Course descriptions
The courses, conducted entirely in Spanish, are divided into three separate curricular areas. We offer a course in each area per semester. Classes are held once a week in the evenings.
A. Teaching & Pedagogy: 12 credits.
These courses (3 credit hours each) provide students with the theoretical foundations of effective course and curriculum design. Each class has a practical component, and students are encouraged to create original instructional materials.
Methods of Spanish Instruction
Media and Technology in Spanish Language Instruction
Curriculum Design
Testing and Classroom Assessment
Using Spanish as a Means of Instruction
B. Literature & Culture: 9 to 12 credits.
These courses (3 credit hours each) provide students with a solid understanding of the complexity of Hispanic culture, history, and art through the discussion of important literary texts. Texts are studied within the context of: 1) the broader scope of the history of Spanish and Latin American literature; 2) the cultural/historical experience of Hispanic peoples and their complex societies; 3) critical, theoretical perspectives for the analysis of literary works.
Topics in Latin American Literature
Topics in Peninsular Literature
Topics in Chicano/US Literature
Hispanic Theater
C. Linguistics: 9 to 12 credits.
The courses in this area (3 credit hours each) offer students the theoretical foundations for improving their linguistic knowledge of the Spanish language.
Structures of Modern Spanish
Phonetics and Phonology of Spanish
Sociolinguistics and Dialectology in the Spanish Classroom
The Acquisition of Spanish
A. Teaching and Pedagogy
1. Methods of Spanish Instruction
In this course students learn how to analyze various teaching techniques and put them into practice through peer teaching. Second language acquisition theories are discussed and placed in a pedagogical context.
2. Media and Technology in Spanish Language Instruction
The effective implementation of Computer Assisted Language Learning (CALL) technologies is the focus of this course, providing students with an understanding of the critical eye that they will need to assess their effectiveness.
This course offers an in-depth foray into curriculum and syllabus design from the broad national perspective to the local perspective. The course will emphasize the latter, allowing students to explore how to assess the feasibility of and to design particular course objectives and materials.
4. Testing and Classroom Assessment
IAs the definitions of linguistic and cultural proficiency have expanded, so have the types of assessment instruments available to instructors and administrators. The course will consider the purposes and the relevant contexts of a variety of testing approaches.
5. Using Spanish as a Means of Instruction
This course will focus on the functions of Spanish in the classroom. It will examine classroom discourse and Spanish teacher language use during delivery of instruction and classroom management. Spanish skills needed in the teaching grammar in Spanish, when and how to use repetition, code switching, adaptations in speech, informal vs. formal registers, and spoken vs. written language, will be developed.
B. Literature & Culture
1. Topics in Latin American Literature
This course provides the student with an in depth view of a particular genre, time period, region/country and/or author(s) of Latin American literature. Through class discussions students will learn about the socio-historical context of the materials selected. The study of the historical and socio-political context provides you, the student and unique opportunity to explore the culture of Latin America.
2. Topics in Peninsular Literature
This course provides an in depth view of a particular genre, time period, region and/or author of Spanish literature. The study of the literary production of writers such as Federico García Lorca, Rafael Alberti, Antonio Machado , and many others is contextualized within the historical circumstances in which the authors lived.
3. Topics in Chicano/US Literature
Provides a panoramic and thorough vision of the development of the literature of Hispanics residing in the United States, with a focus on the period from 1960 to the present. Students will discuss the themes and trends evident in the works studied and draw parallels and distinctions between the worldviews of the different ethnic groups studied.
In this course we will read and analyze contemporary Latin American plays as well as important drama theory (by Artaud, Brecht, Boal, etc.). Towards the end of the course students will produce, direct and perform one of the plays studied earlier. In addition to learning about drama as a literary genre, students will learn how drama can be effectively utilized as a pedagogical tool in the Spanish classroom.
C. Linguistics
1. Structures of Modern Spanish
The course will survey and critique formalist and functional explanations of the organization of the Spanish grammatical and lexical systems. Particular attention is paid to the application of these theories to Spanish instruction. Students completing this course will be able to analyze the morphology, syntactic and lexical characteristics of the Spanish. These analyses will ultimately be employed to create instructional materials within a variety of teaching methodologies.
2. Phonetics and Phonology of Spanish
The practical aim of the course is the inculcation of an analytic ability to listen to and produce sounds and identify the components that enter into their production, as well as development of a system for understanding underlying sound regularities and features in context. As a student you will practice sound production, becoming familiar with different varieties of Spanish and their manner of production.
3. Sociolinguistics and Dialectology and the Spanish Classroom
This course will focus on the regional and social dialects as well as the various registers of the Spanish language. Students will also be introduced to sociolinguistic theory and apply it to classroom projects and the current state of Spanish in the United States. Furthermore, dialectal aspects will be explored and analyzed within this sociolinguistic framework.
4. The Acquisition of Spanish
Students will be introduced to theories of the cognitive, psycholinguistic and social variables that affect the process of acquiring Spanish as a first as well as a second language. Students will be able to discuss, compare and contrast theories and approaches about L2 acquisition and learning and apply findings to second language learning in classroom settings.
Individual project supervised by a faculty member.
E. Comprehensive Written Exams
In a written comprehensive examination, students completing the Master of Arts in Teaching Spanish will demonstrate advanced, professional-level proficiencies in the three areas of curricular focus and their application to the language classroom.