School of Liberal Arts and Education
Course Descriptions
Course Descriptions:
French
French 101 - Beginning French I
3 credits 3 class hours 1 lab hour weekly
This is an introduction to French language as a medium of communication. It will focus on the oral use of the language with work also in written drills, grammar and composition. One hour weekly attendance in the Language Laboratory is required. Not open to native speakers of French or student with francophone proficiency.
French 102 - Beginning French II3 credits 3 class hours 1 lab hour weekly
This is a continuation of French I. Grammar, composition, oral comprehension of simple literary texts are developed and supplemented by readings and analysis of French texts.
Pre-requisite: FREN 101 or departmental approval.
French 201 – Intermediate French I
3 credits 3 class hours 1 lab hour weekly
This course is aimed at native francophone speakers who need formal language instruction and non-native students who demonstrate a satisfactory degree of proficiency. The study of a graded series of text will constitute the basis of both textual analysis and the student practice of communication skills. A compressive review of grammar will stress the morphology and use of the verb paradigm. Class and language-lab exercises will emphasize audio-oral interaction and writing. Students will be expected to have the capacity to speak, read and write in standard French with originality about the topics studied in class.
Pre-requisite: Open to native speakers of French; placement test; or recommendation of faculty members after successful completion of French 102
French 202 - Intermediate French II
3 credits 3 class hours 1 lab hour weekly
This course will teach students to perceive the language as a vehicle for culture. A broad range of texts in French will be read and discussed and will serve as linguistic models and as a basis for thematic discussion and composition. The study on texts of culture will be intensified. Literary texts, as well as films and texts dealing with current cultural and social activity in the francophone countries in the Americas, will be studied.
Pre-requisite: French 201 or permission of Instructor.
Spanish
Spanish 101 - Beginning Spanish I
3 credits; 3 class hours 1 lab hour weekly
This is an introduction to the Spanish language as a medium of communication, it will focus on the oral use of the language with work also in written drills, grammar and composition. One hour weekly attendance in the Language Laboratory is required. Not open to native speakers of Spanish or student with Spanish proficiency.
Spanish 102 - Beginning Spanish II3 credits; 3 class hours 1 lab hour weekly
This course is a continuation of Spanish I, grammar, composition, oral comprehension of simple literary texts are developed supplemented by readings and analysis of Spanish texts.
Pre-requisite: Span 101 or departmental approval.
Spanish 201 – Intermediate Spanish I
3 credits; 3 class hours 1 lab hour weekly
This course is a continuation and completion of the study of materials covered in Span 101 and 102. Selected readings of modern texts will be explored. One hour weekly attendance in the Language Laboratory is required.
Pre-requisite: Span 102 or challenge examination.
Spanish 202 - Intermediate Spanish II
3 credits; 3 class hours 1 lab hour weekly
This course is a continuation of Span 201. Emphasis will be on analysis, discussion, and composition based on the reading of selected texts as an introduction to specialized literature courses.
Pre-requisite: Span 102 or challenge examination.
Spanish 203 - Spanish for Native Speakers I
3 credits; 3 class hours
This course is a review of pronunciation, spelling, and selected aspects of the grammar that present special difficulties to the native speaker. This course is designed for students who have a good command of the spoken language but have had little or no formal instruction.
Pre-requisite: Permission of chairperson
Spanish 204 - Spanish for Native Speakers II
3 credits; 3 class hours
SPAN 203 and 204 are a sequence. In SPAN 204, the student continues the study of the materials introduced in SPAN 203. Upon completion of both courses, the student will have acquired the basic skills needed to use his/her native language effectively and to proceed to major-level course work.
Pre-requisite: SPAN 203 or by permission of chairperson
Spanish 211 - Conversation and Writing
3 credits; 3 class hours
This course is part of a sequence of intermediate courses needed to give students pursuing proficiency in Spanish the necessary tools to achieve that goal. This is a course designed to develop aural comprehension, oral proficiency and writing skills of students with intermediate knowledge of Spanish. Students will prepare and make oral presentations on a variety of current topics on the basis of short videos, films, and text-readings selected from the course textbook and/or from the New York press written in Spanish.
