Spanish courses

SPNS 101 Elementary Spanish I

F, S, Su 4 cr. RCT 4

Elementary level Spanish course designed to help students acquire basic proficiency in communicating within culturally significant contexts.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Novice High on the ACTFL proficiency scale.
  • Acquire basic cultural knowledge of the Hispanic World.

 SPNS 102D Elementary Spanish II

F, S, Su 4 cr. RCT 4

Prerequisite: SPNS 101 or equivalent, or two years of high school Spanish.

Elementary level Spanish course that builds on SPNS 101 with greater emphasis on oral and written expression. Elementary level course designed to help students acquire basic proficiency in communicating within culturally significant contexts.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Intermediate Low on the ACTFL proficiency scale.
  • Acquire basic cultural knowledge of the Hispanic World.

SPNS 201D Intermediate Spanish I

F, S 3 cr. RCT 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 102 or equivalent, or a minimum of three years of high school Spanish, or placement interview.

Intensive methodological review of grammar and syntax combined with the integrated development of proficiency in the four language skills. Expansion of cultural knowledge and functional vocabulary through intermediate-level readings and discussions. Increased emphasis on written expression.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • High Intermediate Low to Low Intermediate Mid - on the ACTFL proficiency scale.
  • Acquire basic cultural knowledge of the Hispanic World.

SPNS 220D Spanish Language & Culture

F, S 3 cr. RCT 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 201 or equivalent, or placement interview

A series of readings of Spanish culture, civilization, and literature which will provide the basis for writing essays and reports and developing advanced language skills.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Intermediate Mid on the ACTFL proficiency scale.
  • Acquire an understanding of Hispanic culture.
  • Develop more advanced reading and writing skills in preparation for entry into upper-division courses.

SPNS 250 SPANISH FOR HEALTHCARE PROFESSIONALS 

F,S 3 cr. REC 3
Prerequisite: Knowledge of Spanish is helpful but not necessary.

Prepares undergraduates to converse with Spanish-speaking patients and develop cultural competency. Emphasis on conversation/grammar necessary during medical interviews, cultural aspects of Latino health care, interviewing in Spanish. Includes guest speakers, real-world situations, and discussion of current issues.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Know the cultural dimensions of health and health care in the Spanish-speaking world.
  • Acquire vocabulary and grammar structures relevant to functioning in a health care context.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 320 Spanish Culture and Civilization

F 3 cr. LEC 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 201 or equivalent or placement interview.

Examines the historical, social, and ideological aspects of Spanish culture from the Middle Ages to the Modern period. Taught in Spanish.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Know the key events, figures, and architecture of Spain from 14,000 BCE through the Spanish Republic and Civil War.
  • Know how to identify different styles of architecture, their characteristics, and their relationship to historical periods.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS323 Spanish: Advanced Grammar and Phonetics

F 3 cr. LEC 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 220 for majors & minors; or Junior standing for non-majors.

Intensive and comprehensive review of Spanish grammar and introduction to basic phonetics.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Know all major grammatical structures of Spanish.
  • Expand Spanish vocabulary.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 324 Spanish: Advanced Conversation and Composition

S 3 cr. RCT 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 323

Development and refinement of advanced oral and writing skills, intensive practice in expository and imaginative composition, review of idiomatic expressions, and vocabulary expansion.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Strengthen intermediate-level language skills in reading, writing, and speaking and developing advanced-level skills in those areas.
  • Expand the student’s general knowledge about the Hispanic world.
  • Acquire language-learning habits and methods appropriate to the intermediate-level student.

SPNS 329 Early Cultures of Latin America

F 3 cr. LEC 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 220

This course examines the historical, social, and ideological aspects of modern Latin American culture form the pre-Columbian period through independence.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Understand modes of thought and expression in the various indigenous societies prior to European contact, and the impact of colonization on those societies. 
  • Understand how African slaves and Iberian colonists made sense of their place in the colonized areas of Latin America.
  • Understand the historical roots of transculturation at the heart of Latin America’s multicultural but highly unequal societies.
  • Strengthen intermediate-level language skills in reading, writing, and speaking and develop advanced-level skills in those areas.

SPNS 330 Modern Cultures of Latin America

F 3 cr. LEC 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 323 or 324.

This course examines the historical, social, and ideological aspects of modern Latin American culture. Taught in Spanish.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Identify and discuss themes in course material in oral and written form.
  • Compare and analyze literary texts and other cultural products.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 332 Contemporary Latin American Literature

S 3 cr. LEC 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 323 or 324

An examination of the major authors, works, and literary movements of the 19th and 20th centuries as Latin American literature has come of age and established its independence from Spanish peninsular influences. Taught in Spanish.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Identify and discuss themes in the readings in oral and written form
  • Compare and analyze Latin American literary texts.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 333 To Infinity and Beyond: Jorge Luis Borges

S 3 cr. LEC 3

Prerequisite: Completion of, or concurrent enrollment in, SPNS 220

An examination of the work of the Latin American writer and thinker, Jorge Luis Borges. Readings may include essays and poetry, but the emphasis will be on Borges's short stories. While the course will explore the themes of Borges's work, activities and assignments will be geared toward strengthening Intermediate level proficiency and developing Advanced level skills on the ACTFL scale. Taught in Spanish.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Strengthen Intermediate level proficiency and develop Advanced level skills in Spanish on the ACTFL scale.
  • Formulate and answer critical questions about philosophical and literary issues in the work of Jorge Luis Borges.

SPNS 335IH Travel in Latin American Literature & Film

Su 3 cr. RCT 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 220 or junior standing.

