Faculty of Arts & Science 2016-2017 Calendar

Spanish

• Spanish Specialist | Spanish Major | Spanish Minor
• Spanish Courses

Faculty

Overview:

Spanish is the most widely spoken language of the Americas, with 130 million speakers in North America alone, more than 400 million worldwide, and with growing numbers in Canada.  It is the fourth most widely spoken language in the world, and it is the official language in 21 countries on three continents: Europe, Africa, and Latin America.

Spanish opens the door to the study of a rich range of cultural expressions in literature, film and art, from medieval and early modern Transatlantic world, to the literary and cultural productions of contemporary Spanish and Spanish American societies. The department offers a wide selection of courses at the introductory (second year), intermediate (third year) and advanced (fourth year) level in literature, culture and linguistics. Students are encouraged to complement and expand on the training they receive in these courses by taking courses in other academic units. By the time of their graduation, our students acquire skills to read analytically fictional and non-fictional, literary and visual texts. They thus gain a deep knowledge of Hispanic cultures, as well as the skills to reflect critically on the world in which they live.

Spanish also opens the door to the study of the Romance language family. The Department offers students the opportunity to advance their language skills through the systematic reflection on the language structure, from the sound system to the morphology and syntax. Through a variety of courses with a theoretical and experimental focus in linguistics, students acquire basic skills that can be transferred to teaching or research programs. Through collaboration with other language and linguistics programs, students are provided with opportunities and training to conduct research in linguistics with a focus on Spanish language.

 What can I do with a degree in Spanish?

Plenty! Spanish is recognized as one of the four United Nations official languages. A degree in Spanish linguistics, literature, and culture opens up career paths both domestically and internationally. The skills that students acquire through the study of Spanish and of the Spanish-speaking world either prepare them directly for, or are an asset in some of the following fields:

• media, journalism, marketing, public relations;
• domestic government services and NGOs; foreign services and foreign affairs specialist; international development; political aid,
• commerce, finances, tourism and hospitality
• post-graduate studies and academic careers; cultural work
• editing, publishing, translation, education
• library and information sciences
• careers in the health profession, including medicine, speech pathology and audiology
• computational linguistics, speech recognition and synthesis

For the Portuguese component, see under “Portuguese Program” in this Calendar.

For further information, please visit us in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese,

Victoria College, Room 208

or contact us at: (416) 813-4080. 

Email: spanport@chass.utoronto.ca

Undergraduate Coordinator: Professor Sanda Munjic (416) 813-4082.

E-mail: spanport.undergraduate@utoronto.ca

Web site: www.spanport.utoronto.ca

The Department offers Specialist, Major and Minor programs, as well as language citation certificate.

How is the program structured?

For many students, our program begins with the language sequence.

Language sequence:

1. The Department reserves the right to place students in the language course best suited to their linguistic preparation.

2. Students who, in the department's assessment, have an adequate knowledge of Spanish may be required to take a Spanish literature, culture or linguistics course instead of a language course at any level.

The progression of courses in the language sequence is designed to accommodate a wide range of previous language experience. Students are placed in the appropriate language course based on their proficiency, as determined by the on-line placement test and departmental assessment.

Placement test:

Students who have studied Spanish before joining the department should take the on-line placement test by going to the following link:

http://spanport.utoronto.ca/undergraduate/spanish (“Placement test”)

Please, read carefully the instructions that explain how to take the test. The placement test can be taken only once. Should the student be able to take the test more than once, the results of the first test will be used to determine the placement.

If you cannot assess your placement level from the available information, please contact the Undergraduate Coordinator at: spanport.undergraduate@utoronto.ca and you will receive personal advice for placement in the language sequence.

Students with no previous knowledge of Spanish: enrol in SPA100Y1.

The recommended sequence of language courses for those students who have had little or no previous training in the language is the following:

SPA100Y1 -> SPA220Y1 -> SPA320Y1 -> SPA420H

Students with previous knowledge of Spanish: take the placement test.

Students who have studied Spanish before joining the department may enrol in several courses – beginners’, intermediate or advanced – depending on their background and their level of preparation. This includes those students who have travelled or lived briefly in the Spanish-speaking world. 

