Department Chair:  José Reyna

Program Coordinator:  José Reyna

Program Office:  Dorothy Donahoe Hall, B113

Telephone:  (661) 654-2359

email:  jreyna@csub.edu

Website:  http://www.csub/ModLang/

Faculty:  T. Blommers, H.M. Corral, T. Fernández-Ulloa, A. Nuño, J. Reyna, Joanne Schmidt, J. Yviricu

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PROGRAM DESCRIPTION

The Master of Arts in Spanish program is designed to enable students to perfect all their communications skills: listening, reading, speaking and writing.  The curriculum is carefully planned and integrated to ensure a foundation of professional skills, and a uniform degree of coverage in the areas of Spanish and Spanish-American literature and culture, linguistics and second-language pedagogy, and the business-related fields of interpretation and translation.  Students gain an excellent preparation to become far more effective teachers of Spanish or professionals who are able to interact expertly throughout their careers with Spanish-speaking persons.

To meet these objectives, the program provides:  (1) balance for those who wish to terminate their studies at the Master’s level and whose primary aim is to teach in a community college; (2) advanced training for teachers who wish to improve their professional skills and status; (3) a variety of courses for students who plan to continue toward the Ph.D. degree at another institution; and (4) continuing education for those who wish to extend their knowledge as an end in itself through an interesting and stimulating series of classes in literature, criticism, language and culture.

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APPLICATION AND ADMISSION

Students with a bachelor’s degree from an accredited college or university may apply to the University for post-baccalaureate status and simultaneously to the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures for admission to the master’s degree program in Spanish.  Admission to the graduate program leading to the Master of Arts Degree in Spanish requires the following:

•     Acceptance to the University as a post-baccalaureate student,

•     Submission of the Department’s application form (available from the departmental office),

•     A baccalaureate degree in Spanish from an accredited college or university with an overall grade point average of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale (or 3.0 in Spanish major) during the last 90 quarter units (60 semester units), or

•     A baccalaureate degree in an appropriately related field (to be determined by the departmental admissions committee) with a grade point average of 2.5 on a 4.0 scale (or 3.0 in major) during the last 90 quarter units (60 semester units).

Applicants who have a baccalaureate degree in a subject other than Spanish must complete the six-course (30-unit) undergraduate core requirements of Spanish with a GPA of 3.0 before being considered for admission to the master’s degree program in Spanish.  At the discretion of the departmental admissions committee, additional courses may be required.  The undergraduate core requirements are:

1.   Span 301 Spanish Literature I

2.   Span 302 Spanish Literature II

3.   Span 303 Spanish-American Literature

4.   One of the following:

      Span 311 Advanced Spanish Grammar

      Span 409 Advanced Spanish Syntax

5.   One of the following:

      Span 424 Culture and Civilization of Mexico and the Chicano/Mexican-American

      Span 426 Southwest Hispanic Folklore

      Span 428 Hispanic American Culture and

      Civilization

6.   One of the following:

      Span 412 Introduction to Spanish Linguistics

      Span 420 Southwest Spanish

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CLASSIFICATION OF GRADUATE STUDENTS

There are three classifications for students in the Spanish graduate program:

Classified - A student who meets all the requirements for admission to the master’s degree program in Spanish will be admitted as a Classified Graduate Student.  A Classified Graduate Student may take any graduate-level course meeting the requirements of his or her plan of study as long as the appropriate prerequisites have been met.

Conditionally Classified - A student may be admitted as Conditionally Classified if, in the judgment of the Graduate Committee for the Modern Languages and Literatures Department, he or she has the potential to successfully fulfill all the conditions specified by the Committee for admission as a Classified Graduate Student and potential for successful completion of all the requirements for the graduate program.  Upon satisfactory fulfillment of all conditions specified by the Committee, the student’s status will be administratively changed to Classified Graduate Student.

Candidacy - Classified students who have maintained a 3.0 GPA will be advanced to candidacy in the quarter in which they intend to graduate.

Academic Advising

Meeting with the Graduate Program Coordinator is an important first step in the MA program. It is the student’s responsibility, in consultation with the Graduate Program Coordinator and departmental advisors, to choose appropriate courses.  The Graduate Program Coordinator guides students during the period of graduate study and responds to any concerns students may have while in the program.  It is essential that MA students stay in contact with the Graduate Program Coordinator, so the department can provide current information to help the student move expeditiously through the program.  Students have a responsibility to schedule regular meetings with the Graduate Program Coordinator and their advisors.

