MLSP 101 Discovering Spanish I (3 credits)
The following course is closed to all students who have taken more than one year of Spanish in high school or college. If you are not sure or have any questions, you can take the placement exam here (https://bentley.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_3Jlh1GbdAnmMdIp)
This course is designed for students with no prior experience studying Spanish or less than one year of high school study. Through a communicative-based approach, students in this class will learn to understand and participate in basic conversations on familiar and everyday topics. There will be an emphasis on practicing words, phrases and simple sentences using practical vocabulary and basic grammatical structures. Students will be exposed to basic cultural practices employed by native speakers in order to understand appropriate interpersonal behaviors and communicative practices unique to Hispanic cultures. By the end of the course, students will be able to express basic needs and personal preferences and ask and answer simple questions both orally and also in writing.
Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
MLSP 102 Discovering Spanish II (3 credits)
Context and Perspective: Globalization
This course is designed for students who have taken the Spanish Placement Test and were placed in 102 and have discussed this placement with a Spanish professor. Students who have taken MLSP 101 in college are also allowed to take this course. Through a communicative-based approach, students will learn to understand and participate in conversations on familiar topics. There will be an emphasis on expanding vocabulary related to everyday topics and on how to speak about present and past events. By the end of the course, students will be able to express, ask about, and react to preferences, feelings, and opinions through a series of connected sentences both orally and also in writing. They will also be able to rehearse appropriate interpersonal behaviors and communicative practices unique to Hispanic cultures.
Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
MLSP 201 Continuing Spanish I (3 credits)
Context and Perspectives: Globalization
This course is designed to reactivate and build upon knowledge gained through previous language study. Students gain cultural competencies/competency while using the target language. They also analyze the role of language and how it reflects and shapes the culture(s) in which it is spoken. All four language skills (listening, speaking, reading and writing) are emphasized. Special attention is given to grammatical structures and the inclusion of original reading and/or viewing materials in the target language.
Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
MLSP 202 Continuing Spanish II (3 credits)
Context and Perspectives: Globalization
This course further develops student’s language proficiency introduced in 201. In addition to actively using the target language, students deepen their cultural awareness and understanding through the study of videos and authentic texts. The course focuses on enhancing listening comprehension and oral proficiency, improving proficiency in writing and reading comprehension, as well as providing a more complex insight into language customs and lifestyles.
Typically Offered: Fall and Spring
MLSP 203 Advanced Spanish Grammar and Composition (3 credits)
This course is an advanced Spanish grammar course that allows students to strengthen their linguistic skills in Spanish, while learning new ways of crafting that language into original and complex ideas in the form of written communication. Students will learn to write in a variety of genres, including description, narration, expository and argumentative writing, as well as strengthen their understanding of Hispanic cultures through the study of texts taken from real-world Spanish contexts. This course is conducted in Spanish.
Typically Offered: Fall
MLSP 205 Intermediate Spanish Language Immersion (3 credits)
With a theoretical and hands-on approach, this intermediate course offers the opportunity for students to increase all four language skills (aural-oral/reading/writing/grammar) while at the same experiencing the culture firsthand. Students will attend classes every day and visit variuos sites under the supervision of a Bentley Modern Language Faculty. These visits will offer students a chance to appreciate the history and culture of the Hispanic world. This course will fulfill the same requirements for the Modern Language intermediate course depending on language placement. Therefore, it can fulfill the Arts and Sciences language requirement, or LSM Global Perspective language courses, as well as Modern Language Spanish minor requirements (including Spanish for Business).
Typically Offered: Once a year
MLSP 206 Advanced Spanish Conversation (3 credits)
Context & Perspectives: Globalization
Students will improve their knowledge and use of the Spanish language and Hispanic cultures through viewing short films, as well as reading short stories, news and magazine articles, personal correspondence, and comic strips from a variety of countries. They describe and opine on topics of current and personal interest, like the effects of social media, planned obsolescence, the media and violence, using targeted vocabulary. In addition, they analyze differences in accents, informal and formal interactions, customs, family structures, food, holidays, and beliefs throughout the Hispanic World.
Typically Offered: Once a year
MLSP 298 Experimental course in Spanish (3 credits)
Experimental courses explore curriculum development, with specific content intended for evolution into a permanent course. A topic may be offered twice before it becomes a permanent course. Students may repeat experimental courses with a different topic for credit.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 301 Selected Topics in Spanish (3 credits)
This upper-level Spanish course seeks to develop speaking, listening comprehension, reading and writing ability, while exploring the diverse traditions, cultures, social structures, artistic production and current events in Spanish-speaking countries. This course is especially useful for Spanish minors and students planning to study or work abroad or in a Spanish-speaking environment. With the permission of the instructor, the course may be repeated for credit under different course themes. Examples of topical themes include: Spanish Cinema, Contemporary Spanish Culture, and Latin American Cultures.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 302 Exploring Spanish for Business (3 credits)
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior
Exploring Spanish for Business is a course designed to help students acquire the vocabulary, cultural background, and practical skills to function and communicate effectively in a business environment in a Spanish-speaking country. With a focus on the use of Spanish business terminology, this courses emphasizes oral and written practices, reading, and intercultural knowledge.