The recommended sequence of language courses for those students who join the department having mastered a beginner’s level of Spanish, including those who successfully completed SPA100Y1, is the following:

SPA220Y1 -> SPA320Y1 -> SPA420H

The recommended sequence of language courses for those students who join the department having mastered an intermediate level of Spanish, including those who have successfully completed SPA220Y1, is the following:

SPA320Y1 -> SPA420H

Native or bilingual speakers of Spanish:

Those students who have native fluency in Spanish because they have had a life-long exposure to spoken Spanish in an informal context (i.e., those who have lived in a Spanish-speaking country, or those who live in a Spanish-speaking family) – should enrol in SPA219Y1. Students who qualify for this course have distinctly different learning needs than those students who learned Spanish as a foreign language. They have a native knowledge of the language, and are able to understand and speak Spanish, but they have had little or no exposure to written Spanish. The recommended language sequence for such students is the following: SPA219Y1 - > SPA420H

Students who have completed the equivalent of a high school degree or higher level of education in a Spanish-speaking country can skip the language sequence. However, if they have not studied descriptive grammar, they should enrol in SPA420H1. Please consult the Undergraduate Coordinator for placement advice. 

Fluent (native) speakers of Spanish who have received high school degree, or a higher level of education in Spanish language, and who in the department's assessment do not need further training in language, may enrol immediately in any literature, culture or linguistics course.

Throughout the language sequence, stress is laid both on the cultural component of language acquisition and on the range of practical applications to which both the spoken and the written language may be put. Courses in business Spanish and in the structure of the Spanish language provide an array of possible options for students in the upper years.

Literature, culture and linguistics courses:

Students are encouraged to enrol early on in their academic career in several second-year courses as they transition from the language sequence (SPA219Y1 / SPA220Y1 / SPA320Y1) into the third and fourth year courses in literature, culture and linguistics.

SPA258H1 is a foundational course for the students who plan to pursue a major or a specialist degree in Spanish. While permitting students to advance their skills in reading and composition, this course also introduces information literacy, and the terms and methods of literary analysis through study of a wide selection of brief literary texts. Intermediate level students (SPA220Y1) who are comfortable reading short texts, and who have well developed writing and speaking skills for the intermediate level, may take that course while enrolled in SPA220Y1 (preferable in their second semester of SPA220Y1). Others should complete SPA220Y1 before taking SPA258H1.

The other courses offered in the 200-series (SPA221H1 and SPA259H1) are not required for a Specialist or Major degree, but are recommended for students who need to hone their language skills before advancing to the upper level literature, culture and linguistics courses.

SPA221H1 (Spanish Pronunciation) is a companion course to SPA220Y1. Students who are interested in this course are best advised to enrol while taking SPA220Y1.

SPA259H1 is a course that introduces students to the techniques of cultural analysis. Although not a degree requirement, this course is a popular option for students enrolled in the program. It has the same language requirements as SPA258H1 (students can take it either while enrolled in SPA220Y1, or upon completion of SPA220Y1).

Following the language sequence, and upon successfully completing SPA258H1, students pursuing a specialist and major degrees will fulfil in the due course of their university career the remaining degree requirements:

• One half-course in Hispanic linguistics from the 300/400 series
• One half course in Spanish peninsular literature from the 300/400 series 
• One half course in Spanish American literature from the 300/400-series
• SPA420H1
• SPA454H1 

SPA420 (Advanced Grammar) and SPA454 (Cervantes: Don Quijote) are the capstone courses in the Spanish program. Students should plan to take these courses towards the end of their university studies, as by that time they will have acquired language fluency, and become versed in the reading of extended and complex texts in Spanish, and will have honed their skills in textual analysis.

Students should contact the Undergraduate Coordinator early on in the course of their university career to receive advice on how to proceed with their studies, and to thus assure that they can receive their degree by the time of planned graduation. For further information, please visit us in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese,

Victoria College, Room 208 

or contact us at: (416) 813-4080. Email: spanport@chass.utoronto.ca

Undergraduate Coordinator: Professor Sanda Munjic (416) 813-4082.

E-mail: spanport.undergraduate@utoronto.ca

Web site: www.spanport.utoronto.ca

Spanish Programs

Enrolment in the Spanish programs requires the completion of four degree courses; no minimum GPA required.