Pre-requisites:Spanish 202, Spanish 204, four semesters of college Spanish, four years of high school Spanish (with a B average or better), or permission of the instructor.
Spanish 215 - Reading and Writing on non-literary texts
3 credits; 3 class hours
This is an intermediate course that aims at giving students pursuing proficiency in Spanish the necessary tools to develop their writing skills. This intermediate Spanish composition course is designed to develop students’ ability to write essays on the basis of readings of non-literary texts.
Pre-requisite: Spanish 202, Spanish 204, four semesters of college Spanish, four years of high school Spanish (with a B average or better), or permission of the instructor. Spanish 211 highly recommended.
Co-requisite:English 112.
Spanish 216 - Reading and Writing on Literary texts
3 credits; 3 class hours
This is an intermediate course that aims at giving students pursuing proficiency in Spanish the necessary tools to develop their writing skills. This will be done by following a process of increasing difficulty that assumes an intermediate mastery level of Spanish on the part of the students: by finding readings that will go from simple to complex; by grading those readings starting with texts that bring issues close to students’ personal concerns and going on to readings which bring more general social and cultural issues; by going through the process of structural difficulty that starts with narrative writing and goes on to expository, analytical and critical writing.
Pre-requisite: Spanish 202, Spanish 204, four semesters of college Spanish, four years of high school Spanish (with a B average or better), or permission of the instructor. Spanish 211 highly recommended.
Co-requisite:English 112.
Spanish 315 - Peninsular Spanish Civilization
3 credits; 3 class hours
This is a course is designed to give students seeking to minor or major in Spanish or Latin American Literature or in Latin American Studies the necessary cultural and historical context to develop a humanistic view of the texts considered in their program.
Pre-requisites: Spanish 211 or Spanish 215
Spanish 316 - Latin American Civilization
3 credits; 3 class hours
This is a course for students seeking to minor or major in Spanish or Latin
American Literature or in Latin American Studies. It will provide the required general knowledge about Latin American Civilization that any student will need to put in historical and cultural context their further readings on literature and culture of the Peninsula or Spanish America.
Pre-requisites: Spanish 211 or Spanish 215
Spanish 320 - Masterpieces of Contemporary Spanish American Short Fiction
3 credits; 3 class hours
In this course, some of the most significant short fiction produced between the publication of Darío’s masterpieces and the end of the XX century will be studied. The work of Quiroga, Borges, Rulfo, Cortázar, García Márquez and other seminal authors will be considered in the context of the aesthetic, social and cultural movements in which it originated. It is an aim of the course to considerer particular texts in relation to the most important theoretical tenets of the genre. Although attention will be paid to scholarly work that will contextualize the study of the selected works in all pertinent respects, the principal goal of the course is to guide students to learn how to perform textual analysis on the basis of careful consideration of selected texts.
Pre-requisite: Spanish 216
Spanish 350 - Special topics in Hispanic literature: the Spanish American Modernism
3 credits; 3 class hours
This course will analyze and help students to develop a comprehensive understanding of the "Modernista" movement, whose aesthetic and philosophical principles were dominant throughout the literature of the Hispanic world at the end of the nineteenth century and the beginning of the twentieth. "Modernismo" was primarily concerned with reforming poetic language and experimenting with rhythm, meter, and imagery. Its principles, however, also influenced narrative fiction, fictional prose and the theatre. We will study the most important manifestations of this renovation through the close reading and analysis of Spanish American writers, with special emphasis on José Martí, the precursor of the movement and Rubén Darío, its guiding force.
Prerequisites:Spanish 216
Spanish 351 - Special topics in Hispanic literature: Poetry of the Golden Age
3 credits; 3 class hours
The Poetry of the Golden Age in Spain constitutes the climax of Spanish letters of any period. Not only the quality of the poets of the period give the period some of the most glorious literary works of art of all times in any language, but the number of poets of that rank make for an astonishing array of lyric poetry that arguably has no equal in European modern times. This course, although ambitious in its scope, will be essential for students pursuing a minor or a major in Spanish literature to put in perspective the whole of Spanish subsequent literature.
Pre-requisite: Spanish 216, Spanish 315