Examination Committee

Each MA student in Spanish must have an Examination Committee to conduct both the written and oral examinations specified in number 4 of the Program Requirements (See also SPAN 690 Comprehensive Examination).  The committee will be comprised of faculty members representing each of the three fields specified in number 1 of the Program Requirements.  The Graduate Program Coordinator can provide assistance in forming this committee.

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PROGRAM REQUIREMENTS    

1.   Completion of a minimum of 48 units of approved upper-division and graduate courses (400 through 600 level) in Spanish to include Spanish 500 and at least two 5-unit courses, one of which must be at the 600 level, from each of the following fields:

      •     Linguistics, Second-Language Acquisition Pedagogy and Interpretation/Translation (SPAN 412, 413, 415, 420, 477, 540, 541, 542, 543, 544, 577, 639, 677, 698, and 699)

      •     Spanish Literature and Culture (SPAN 477, 532, 533, 537, 538, 552, 577, 630, 631, 677, and 699)

      •     Spanish-American Literature and Culture (SPAN 416, 419, 424, 426, 428, 477, 495, 534, 535, 550, 551, 577, 636, 677, and 699)

The remaining 10 units may be taken from any of the courses listed above.  However, a maximum of only four 400-level courses (20 units maximum) may be counted toward the Master of Arts degree in Spanish.  Courses taken as an undergraduate do not count and may not be repeated toward fulfillment of the master’s degree requirements.  No more than 13.5 quarter units (9 semester units) of transfer graduate credit are allowed, subject to approval by the departmental admissions committee.

2.   Maintain of a 3.0 GPA in all work undertaken as a graduate student.

3.   All graduate students must meet the Graduation Writing Assessment Requirement (GWAR).  If the student earned his/her baccalaureate from CSUB or any CSU campus in the last two decades, then the student will have already met the GWAR requirement.  All other students must fulfill the GWAR through an approved course of by passing the writing exam. 

4.   Successful completion of a “culminating experience” consisting of written examinations on the Graduate Reading List in each of the three fields listed in number 1 above.  In addition all students must pass an oral comprehensive examination.

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COURSE DESCRIPTIONS

SPAN 500 Literary Theory (5)

Theories and concepts of narrative and poetic analysis:  semiotics; structuralism, post-structuralism; formalist, feminist, Marxist conceptions of art’s place in society; postmodern era; historiography in Hispanic literatures; practice in Spanish, Spanish-American literatures.

SPAN 532 19th Century Spanish Poetry and Drama (5)

The focus of this course will be upon the Romanticismo movement of  poetry and drama of the 19th Century in Spain, including the works of such authors as  Duque de Rivas, Antonio García Gutiérrez, Gustavo Adolfo Bécquer, José de Espronceda, and Rosalía de Castro

SPAN 533 19th Century Spanish Novel and Essay (5)

The focus of this course will be upon the significant novels and essays of the literary schools and movements of the 19th Century in Spain, including realist and naturalist authors such as Ramón de Mesonero Romanos, Mariano José de Larra, Juan Valera, Vicente Blasco Ibáñez, Benito Pérez Galdós and Emilia Pardo Bazán.

SPAN 534 19th Century Spanish-American Poetry and Drama (5)

An overview of the development of ideas, aesthetic pronouncements and movements of the 19th Century, through the study of salient essayists and poets of the period.

SPAN 535 19th Century Spanish-American Novel and Essay (5)

Study of the 19th Century novel and essay in Spanish America, including works of major representative writers of the principal movements (Romanticism, Realism, Modernism) of the period. 

SPAN 537 20th Century Spanish Poetry and Drama (5)

Principal playwrights, trends to present day; works by Benavente, García Lorca, Casona, Buero Vallejo and Sastre.  Principal poets and their works, 1900 to present:  Juan Ramón Jiménez, García Lorca, Alberti, Salinas, Jorge Guillén, and Gil de Biedma. 

SPAN 538 20th Century Spanish Novel and Essay (5)

The 20th Century essay:  Ortega y Gasset, Marañón, Dámaso Alonso, Julián Marías.  The post-civil war novel: Camilo José Cela and the Tremendismo.  The post-Franco novel; literary “postmodernism” and relationships between the essay and novel, politics and society since 1975; representative significant works.

