SPN - Spanish

SPN 101 is an introductory course in which students acquire foundational Spanish grammar and vocabulary in meaningful social contexts.  Through multi-media the students are introduced to the geography and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. Listening comprehension, reading, writing, and speaking skills are developed through communicative activities and assignments. SPN 101/102 are taken as a comprehensive, consecutive sequence.

SPN 102 is an introductory course in which students acquire foundational Spanish grammar and vocabulary in meaningful social contexts. Through multi-media the students are introduced to the geography and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. Listening comprehension, reading, writing, and speaking skills are developed through communicative activities and assignments. SPN 101-102 are taken as a comprehensive, consecutive sequence.

This class provides students with the opportunity to learn a full year of Spanish in six weeks with the advantage of intensive study, which promotes greater retention. Students will practice verb conjugations and usage, gain proficiency skills, and learn key grammatical concepts.

Maximizing Study Abroad helps students approach and enrich the study and/or sojourning abroad experience from the perspectives of intercultural communication, cultural adjustment, and practical language learning strategies prior to departing for their target cultures. Participants are applicants to UP Study Abroad programs and UP students sojourning abroad. This course counts toward meeting requirements of the Sojourner Scholars Program.

In SPN 201 students increase listening, reading, writing, and speaking skills at the intermediate level while advancing knowledge of the vocabulary, geography, and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. Foundational grammar concepts are solidified and built upon by introducing advanced grammatical structures through multi-media content and communicative activities and assignments. SPN 201-202 are taken as a comprehensive, consecutive sequence.

In SPN 202 students increase listening, reading, writing and speaking skills at the intermediate level while advancing knowledge of the vocabulary, geography and cultures of the Spanish-speaking world.  Foundational grammar concepts are solidified and built upon by introducing advanced grammatical structures through multi-media content and communicative activities and assignments.  SPN 201-202 are taken as a comprehensive, consecutive sequence.

Course will offer students an opportunity to immerse themselves in the Spanish language and strengthen their linguistic skills. Follows SPN 102 and will build on the concepts covered at the introductory level. This intensive class substitutes for SPN 201-202, thus making it possible to complete the language requirement in the B.A. core curriculum.

Credit arranged.

Spanish 301 and 302 are bridge courses to all upper-division Spanish courses. They apply grammar and vocabulary patterns in order to develop advanced writing and conversation skills, while introducing basic tools for literary analysis.  Grammar review, reading, vocabulary building, and class discussion will lead to essays and presentations on relevant cultural topics. These courses may be taken in any order.

Spanish 301 and 302 are bridge courses to all upper-division Spanish courses. They apply grammar and vocabulary patterns in order to develop advanced writing and conversation skills, while introducing basic tools for literary analysis.  Grammar review, reading, vocabulary building, and class discussion will lead to essays and presentations on relevant cultural topics. These courses may be taken in any order.

Intense review of Spanish grammar which will benefit those who have a high proficiency in the language and need a thorough review of concepts in order to enhance writing, reading, oral, and speaking skills. Of special benefit to education majors who seek a Spanish endorsement and will be teaching the language at the elementary or secondary level.

SPN 308 is a bridge to all upper-division Spanish courses that advances heritage speakers' writing, reading, and presentational skills, while introducing basic tools for literary analysis. Designed for bilingual and bicultural students, the course also emphasizes Hispanic cultures in the United States. Students self-select for this course and take it instead of SPN 301-302.

This course studies cultural production during the Spanish “Golden Age” of the 1500s and 1600s. Readings and discussions will examine issues including love and its attendant emotions, religious identity, societal honor, attitudes towards death, and the perspectives of female authors and characters. Students will relate their understanding of Renaissance and Baroque literature to the 21st century and their own experiences.

Canonical dramas, tragedies, and comedies illuminate stasis, change, and conflict in Spanish society across three centuries. Discussion of the plays focuses on the individual's struggle for rights against the reassertion of traditional social mores with a focus on gender identity.  Embedded grammar instruction includes close reading of text, frequent writing, and live theater performance by students for oral practice.

Short stories, essays, novel excerpts, poems (including readings from mass culture), and films present Spain's most recent artistic production to explore diverse aspects of Spanish society such as urban life, gender identity formation, and consumerism.  This course offers introductory skills to literary and cultural analysis as well as continued advanced grammar review.

This course aims to deepen students’ understanding of the historical and cultural transformations in Latin America through the experiences, artistic productions, and testimonies of women whose actions were crucial to social changes. It has a multidisciplinary approach that includes traditional literary texts and visual and performative forms of expression. Course embeds grammar to build advanced reading and writing skills.