Consult Professor Sanda Munjic, Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

(10 full courses or their equivalent, including at least one 400-series course)

First Year:
SPA100Y1/SPA220Y1; SPA219Y1 (for native/bilingual speakers of Spanish)

Second Year:
SPA220Y1/SPA320Y1; SPA420H1 (for speakers who have taken SPA219Y1 in first year)

SPA258H1

Third and Fourth Years:

1. SPA320Y1

2. One half-course in Hispanic linguistics from the 300/400 series

3. One half course in Spanish peninsular literature from the 300/400 series

4. One half course in Spanish American literature from the 300/400-series

5. SPA420H1

6. SPA454H1 

7. Additional SPA courses to make the equivalent of 10 courses. Up to two full-course equivalents may be taken from cognate departmental or college offerings: GGR, HIS, LAS, LIN, POL, PRT. A complete list of eligible courses is available from the Undergraduate Coordinator. Students interested in Latin America are encouraged to take an introductory course in Portuguese (PRT100Y1/PRT120Y1).

Consult Professor Sanda Munjic, Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

(7 full courses or their equivalent)

First Year:
SPA100Y1/SPA220Y1; SPA219Y1 (for native/bilingual speakers of Spanish)

Second Year:
SPA220Y1/SPA320Y1; SPA420H1 (for speakers who have taken SPA219Y1 in first year)

SPA258H1

Third and Fourth Years:

1. SPA320Y1

2. One half-course in Hispanic linguistics from the 300/400 series

3. One half course in Spanish peninsular literature from the 300/400 series

4. One half course in Spanish American literature from the 300/400-series

 5. SPA420H1

6. SPA454H1

7. Additional SPA courses to make seven courses. Up to one full-course equivalent may be taken from cognate departmental or college offerings: GGR, HIS, LAS, LIN, POL, PRT. A complete list of eligible courses is available from the Undergraduate Coordinator. Students interested in Latin America are encouraged to take an introductory course in Portuguese (PRT100Y1/PRT120Y1).

Consult Professor Sanda Munjic, Department of Spanish and Portuguese.

(4 full courses or their equivalent)

First Year:

SPA100Y1/SPA220Y1; SPA219Y1 (for native/bilingual speakers of Spanish)

Second Year:

SPA220Y1/SPA320Y1;

Third Year:

 SPA320Y1

 Additional SPA courses to make four (4.0 FCE) courses. Up to one full-course (1.0 FCE) equivalent of cognate credit may be taken in Portuguese.

The Department of Spanish and Portuguese participates in the Faculty of Arts and Science’s Language Citation initiative for Spanish. For a full description of the Language Citation requirements, see the Calendar in the “Degree Requirements” section.

 To complete the language citation in Spanish students will normally complete the two language-sequence courses that follow the introductory level:

SPA220Y1

SPA320Y1

Native and bilingual speakers should complete SPA219Y1 and two additional half-courses in Spanish in the 300- or 400-series.

Students should note that, as explained in this Calendar, the Language Citation is not equivalent to an academic program and that enrolment in a program is not necessary in order to earn the recognition bestowed by the Citation.

To request the citation, e-mail your request with your student ID number to the Undergraduate Coordinator (spanport.undergraduate@utoronto.ca).

Spanish: see also European Studies, Latin American Studies

Spanish Courses

The 199Y1 and 199H1 seminars are designed to provide the opportunity to work closely with an instructor in a class of no more than twenty-four students. These interactive seminars are intended to stimulate the students’ curiosity and provide an opportunity to get to know a member of the professorial staff in a seminar environment during the first year of study. Details can be found at www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/course/fyh-1/.

1. The Department reserves the right to place students in the language course best suited to their linguistic preparation.

2. Students who, in the department's assessment, have an adequate knowledge of Spanish may be required to take a Spanish literature, culture or linguistics course instead of a language course at any level.

3. All courses are taught in Spanish unless otherwise specified.

Introduction to the Spanish language for beginning students; overview of basic grammatical structures, development of vocabulary and oral and written expression.

For native (heritage) speakers who have had exposure to spoken Spanish in an informal context (i.e, living in a Spanish-speaking country; or with a Spanish-speaking family), but little to no exposure to written Spanish. The students' ability to speak and understand Spanish may range from basic to relatively high fluency, but they cannot write and/or read Spanish. The course reviews English/Spanish spelling differences; written and spoken registers of Spanish, and basic aspects of the grammatical system. Provides students with the essential understanding of Spanish grammatical system; builds their vocabulary; and trains them to express themselves formally.

