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COURSES OF STUDY
Spanish (SN)
Bachelor of Arts
Barbara Domcekova, Kim Lewis, Janie Spencer
In light of the significant changes taking place in our present day world
and the need for greater international understanding and cooperation, one
cannot overestimate the importance of foreign language study. The courses
in foreign languages at Birmingham-Southern College are designed to help
students attain written and oral proficiency. Furthermore, in studying a
foreign language, students develop an appreciation of another culture and
in doing so gain new insights into their own culture as well.
Students are encouraged to complement their coursework in a foreign
language with various on- and off-campus experiences: viewing foreign
language films, performing internships or volunteer activities using the
target language, taking part in a service-learning project or exploration term
study-travel project in a country where their target language is spoken, or
participating in an approved study abroad program.
Spanish majors are strongly advised to adopt an appropriate cognate
program, either as a minor or as a double major. Proficiency in Spanish
is particularly useful for students planning careers in teaching (university,
secondary, and bilingual), international business, health care, social work,
law, foreign service, and research and technology. In addition, the rapidly
growing Hispanic population in many regions of this country underscores
the advantages of the ability to communicate with speakers of Spanish and
to understand their culture.
Students may earn credit in Spanish at Birmingham-Southern through
the Advanced Placement or International Baccalaureate programs. A score
of four or more on either the grammar or the literature AP examination
or a score of five or more on the IB examination may be used towards
graduation requirements, but not towards Explorations Curriculum
Requirements. See the section Credit by Examination under Academic
Policy for a full description of the policy.
Upon completion of the Spanish major, students will be able to
•
function successfully in Spanish in a variety of real-life situations,
•
make polished formal and informal presentations on a variety of
topics,
•
understand the gist as well as several discrete details of discourse as
spoken by native speakers of Spanish at native speed,
•
write in Spanish with a high degree of grammatical correctness and
appropriate choices of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions,
•
converse in Spanish in connected discourse in a variety of time frames,
•
recognize and respect cultural differences among the different
Spanish-speaking countries.