This course introduces students to major directors of Latin America, and examines the various cultural and national issues that these artists explore in their films. The course includes a basic introduction to the technical aspects of filmmaking and terminology used to analyze films. It also aims to improve students’ writing and reading skills.

Through the study of different cultural manifestations such as literature, film, music, comics, painting, cuisine, and folklore this course introduces students to significant aspects of Mexican history, sociocultural traits, and current affairs that have shaped the country and its people. This class also focuses on literary analysis, interpretation, and refining advanced writing skills.

Close reading of short stories by prominent contemporary Latin American writers with the goal of enhancing reading comprehension and improving grammatical accuracy in writing, while enhancing understanding of the cultures and history of the region. The course focuses on vocabulary building, linguistic analysis, and literary interpretation, in order to acquire a deeper understanding of how the Spanish language carries meaning.

This course introduces students to Ecuador’s present-day culture and society. To achieve this goal, the course covers significant aspects of Ecuadorian history, sociocultural traits, and current affairs that provide students with some of the fundamental facts and information that have shaped the country and its people. This course is offered in the Quito, Ecuador, Summer Program.

Course is designed for students in professional programs who need a thorough review of oral and written Spanish language skills in addition to specific terminology related to health and social issues: immigration, education, employment, workers compensation and domestic violence, and their influence in Latino health and medical services.

Participants will become familiar with how experts in the field consider the language learning process and how theories of second language acquisition connect to their own efforts to learn a foreign language. More importantly, participants will reframe how they go about learning a foreign language, try new strategies, and document what they have done through a diary research project.

This course studies the literary production of Miguel de Cervantes, one of the most iconic writers of the Spanish Golden Age. Students will read selections of his great masterpiece, Don Quixote de la Mancha, as well as examples of his lesser-known but equally important work in other genres, including plays, shorter fiction, dramatic interludes, and the pastoral novel.

This course focuses on the representation of the Spanish Civil War’s aftermath in fiction and film from 1939 to today in order to identify the strategies writers and filmmakers used to avoid censorship under the dictatorship, to recount the past during the pact of silence, and to break the silence after the Law of Historical Memory was passed in 2007.

After an introduction to Spain's geography, peoples, and system of government, the course examines the broad social, political, and cultural trends which define Spain today through historical, literary, and journalistic readings. Readings and films embed special topics such as family, marriage, immigration, youth cultures, and the coastal environment to build vocabulary and support research projects for course.

Through the study of different representations such as literature, painting, popular art, film, and music, the course addresses questions of cultural unity and national identity; ethnic and racial heritage and diversity; social and cultural institutions, struggle for social change, and the controversial role of the United States in the politics of Latin America.

An introduction to the literatures and cultures of Latin America from pre-Columbian times to the present. Students will read a variety of works from different periods, regions, and genres, and discuss them in class in the context of the historical moment in which they were produced.

Students will spend six weeks engaging in services in Quito, Ecuador. The focus is on issues impacting mental, physical, and spiritual well-being of individuals/communities in Ecuador and services designed to address these issues and work for social/economic justice. Comparisons are made to systems in the U.S.  Approval of Studies Abroad Director required.

This course studies the Jewish experience in Latin America from the colonial era to the present, a time and place where Jews have historically been marginalized or invisible. Readings, discussions, and student production will address the fluidity of Jewish identity, the importance of memory creating this identity, and the often antithetical relationship between Jews and non-Jews in Latin America.

This course offers training in oral interpretation between health care providers and patients, as well as sight translation of healthcare documents. In addition, students will be exposed to the linguistic and cultural background of Spanish-speaking communities in the USA in order to better understand their health issues and medical conditions.

This course teaches business and corporate-law terminology in conjunction with the cultural aspects of business communication (both oral and written) in Spanish-speaking countries and in Hispanic business settings in the USA.

Credit Arranged.

Credit Arranged.

Credit arranged.

Credit arranged.

Academic internships are available for qualified students (3.0 G.P.A.; 3.25 G.P.A. in Spanish). Internships provide Spanish majors with job experience pertinent to the study of Spanish. The internship may be taken for one to three credit hours, and the credit can apply to the Spanish major. Students may receive an IP (In Progress) grade until the completion of their internship.

Research, study, and original work under the direction of a faculty mentor, leading to a scholarly thesis document with a public presentation of results. Requires approval of thesis director, department chair, dean, and the director of the honors program, when appropriate.