Intermediate Spanish for non-native speakers. Intensive grammar review of the structures of Spanish integrated with an introduction to reading authentic Spanish material, with practice designed to build vocabulary and to improve oral and written expression.

A practical introduction to articulatory phonetics, Spanish sound patterns, phonetics, phonology; the basic concepts of phonetic description and transcription; the study of Spanish vowel and consonant systems, stress and intonation.

Critical reading of Don Quixote as a canonical text for the novel and other narrative forms, including historical metafiction, the short story, and fictional autobiography. Comparative discussion of Quixotic fictions by modern authors, such as Machado de Assis, Borges, Nabokov, García Márquez, Junot Díaz. Lectures and readings in Engllish.

A survey of Hispanic Culture, with attention to central issues in history, politics, and popular traditions. Course will be taught in English.

Introduction to university literary studies in Spanish and information literacy. Representative selection of Spanish and Spanish American prose, poetry, and drama, with focus on critical terminology and methods of literary analysis. Required for a program degree.

Forms of cultural expression in Spain, Latin America and Spanish-speaking North America, with study of representative media, including literature, journalism, film, visual art, and the urban environment. Introduction to methods of cultural analysis. (Offered in alternate years).

Credit course for supervised participation in faculty research project. Details at http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/course/rop. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Advanced Spanish for non-natives. Selective review of grammar with emphasis on the complex sentence; intensive practice in written and oral expression to improve proficiency.

The basic concepts and analytic tools of linguistics applied to the study of Spanish, with a focus on the Spanish phonological, morphological, and syntactic systems. Theoretical discussion and practical exercises in analytic techniques. 

Practical uses of spoken and written Spanish for business contexts. This course builds on grammar and vocabulary knowledge already acquired at the intermediate level, and is directed primarily at students pursuing a second major in Latin American Studies or European Studies. 

Spanish bilingualism from three different perspectives: linguistic, sociolinguistic, psycholinguistic. Analysis of typical language contact phenomena with materials from Spanish. Case studies of Spanish in contact and discussion of the psychological consequences of bilingualism. Introduction to survey methods in sociolinguistics and psycholinguistics, and basic techniques for conducting language interviews. (Offered in alterante years)

This course aims at exposing students to different varieties of Latin American Spanish. Lexical, morpho-syntactic and phonological variation will be discussed and theoretical descriptions will be illustrated by using samples from contemporary cinema and television. (Offered in alternate years)

Study of Catalan language through an overview of grammatical structures and exercises in proficiency skills, complemented by readings in Catalan history and society to attain interdisciplinary cultural literacy. (Offered every three years)

Literary and artistic movements in Spain from 1890 to 1940, with special attention to the convergence and mutual mediation of politics and art. Materials to be studied include novels, poetry, the urban environment, graphic art, literary journals and manifestos, and some early Hispanic film. (Offered every three years)

Analysis of the development of Spanish Cinema within its social and political contexts. Directors studied include Buñuel, Bardem, Erice, Saura, Almodóvar and Bigas Luna. (Offered every three years).

Representative fiction by Galdós, the principal Spanish novelist of the nineteenth century. Detailed study of such texts as Marianela, Doña Perfecta, La desheredada, Realidad, La incognita, in relation to modernity of realist fiction and contemporary issues in politics, social relations and individual psychology. (Offered every three years)

Representative texts (such as ballads, popular and courtly lyric; chivalric, pastoral and picaresque prose, theatre) from the early modern period, studied in relation to the history and society of imperial Spain. Discussion of literary texts as codes of social conduct; issues of urbanization, court culture, social order and disorder, and cultural discourses of identity and difference. (Offered every three years)

This interdisciplinary approach considers broad cultural consequences resulting from the contact of Spanish with the American indigenous languages. Current cultural and linguistic theories on language contact are used to analyze sixteenth to eighteenth-century Spanish texts, and invite reflection on language, power, and the emergence of new cultural expressions. (Offered every three years)

Latin American cinema approached within the framework of cultural studies and film theory, with attention to aesthetic and social forms, and to questions of national and cultural issues. May be focused on a particular region or period, or may be more of a representative survey, depending on instructor. (Offered in alternate years). Course taught in English.