SPAN 540 Second-Language Acquisition (5) 

This course studies first-language acquisition, comparing and contrasting first- and second-language acquisition, and human learning in general.  Other topics will include cognitive variations, personality, socio-cultural variables in language learning and multilingual societies and the goals of language teaching.

SPAN 541 Applied Linguistics to Second-Language Acquisition: From Theory to Practice (5)

This course will compare and contrast two languages and teach how to carry out error analysis.  Emphasis will be placed on inter-language discourse analysis, the pragmatic functions of language, and the basics of second-language research and measurement.

SPAN 542 Spanish in the United States (5)

This course will include lexical, phonological, syntactic and semantic analyses of Spanish as it is actually spoken in the U.S.  This course is especially useful for those who will be teaching, translating or working in any capacity with U.S. Spanish speakers.

SPAN 543 Seminar on Interpreting (5)

Introduction to the theory and practice of interpreting with special emphasis on the consecutive, simultaneous and “chuchotage” modes.  This course will concentrate on legal and community interpreting.

SPAN 544 Technical Translation (5)

Theory and practice of the translation of legal, medical and other scientific documents.  Special training in actual projects from the community and group translation will be carried out.

SPAN 545 Techniques and Methods of Teaching Spanish as a Second Language (5)

Advanced methods, techniques and skills necessary for teachers at the secondary and adult levels to promote culturally sensitive second-language instruction and development.  Presentation of second-language development philosophy and theory will be covered.

SPAN 550 Mexican Society, 20th Century to Present (5)

In-depth study of the social, political, economic, religious, and artistic components of modern-day Mexico.  Will include discussion of relations with the United States.

SPAN 551 Contemporary Caribbean and Central-American Society (5)

In-depth study of the social, political, economic, religious, and artistic components of the modern-day countries of the region.  Will include discussion of relations with the United States.

SPAN 552 Contemporary Spanish Society (5)

In-depth study of the social, political, economic, religious, and artistic components of Modern-day Spain.  Will include discussion of the balancing of relations with Hispanic America, the United States and the European Union.        

SPAN 577 Special Topics in Spanish (1-5)

Studies in Spanish language, literature or culture.  Course may be repeated with different topics.

SPAN 630 Medieval Spanish Literature (5)

An overview of Spanish Literature from the Mozarabic poetry, the “jarchas”; Mester de Juglaría, the epic poetry, the Cantar del mío Cid; the debates, Razón de amor; the Mester de Clerecía, Gonzalo de Berceo; the jocular prose of the Libro de buen amor; to the cultured poetry of the “Danza de la muerte,” and the beginnings of the Spanish theatre of Juan del Encina and Lope de Rueda.

SPAN 631 Literature of the Golden Age (5)

An overview of outstanding Spanish works of the 16th and 17th Centuries:  prose, poetry and theatre.  To include, but not limited to the poetry of Góngora and Quevedo, the prose of Cervantes and the theatre of Lope, Tirso and Calderón.

SPAN 636 Modernismo (5)

Modernistic poetic motifs in verse and prose; early modernists: Rubén Darío and modernismo’s plenitude; late modernists.  Representative significant works.

SPAN 639 History of the Language (5)

Study of the evolution of the Spanish language from its Latin roots through the Romance dialectology of the Middle Ages up to the codification of modern Castilian and Latin American Spanish.  The course will emphasize the socio-linguistic aspects of language change. 

SPAN 677 Special Topics in Spanish (1-5)

Studies in Spanish language, literature or culture.  Examples of topics dealt with are:

•     Special features of grammar or linguistics

•     Cervantes:  Don Quijote

•     Regional subcultures of Mexico

Course may be repeated with different topics.

SPAN 690 Comprehensive Examination (3)

A comprehensive three-part written examination on the graduate reading list covering linguistics, Spanish literature and culture, and Spanish-American literature and culture.  May be repeated once.  Prerequisite:  Successful completion of the graduate course work.

SPAN 698 Directed Study in the Instruction of

Spanish (1-5)

A class in the theory and methods of Spanish instruction.  Supervised experience that may include practice teaching; developing, administering, and scoring examinations; leading small group discussions; tutoring; and directing students in researching term papers.

SPAN 699 Individual Graduate Study (1-5)

Investigation of an approved project leading to a written report.  Project topic is selected in conference with a professor in the area of interest, regular meetings to be held.  Offered on a credit, non-credit basis only.