Spanish Major Learning Outcomes

Upon completion of a B.A. in Spanish, students will be able to meet, at a minimum, an advanced low level language proficiency, as described by the 2012 American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages Proficiency Guidelines, as follows:

• Reading
  
  • Identify the underlying structure in narrative and descriptive texts
  • Explain the main ideas, and some supporting details of texts
    
    
• Listening
  
  • Identify underlying structure in oral discourse
  • Recognize the main facts and some supporting details in oral presentations or conversations
    
    
• Writing
  
  • Meet basic work and/or academic writing needs
  • Narrate and describe in major time frames with some control of aspect
  • Compose simple summaries on familiar topics
  • Combine and link sentences into texts of paragraph length and structure
    
    
• Speaking
  • Handle a variety of communicative tasks
  • Participate in most informal and some formal conversations on topics related to school, home, leisure activities, employment, current events, and matters of public and community interest
  • Narrate and describe in the major time frames of past, present and future in paragraph-length discourse with some control of aspect
  • Combine and link sentences into connected discourse of paragraph length
  • Handle appropriately the essential linguistic challenges presented by a complication or an unexpected turn of events
  • Use communicative strategies such as rephrasing and circumlocution
  • Demonstrate conversation skills with sufficient accuracy, clarity and precision to convey their intended message without misrepresentation or confusion