Spanish
Why Study Spanish?
Spanish is one of the world's most important global languages with an estimated 350 million speakers worldwide. It is now the world's second most widely spoken language in teh world after Mandarin Chinese. With an ever-growing proliferation of speakers in the USA, as well as Mexico, Spain, Colombia, ARgentina, Peru and elsewhere, speaking Spanish opens up a vast new world of rich cultures that can be seen in many walks of life including music, fashion, sports, not to mention cinema, literature, and the arts. Studying Spanish can lead to exciting job opportunities in business, education, toursim and media.
Overview
Students study language with an emphasis on all four skills - reading, writing, listening and speaking. The course also involves the study of the culture of the Hispanic world through literature, art, theatre, film, history and media.
As part of their language course, all students in Year One work in small groups to prepare a writeen project on an aspect of Spanish or Latin American culture including history, politics, language, literature, music, art, film or theatre. The project is designed to improve their knowledge and understanding of the cultures of the Hispanic world, to develop their research skills, and to foster their ability to work in groups.
Second Year involves the improvement of the four key language skills as well as a core course looking at different aspects of culture from the Hispanic world. In addition, students choose from a wide range of options including courses Cinema and Identity in Spanish and Latin America, Linguistic Aspects of Spanish, Golden Age Art and Literature, Contemporary Hispanic Theatre, Nineteenth Century Spanish Literature and US Latino Writers. There is also an opportunity to study Portuguese, Catalan or Galician as well as optoins available on the culture and history of those areas.
In Final Year, the language course focuses on developing translation skills, oral competence and textual comprehension and analysis. The range of options expands further with courses on Gender and Culture in Mexico, Aspects of Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language, Exile and Hispanic Theatre, History and Society in Spanish Literature, Sociolinguistics and History of the Language, Spanish Narrative and Film, Cultural Identity in the Lusophone (Portuguese-speaking) world as well as Golden Age Drama adn the Novelas Ejamplares by Cervantes.
Throughout the programme, students are able to construct their preferred model of a degree in Hispanic Studies with a concentration on developing a high level of language accompanied by a knowledge of the areas they enjoy the most.
Group sizes in the courses are small to facilitate interactive teaching/learning and discussion. Course material is regularly updated and lecturers are widely accessible to the student body. There is active dialogue wtih the students in Hispanic Studies and the Hispanic Society is one of the most active on campus. The Department of Hispanic Studies in UCC is also an associate of the Cervantes Institute.
For complete module descriptions, see the Book of Modules for Spanish.
Study Placement
Students choosing the Language and Cultural Studies degree or the European Studies degree will spend Year Three studying at an institution in Spain or Mexico in any one of our partner institutions including Allicante, Barcelona, Burgos, Deusto (Bilbao) or Santiago de Compostela, Pamplona, La Coruna or Guadalajara, Mexico.
Postgraduate Opportunities
• MA in Hispanic Studies
• MPhil in Hispanic Studies
• PhD in Hispanic Studies