Analysis of poetry, short stories, essays, and graphic art in the context of nation-building and the question of identity during the nineteenth century. (Offered every three years)

Study of different creative expressions by women in Spanish America from the colonial period to the present; analysis of selected works of visual art, film, essays, poetry, and fiction. (Offered every three years)

Study of representative works of major artistic and literary movements in 20th and 21st century Spanish America: avant-garde poetry, theatre of the absurd, surrealist art, neo-realism, postmodernism. (Offered every three years)

Detailed study of key moments and texts in Spanish American culture from the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, focusing on such topics as the creation of new nations, indigenismo, Caribbean anti-slavery literature, and the Mexican and Cuban Revolutions. (Offered every three years)

Examines cultural production, including short stories, novels, films and paintings surrounding the socio-poltical transformations of the revolutionary period. Readings and discussion emphasize general concepts of the landscape, as a visual and spatial mode of interpreting relationships between human subjects, and between these subjects and the territory they occupy. (Offered every three years)

The 70s and 80s represent a period of armed struggle, civil war, and revolution in most of Central America. Through the study of specific novels, short stories, and films, this course analyzes the representation of violence, and the political repression generated by military conflicts. (Offered every three years)

An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details at http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/course/399. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

An instructor-supervised group project in an off-campus setting. Details at http://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/current/course/399. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Linguistic analysis with the objective of improving students' command of Spanish grammar. Advanced review of traditional grammatical topics, including the verbal and pronominal systems, and Spanish copulas and embedded clauses. This course assumes familiarity with the grammatical terminology introduced in SPA220Y1.

Study of Spanish morphology and syntax: syntactic categories in Spanish, the structure and interpretation of simple and complex sentences. (Offered in alternate years)

Study of linguistic variation across the Spanish-speaking world; central issues in phonological, morphological, and syntactic variation, analyzed from a geographical as well as from a social point of view. (Offered in alternate years)

Theoretical and experimental approaches to Spanish phonology. Topics include: Spanish phonemic inventory, sound patterns, suprasegmentals (stress and intonation), synchronic and diachronic variation. Methods of data collection and analysis in the discipline, with practical applications. (Offered in alternate years)

Study of major currents in narrative fiction during the last twenty years, a period of return to democratic government, the relaxing of censorship and the opening up of Spanish culture. Analysis of works from several generations of male and female writers. (Offered every three years)

A course on specific topics in Spanish studies, designed for advanced students. Course content and instructor are established on a yearly basis.

Study of medieval social topics such as witchcraft, violence, love, marriage, childhood, maternity, crimes and punishment. Analysis of such texts as Poema del Mio Cid; the Romancero, Milagros de Nuestra Señora, Libro de buen amor, Don Juan Manuel and Celestina, from the perspective of iconography and social history. (Offered every three years)

Study of theatre and the idea of representation, with reference to parallels in lyric poetry and visual art. Emphasis on the Spanish comedia as a genre, and on its interaction with other artistic forms in the Golden Age. (Offered every three years)

Detailed study of Don Quixote as a foundational text in the European literary tradition, with attention to the conventions, genres, and literary techniques that inform the text. 

A course on a specific topic in Spanish American culture, designed for advanced students. Course content and instructor are established on a yearly basis.

Contemporary Argentine and Mexican authors and visual artists will be tudied through their work, online visibility, and also the institutional and discursive structures that facilitate and shape their production. In-class Skype discussions with some of the artists. (Offered every three years)

Production, circulation and meaning of icons through Latin American literary and cultural contexts. Readings are selected from the period of independence to the present, and focus on the transformative ideological charge of cultural objects across geographic space and history. Focuses on political and socio-economic tensions between popular and elite spheres of cultural production, and on the risks and limits of iconographic representation. (Offered every three years)    

Detailed study of the major movements in Spanish-American narrative, including magic realism, fantastic literature, womens writing, and testimonial literature, through analysis of representative novels and short stories. (Offered every three years)

Literature studied as a socio-political space for the articulation of new concepts of cultural identity; examination of cultural change and aesthetic innovation in selected poetic, dramatic, and narrative texts from different national traditions (Cuba, the Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico). (Offered every three years)

The end of civil and military conflicts in the last decade of the 20th century reshapes the political landscape of Central America. Through selected readings of novels and short stories from representative writers, issues of immigration, displacement, and globalization are discussed to understand these changes in the region. (Offered every three years)

Individual study with a member of staff on a topic of common interest including readings, discussion and written assignments. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.

Individual study with a member of staff on a topic of common interest including readings, discussion and written assignments. Not eligible for CR/NCR option.