Spanish is a global language, spoken by over 500 million people worldwide. It is the second language with the most native speakers in the world (after Mandarin Chinese) and also the second most widely used language in the United States. Because of this, Spanish can complement many career goals and open up opportunities in business, education, health and social sciences, the humanities, and the arts.

Our department offers a wide variety of courses in Spanish, from elementary language classes to advanced classes of Spanish, Latin American, and Latinx literatures and cultures.

1. ELEMENTARY

LANG 103: Elementary Spanish I
This course provides the essentials of basic communication in Spanish, with primary emphasis on oral communication (speaking and understanding oral speech). It is recommended for students with little or no previous knowledge of Spanish.

LANG 104: Elementary Spanish II
This course is a continuation of LANG 103 (Elementary Spanish I).

LANG 130: Spanish for Health Care Professionals
This course is intended primarily for students planning to enter the health care professions and whose objective is a working knowledge of Spanish. Development of oral skills is fostered through classroom recreations of real life scenarios. Cultural dimensions are also discussed.

LANG 133: Spanish for Health Care Professionals II
This course is a continuation of LANG 130 (Spanish for Health Care Professionals).

LANG 134: Spanish I for Business
This course provides business students with a foundation in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish. It utilizes authentic materials such as videos, internet resources, and readings to promote learning by doing. This online course seeks to enhance the students’ skills in the target language during basic real-life business situations. Also, students learn technical vocabulary and idiomatic expressions used in those circumstances.

LANG 137: Spanish I for Law Enforcement
This course provides law enforcement students with a foundation in listening, speaking, reading, and writing in Spanish. It utilizes authentic materials such as videos, internet resources, and readings to promote learning by doing. This online course seeks to enhance the students’ skills in the target language during basic real-life law enforcement situations, such as arrests, traffic stops, and medical emergencies. Also, students learn technical vocabulary and idiomatic expressions used in those circumstances.

2. INTERMEDIATE

LANG 203: Intermediate Spanish I
This is a continued study of the Spanish language. Speaking and reading practice are emphasized through communicative activities, selected readings, and classroom discussions.

LANG 204: Intermediate Spanish II
This course provides intensive practice in oral and written communication through readings, compositions, and class discussions.

LANG 215: Spanish for Bilingual Speakers I
This is an intermediate-level course designed for students who have a speaking knowledge of Spanish, but lack formal preparation in the language. Emphasis is placed on the study and application of Spanish grammar, vocabulary building, and the development of reading and writing skills.

LANG 216: Spanish for Bilingual Speakers II
This is an intensive course for students who are proficient in spoken Spanish and have had some formal preparation in the language. Emphasis is placed on the study and application of Spanish grammar, vocabulary building, and the development of reading and writing skills.

LANG 230: Business Spanish
This course involves intensive study of business terminology in Spanish through applied exercises and practical business correspondence. Simulated conversations are staged to provide active practice with oral vocabulary.

LANG 231: Literature of Puerto Rico
This course offers a survey of Puerto Rican literature from its colonial beginnings to the contemporary period, including readings and discussions of prose, poetry, and dramatic works.

3. ADVANCED

LANG 301: Advanced Spanish Grammar I
This course is a review of Spanish grammar and usage at an advanced level, with special emphasis on the needs of prospective teachers. The course focuses on the application of grammatical principles through textbook exercises, writing assignments, and oral presentations

LANG 302: Advanced Spanish Grammar II
This course offers further work in specific problem areas of Spanish grammar and usage, with emphasis on the needs of prospective teachers. The course focuses on the application of grammatical principles through textbook exercises, writing assignments, and oral presentations.

LANG 304: Advanced Spanish Composition I
This course provides writing practice in Spanish at an advanced level. It focuses on important structural elements of the written language and varieties of style in a workshop environment where students can share and discuss their work.

LANG 305: Civilization and Culture of Spain
This course studies the development of Spanish institutions and cultural history with special attention paid to their ethnic, political, and artistic aspects.

LANG 306: Civilization and Culture of Spanish America
This course examines the evolution of Spanish American countries from the origins of their indigenous civilizations to the present, with special attention paid to their historical, ethnic, political, economic, and artistic aspects.

LANG 307: Survey of Spanish Literature
This course is an introduction to the literature of Spain through a study of representative authors and works from the Middle Ages to the present.

LANG 308: Survey of Spanish American Literature
This course introduces the literature of Spanish America through representative authors and works from the Conquest to the present.

LANG 309: Latin American Influence on the United States Culture
This course examines Hispanic cultural manifestations as transported and adapted to the culture of the United States. The class highlights Spanish and Spanish American contributions in the areas of art, language, literature, music, theater, film, television, and the press.

LANG 310: Spanish-English Comparative Grammar I
This is an intensive course for prospective teachers of Spanish. It emphasizes the areas of difference between the two languages and how they should be presented to students.

LANG 311: Spanish-English Comparative Grammar II
This is a continuation of LANG 310 (Spanish-English Comparative Grammar I). It focuses on the comparative study of Spanish grammar and usage at an advanced level, stressing the areas of difference between Spanish and English, with emphasis on the needs of prospective teachers.

LANG 314: Advanced Spanish Composition II
Designed to improve written expression in Spanish through the study of Hispanic literature and culture, this course uses a variety of media (film television, music, art, and written sources) as points of departure for the development of writing and critical thinking skills.