This course examines travel in Latin American texts and films as exploration and search for individual and national identity and as disruptive displacements caused by political and economic forces and the problems of adapting to a new environment. In English.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Identify and discuss themes in literary works and films in oral and written form.
  • Compare and analyze literary works and films
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 350 U.S. Latino Cultures

F 3 cr. LEC 3

Prerequisites: 220 or equivalent

Examines the history and culture of Latino communities in the US. It centers on the largest Hispanic populations found in the US today: Mexican, Dominican, Puerto Rican, and Cuban. Taught in Spanish.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Understand and identify the origins and context of diverse individual and group experiences of Latinas and Latinos in the United States.
  • Acquire an understanding of the history of Latino populations and the United States.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 351 US Latino Literature

S 3 cr. RCT 3

Prerequisites: 220 or equivalent

Examination of the major authors, works, and literary movements of U.S. Latino literature. Taught in Spanish.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Understand prevalent themes in US Latino literature in the different genres.
  • Distinguish significant similarities and differences among literary movements pertaining to Latino literature.
  • Assess key authors and their work since the 1960’s.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 352IH US Latino Text and Cinema
F 3 cr. LEC 3

Prerequisites: Open to students in History, American Studies, English, Sociology, Political Science, and LALS. Junior standing or consent of instructor.

Examination of the patterns of Latino immigration and theories of immigration with special focus on the U.S.-Mexican border. Taught in English.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Understand prevalent themes in US Latino film and literature.
  • Acquire the critical language necessary to study and appreciate cinema.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 361 Hispanic Texts and Cinema

S 3 cr. LEC 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 323

This course will focus on different topics of Latin America and/or Spain through the reading and viewing of a variety of Hispanic literary works and movies. These themes may include history, race, gender, politics, and literary trends in Latin America or Spain.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Acquire an appreciation for Latin American cinema from the mid-twentieth century through the present.
  • Acquire the critical language necessary to study and appreciate cinema.
  • Know how to conduct an independent research project based on (1) their own interpretations and analysis of a set body of films and (2) on their reading of academic and critical sources.
  • Strengthen intermediate-level language skills in reading, writing, and speaking and developing advanced-level skills in those areas.

SPNS 362 Hispanic Poetry

F 3 cr. SEM 3

Prerequisite: SPNS323

Examines 20th century poetry from several Latin American countries and Spain including the poets’ biographies and their historical, social, and political contexts.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Appreciate Spanish-language poetry
  • Identify, explain, and analyze the function of poetic devices.
  • Acquire ability to formulate analytical arguments focusing on specific poems.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 416 Spanish: Culture and Revolution

F 3 cr. RCT 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 220

An intensive study of the cultural materials produced as a result of dictatorships and revolutions in Latin America and Spain including movies, documentaries, songs, literature, and art. Will encourage the understanding of the mutual influence between historical events and cultural production in Hispanic countries. Taught in Spanish.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Identify and discuss themes in the readings in oral and written form.
  • Compare and analyze readings.
  • Integrate learned material into oral presentations and written essays.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 430 Latin American Perspectives

S 3 cr. LEC 3

Prerequisite SPNS 220 or equivalent.

This course approaches historical developments, literature, and construction of identity in twentieth-century Latin America. Taught in English with Spanish reading/writing option.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Understand how the Americas came into the “gaze” of European colonizers, and later, the United States.
  • Understand how a series of Latin American authors in the twentieth century, writing across genres (fiction, nonfiction, and poetry) comprehendedthe region’s experience with European and North American empires.
  • Strengthen intermediate-level language skills in reading, writing, and speaking and developing advanced-level skills in those areas.
  • Acquire critical reading and thinking skills.
  • In a broader sense, the course’s learning objectives concern students’ immersion in intellectual values: curiousity about the world around you and openness to the ideas and perspectives of others; doubt of your own assumptions and the ability to suspend judgement based on personal criteria; the persistence and discipline to make these traits into habits.

SPNS 445 Hispanic Caribbean: Cuba, Puerto Rico, Dominican Republic

On demand 3 cr. RCT 3

Prerequisite: HSTR 130 and Junior standing.

Focuses on the cultures and societies of Cuba, Puerto Rico, and the Dominican Republic. Uses cultural material (i.e. novels, films, music, and art) as well as scholarly essays to address the region's history, politics class/gender/race dynamics, religion, etc. In English.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Identify and discuss themes in cultural materials in oral and written form
  • Compare and analyze cultural products (literature, films, music, and art).
  • Integrate learned material into oral presentations and written essays.

SPNS 460 Contemporary Spain and Nations

F 3 cr. LEC 3

Examines several facets of contemporary Spain, including three of Spain’s peripheral nations: Basque Country, Catalonia, and Galicia.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Know key events, figures, achievements and shortcomings of the Second Republic.
  • Understand the reasons behind the Spanish Civil War, the international context, and key figures and battles, the effect of Stalinism on the anarchist/Trotskyist unions and militias.
  • Understand the nature of nationalism and the different kinds of national processes.
  • Know the differences between Galizan, Basque, and Catalonian nationalism.
  • Understand the characteristics of Galizan, Basque, and Catalonian culture.
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.

SPNS 470R Sem: Senior Capstone

F, S 3 cr. SEM 3

Prerequisite: SPNS 325 or SPNS 332 or SPNS 351

Senior capstone course. An in-depth examination of the most important Hispanic works and authors of the 19th, 20th, and 21st centuries. In Spanish.

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Acquire critical thinking skills
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.
  • Other outcomes determined by each offering.

SPNS 491 Special Topics

On demand 1-3 cr. Maximum 12 cr.

Prerequisite: determined by each offering

Course Learning Outcomes

  • Acquire critical thinking skills
  • Strengthen Intermediate level skills and develop Advanced level skills on the ACTFL proficiency scale.
  • Other outcomes determined by each offering.