Spanish Immersion and Education Dual Major

The Spanish language is one of the most widely-used languages across the nation. As the population of bilingual students increase the need for passionate and dedicated bilingual teachers increases as well. Spanish immersion teachers, in addition to teaching language and culture, must also be able to instruct in content areas such as math, science, and social studies in the target language. Therefore, these teachers must have native or near native Spanish fluency, as well as a good understanding of second language acquisition theories and pedagogy.

Candidates for this double major will take the Early Childhood (PreK-4) sequence of courses offered our Education department in order to meet certification requirements for Pennsylvania.  There are reciprocal licensure agreements between Pennsylvania and several other states.  This specialized double major gives students the opportunity to gain the necessary knowledge in second language acquisition theories and instructional methods as well as the skills in both Spanish and English to teach in related content areas, in order to qualify for positions as immersion teachers.

Those interested in becoming Spanish immersion teachers will follow the carefully designed course sequence prepared by the Global Languages, Literatures, and Perspectives as well as the Education Departments, and will receive advisement from both. Students must take a Spanish placement test before beginning the program.

Communication Sciences and Disorders (CSD) and Spanish Dual Major

The Communication Sciences and Disorders/Spanish dual major aims to provide its students with the pre-clinical, linguistic and cultural foundations, which in addition to a master’s degree in speech-language pathology, are necessary to treat and work with patients that are bilingual English/Spanish, as well as those that are Spanish speakers with limited English proficiency.  Those wishing to become CSD/Spanish double majors must have their Spanish assessed by a language faculty member in order to begin their studies at the appropriate level. After placement, students will follow the carefully designed course sequence prepared by the CSD and languages departments.

Some interesting courses offered in this major include

SPN 314: Latin American Short Stories

This is a survey course in which a wide selection of short stories from the late 19th century through the 21st century are studied. The goal is to familiarize students with works written by a variety of Latin American authors. Themes such as love, gender roles, and discrimination, among others, are examined.

SPN 307: Commercial Spanish

The purpose of this course is to better enable students to utilize Spanish in business and other professional contexts. The course aims to increase students’ workplace vocabulary (ex. vocabulary related to the office, computers, travel, etc. will be covered). Written exercises will include exercises such as business letters and other professional correspondence, as well as short translation exercises. Formality vs. informality, use of proper titles to address people in professional situations, and other issues related to cultural etiquette will be addressed.SPN 330: Second Language Teaching Methods

SPN 330: Second Language Teaching Methods

Second Language Teaching Methods is a general course in second language acquisition theories and teaching methodologies for students interested in a career in second language teaching – both ESL and foreign language. Students will review and familiarize themselves with the dominant theories of the field by linguists such as Stephen Krashen, Michael Long, Susan Gass, Bill VanPatten, Jim Lantolf, and others. This course provides students the opportunity to weigh the merits of the two competing camps within second language acquisition and apply these theories to their own teaching by creating appropriate lesson plans and testing materials to maximize student learning and outcomes in all of the four language skills—reading, writing, speaking, and listening.

SPN 480: Spanish Seminar

Topics of investigation will vary from semester to semester. Recent topics include Contemporary Cinema, and Hispanic Cultural Traditions.