LANG 330: Reading the Past and Present of Mexico's Violence and Resistance
This course aims to develop an understanding of Mexico's history of violence and resistance within the context of social tensions, cultural and political shifts, and questions of gender and ethnicity. Primary and secondary texts from different periods are examined, along with films, performances, and visual sources such as paintings, photographs, engravings, and murals.

LANG 340: The Spanish Language in the United States
This course introduces topics in Spanish sociolinguistics, focusing on how the Spanish language is used in the United States in different social and cultural contexts. It explores the relationship between language and speaker's choice, language use and attitudes, language planning and policy, language and gender, language in contact, and bilingual education.

LANG 350: The Many Faces of Spain
This course, which includes a study abroad component in Spain, provides an introduction to the complexity of Spanish culture. Along with an examination of Spain’s origins, this course analyzes the importance of the co-existence of three cultures (Muslim, Christian, and Jewish) as a shaping factor of the Spanish national identity.

LANG 401: Hispanic Literature of the Caribbean
This course focuses on the culture and history of the Caribbean through a critical reading of representative literary works and historical documents.

LANG 402: Race and Ethnicity in Spanish American Literature
This course examines the social constructs of race and ethnicity in the anti-slavery, indianista, and indigenista novels, as well as in the Afroamerican literature of the postmodernist period.

LANG 403: Literature of Cuba
This course offers a survey of the literature of Cuba from the colonial period to the present. Emphasis is placed on the romantic poets Heredia and Avellaneda, the prose and poetry of Martí, Afro-Cuban poetry, and the novelists of the “Boom” period: Carpentier, Cabrera-Infante, and Sarduy.

LANG 404: Literature of Puerto Rico
This course offers a survey of Puerto Rican literature from its colonial beginnings to the contemporary period, including prose, poetry, and dramatic works.

LANG 406: 20th Century Spanish American Prose
This course examines Spanish American essays, short stories, and novels from the Modernist period to the present.

LANG 407: Spanish American Literature of the 19th Century
This course provides an overview of the development of romantic, costumbrista, gaucho, and realistic movements in Hispanic America, studied through representative authors and works of three genres: novel, drama, and poetry.

LANG 408: Colonial and Postcolonial Studies
This course focuses on the expansion of the colonial canon through the incorporation of texts produced by native and mestizo writers. Emphasis is placed on understanding the relevance of the past in non-Western cultures and its sociopolitical implications in Latin American and indigenous communities worldwide.

LANG 409: Introduction to Spanish Interpreting for the Professions
This course is an introduction to interpreting skills used in various fields and settings, such as international conferences and meetings, business and diplomatic assignments, courts and tribunals, hospitals and community settings. Students are introduced to different techniques to overcome problems in the simultaneous interpreting mode, such as content analysis and memory exercises, consecutive interpretation without notes, summarization, sight translation, and note-taking.

LANG 410: Melancholy in Latina and Latin American Women Writers
This course is an introduction to contemporary women writing in Latin America and the recent works by Latinas in the United States, with a special focus on their complex representation of sexuality and the maternal body, including their association of writing with sexuality and the maternal experience.

LANG 416: 20th Century Spanish Prose Literature
This course studies essays, short stories, and novels by Spanish writers from the Generation of ‘98 to the Post Civil War period.

LANG 417: 19th Century Spanish Literature
The development of romanticism, costumbrismo, and realism in Spain are studied through readings and discussions of representative authors and works of three genres: narrative, drama, and poetry.

LANG 418: Theater of the Golden Age
This course examines the origins and development of the Spanish national theater, with emphasis on the works of Lope de Vega, Tirso de Molina, and Calderón de la Barca.

LANG 419: Cervantes
This course studies the life and works of Miguel de Cervantes, with emphasis on his masterpiece, Don Quijote de la Mancha.

LANG 420: 20th Century Spanish American Poetry
This course studies the poetic movements and poets of Spanish America from Rubén Darío to the end of the 20th century.

LANG 421: 20th Century Spanish American Drama
This course examines Spanish American theater movements from the 20th century, including realism, naturalism, surrealism, and absurdism.

LANG 436: The Art of Translation and Interpreting for Professions
This course aims to developing the skills needed to translate and interpret in the medical, legal, community, governmental, international, and audiovisual fields. This course aids students to improve their writing, speaking, listening and reading skills through the practice of English to Spanish translation and interpreting.

LANG 442: Language Issues in the Spanish Speaking World
This course introduces topics in Spanish sociolinguistics, focusing on how the Spanish language is used among speech communities in different social and cultural contexts. It explores the relationship between language and speaker's choice, language use and attitudes, language planning and policy, language in contact, and bilingual education in Latin America, Spain and the United States.

LANG 445: Introduction to the Teaching of Spanish
This course provides an introduction to the teaching of Spanish as a second language. Based on the information provided by current research in second language teaching, students learn how communicative skills (modes of communication), linguistic competencies, ACTFL’s five “C” goal areas, and New Jersey World Languages Standards can be incorporated in classroom activities when preparing a lesson plan.

LANG 510: Second Language Methodology
This course provides an introduction to the theories, methods, and materials used in the teaching of world languages in K-12, focusing on the national ACTFL standards and the New Jersey World Languages Standards. Students create and assess thematic units for standards-based world language classrooms using a communicative and contextualized approach.