spain from the Middle Ages, the Renaissance, the Baroque, and the Enlightenment periods, with emphasis on historical conditions and literary genres.
Content: Poetry, drama, prose and essay. Selections from major authors such as Miguel de Cervantes, Lope de Vega, Calderón de la Barca, Santa Teresa, San Juan de la Cruz, el Padre Feijóo.
Taught: Spring alternate years.
Prerequisite: SPA 318 or equivalent. SPA 305 recommended.
Credit: 3 hours.

SPA 354: Spanish Literature: 19th Century to the Present
Goal:
To introduce major writers of Spain from the 19th and 20th Centuries (Romanticism, Realism, Naturalism, Modernism, etc) as well as the most recently published authors, with emphasis on historical conditions and literary genres.
Content: Poetry, drama, prose and essay. Selections from major authors such as Mariano José Larra, Benito Pérez
Galdós, Camilo José Cela, and Carmen Martín Gaite.
Taught: Spring alternate years.
Prerequisite: SPA 318 or equivalent. SPA 305 recommended.
Credit: 3 hours.

SPA 358: Survey of Latin American Literature.
Goal:
To acquaint students with the literature from colonial Spanish America to the present. To study literary movements that influenced Latin American thought: naturalism, realism, modernism, surrealism, and magic realism.
Content: Selections from major authors such as Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz, Rubén Darío, Jorge Luis Borges, Bernal Díaz del Castillo, Cabeza de Vaca, Manuel Puig, and Isabel Allende.
Taught: Spring. Alternate years.
Prerequisite: SPA 318 or equivalent. SPA 306 recommended.
Credit: 3 hours; cross-cultural; S-course.

SPA 475: Portfolio Presentation.
Goal:
To provide a capstone experience for Spanish majors in which students construct and present a senior portfolio to document their integrative experience.
Content: Students will use the completed portfolio and subsequent oral presentation to reflect upon the interdisciplinary nature of their course of study. The final step in the process will be to submit the completed portfolio to the Modern Foreign Language faculty for evaluation and assessment of the student’s integrative experience.
Taught: Spring.
Credit: 1 hour.

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Rev. 05.10