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ACADEMIC PROGRAMS
Birmingham-Southern College Catalog 2016-2017
98
SO 450
two elective units in SO
Spanish
for the Workplace
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 for the workplace 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 College 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 six on the IB
examination may be used towards graduation requirements, but not towards Explorations
curriculum requirements. See the “Advanced Placement and International Baccalaureate”
section of this catalog for a full description of the policy.
Upon completion of the Spanish for the workplace major, students will be able to
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function successfully in Spanish in a variety of real-life situations including the
workplace
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make polished formal and informal presentations on a variety of topics
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understand the gist as well as several discrete details of discourse as spoken by
native speakers of Spanish at native speed
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write in Spanish with a high degree of grammatical correctness and appropriate
choices of vocabulary and idiomatic expressions
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converse in Spanish in connected discourse in a variety of time frames