Typically Offered: Fall
MLSP 304 Survey of Spanish Literature (3 credits)
This course presents examples of narrative, poetry and drama by authors of Spain and Latin America, with emphasis on the literary, social, cultural and political context. Readings develop cultural awareness about historical movements and literary movements. Conducted in Spanish.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 305 Spanish Translation (3 credits)
Context and Perspectives: Value, Ethics, and Society
This course is designed for students that possess an advanced competency in Spanish and would like to improve both their Spanish and English language skills and knowledge of culture through translation practice. Students learn some of the basic concepts of translation, which they apply in the translation of relevant texts taken from a wide range of fields and sources, from both Latin America and Spain, including newspaper articles, commercial ads, journals, informational pamphlets, culture and literary tests, songs, etc... This course offers advanced students of Spanish a challenging, yet practical, approach to the acquisition of translation skills that will enhance their cultural knowledge of the Spanish-speaking world, while improving their writing skills, language fluency in Spanish and English, as well as critical thinking skills to make effective and ethical decisions in the translation process. This course includes an embedded service-learning project.
Typically Offered: Once a year
MLSP 306 Hispanic Cityscapes (3 credits)
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior
This advanced Spanish course is designed to go beyond the tourist sites and glean a more complex understanding of various cities throughout the Hispanic world. We will examine matters such as immigration, racial, gender, transgender and sexual preference discrimination, political exile, violence, dictatorships, class differences, current social and economic trends, as well as their influence on individuals living in these metropolises. We will explore different perspectives on such cultural issues through theater, stories, film, art, poetry, songs, news and academic articles and other interdisciplinary venues. The cities that we will focus on are Madrid and Barcelona (Spain), Mexico City (Mexico), Buenos Aires (Argentina), Santiago (Chile), and Habana (Cuba). This course is conducted in Spanish.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 307 Migrations and the Hispanic World (3 credits)
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior
Conducted in Spanish. This course explores migrations, due to political, economic, security and social issues, in the Hispanic World: Spain, the Southern Cone, the Andean Region, the Caribbean, Mexico, Central America and the US. Through the analysis of artistic representations (film, theater, short stories, poems and music) of migration, students will glean insights into the motives for emigration and exile, as well as the difficulties encountered during and after immigration. Moreover, we will make connections between current events in these regions and representative works from various historical periods.MLSP 307 counts for the Spanish minor, the Spanish for Business minor, and the Hispanic Studies major. It may also be used as an Arts & Sciences Humanities elective or to satisfy requirements for the LSM, Global Perspectives concentration, or the language requirements for Arts and Science majors. Furthermore, it fulfills the Literature Requirement. Open to native speakers.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 312 Spanish for Business in Action: A Practical Approach (3 credits)
This course is designed to put into practice specialized and real-life language of Spanish commerce. Writing different types of business documents and letters, doing translation work, preparing a job application (resumes and interview), creating advertisements, and analyzing case studies are essential aspects of this course.
Typically Offered: Spring
MLSP 401 Directed Study in Spanish (3 credits)
This course permits students to do special studies in language, literature or culture not offered as a departmental course.
Typically Offered: As needed
MLSP 402 Seminar in Spanish (3 credits)
Pre-Req: Native Spanish speaker, MLSP 202, or instructor permission
This course brings together advanced and native speakers of the same language to engage in the study of a selected topic using a critical lens of analysis.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 403 Latinos in the U.S.A. (3 credits)
Context and Perspectives: Race, Gender and Inequality
This course studies the historical, social and cultural development of Latinos in the United States, paying special attention to the three most important groups: Chicanos or Mexican-Americans, Puerto Ricans or Neoricans, and Cuban-Americans. Students will explore some key issues affecting Hispanic communities: cultural stereotypes; individual and collective identity; bilingualism; political and social struggles, through the analysis of literary texts and other cultural productions (film, art, music, theater). As a final class project, students will be able to choose between a field-based research paper or a Service Learning Project.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 404 Spanish Identities and Cultures in Modern Peninsular Literature (3 credits)
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior
This course will offer extensive readings and discussions of various authors and works from Spain. Emphasis will be given to sociopolitical and cultural contexts for a better understanding of the content. Conducted in Spanish. Open to native speakers.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 405 Latin American Boom (3 credits)
This course is an in-depth study of one of Latin Americas most important cultural phenomena, the literary boom of the late 20th century. Through critical analyses of narrative texts, students will gain an appreciation for the ever tenuous relationships between myth versus reality, masculine versus feminine, and European versus Native that dominate Latin American and Caribbean cultural imaginaries. This course is taught in Spanish.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 406 Multicultural Spain Through its Regions (3 credits)
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior
This course offers a broad survey of the culture of Spain through its autonomous regions. The class will focus on the art, architecture, food, history, music, literature, politics and sporting events of each region and how they affect Spain as a nation. This class is conducted in Spanish. Open to native and non-native speakers.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 407 Multicultural Spanish America (3 credits)
Context and Perspectives: Culture, Change, and Behavior
Conducted in Spanish. This course explores how the Spanish Conquest, and the different Indigenous Civilizations, are intertwined and have influenced each other, as well as the similarities and differences between the four regions of Spanish America: the Caribbean, Mexico and Central America, the Andean Region, and the Southern Cone. The aim of this course is to familiarize students with the history and culture of various Spanish American countries from these regions through an examination of representative art, sculpture and architecture, as well as movies and readings, from different historical periods. The painting, sculpture, film and architecture of these regions will be analyzed as aesthetic expressions, but also as instruments of social, economic, political, and cultural values and thoughts. Moreover, we will make connections between current events in these regions and representative works from various historical periods.
Typically Offered: Every two or more years
MLSP 421 Internship in Modern Languages - Spanish (1 to 4 credits)
Typically Offered: Every two or more years