Spanish Translation Major

Spanish Translation Major

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Maximize your potential in today’s professional climate.

Develop fluency in understanding, speaking, reading, and writing Spanish and get professional training, tools, skills, and hands-on experience to join the translation profession.

In addition to general linguistic and cultural knowledge, you will study the culture, history, and literature of Spain and the Americas. The Spanish Translation Major will introduce you to translation techniques and problem-solving strategies and translation software and computer-assisted tools as you practice translating documents. Later in the program, you will delve into the translation of more specialized texts, in particular in the legal and medical disciplines—both fields in very high demand. As a culminating experience, you will complete a capstone in the form of an internship. 

You are strongly encouraged to minor in criminal justice and/or health sciences, as a good understanding of the subject matter as well as terminology acquisition are key to successful professional translators.

VIEW THE CATALOG

Explore sample courses in this program.
SP-210 Intermediate Spanish I
Review of language constructions and everyday vocabulary at a slighter faster pace than an elementary course. Grammar review starts with the most basic structures, such as present, preterite, and imperfect tenses; ser/estar; por/para; command forms; and pronouns, and ends with present subjunctive. Vocabulary fields include feelings and emotions, urban living, family relationships, the media, and the environment. Readings, videos, and short films related to different Spanish-speaking countries add a cultural component to the course.
3 credits
SP-321 Advanced Spanish Composition I
Facility in prose writing, study of style of selected authors, variety of expression through word discrimination, and advanced grammatical structures.
3 credits
SP-323 Advanced Spanish Conversation through Film
The main objective of this course is to develop the student’s oral proficiency and communication skills while building on vocabulary and learning about different aspects of the Hispanic cultural world with a special emphasis on immigration issues. The class format is mainly based on group/pair discussions and debates in which students ask questions, express their views, elaborate on their ideas, and defend them by providing supporting examples drawn from their own experiences, analysis, or comparisons.
3 credits
SP-326 Spanish for the Professions
Intensive practice with language and documents used in private and public sectors including business, medicine, communication, education, and social services.
3 credits
SP-327 Introduction to Translation
The course prepares students for careers in translation and satisfies professional and academic requirements. It introduces students to the techniques required for translation in a competitive environment. Within the context of the development of greater cross-cultural awareness, it develops the following language skills for business purposes: speaking, listening comprehension, reading, writing, and translation.
3 credits
SP-350 Advanced Spanish Grammar
This applied linguistics advanced class provides a background of Spanish grammar and delves into topics of the Spanish language that are usually challenging for English-speaking learners of Spanish. The goals are to clarify important aspects of the Spanish language and related cultural features, including uses of technology and assessment.
3 credits
SP-352 Lexicography and Terminology: Computer-Assisted Translation
This groundbreaking course provides both a practical and a theoretical framework to the study of lexicography and collection of terminology, an essential adjunct to the work of the translator. The role of international standards is pointed out, and principles of construction of terminological banks elaborated. Terminographic procedures in the context of computation technology and terminology management systems are discussed such as the use of the most Computer-Assisted Translation (CAT) tools.
3 credits
SP-453 Medical Translation
This course focuses on building English/Spanish and Spanish/English translation competence in a health care setting, and provides guided practice in the translation of actual documents within the bio-medical and medical-legal fields. The course covers linguistic concepts, translation techniques, cultural and linguistic issues, professional ethics, medical genres and terminology, resources, and translation exercises. Through weekly translations, reading assignments, and text-analysis activities, students familiarize themselves with health text subgenres, such as patient education pamphlets, lab results, health certificates, prescriptions, informed consents, or health proxies. Students learn to detect frequent translation challenges in health texts and develop problem-solving strategies for these issues.
3 credits
SP-454 Legal Translation: Eng/Span-Span/Eng
This course provides a general overview of translation practices, techniques, and specialized terminology in the discipline of legal translation. The main objective is to teach students how to switch safely and accurately between the source and the target language (Spanish/English and English/Spanish). This class includes an intensive study of vocabulary, grammar, sentence structure, and translation difficulties in specialized legal texts. This class is conducted in Spanish as the base language for lectures. However, given the nature of the course of study, lectures and discussions fluctuate between Spanish and English, depending on the object.
3 credits
SP-331 Spanish Civilization
An historical survey of Spanish social, cultural, and political life. Conducted in Spanish.
3 credits
SP-332 Cultures of Latin America
Introduction to the cultures and history of Latin America from pre-Columbian times to the present day. This course introduces students to colonial, modern, and contemporary cultural, historical, and political issues that influenced the development of Latin American identities. The course is taught in Spanish.
3 credits
SP-333 Hispanic Presence in US
Socio-cultural study of Hispanics in the United States, with a focus on major contemporary issues. Conducted in Spanish.
3 credits
SP-341 Readings in Spanish Literature
Selected masterpieces from Middle Ages to present; social, cultural, and stylistic features of different periods. Recommended as a first course in Spanish literature.
3 credits
SP-349 Spanish-American Literature
Representative works from South and Central American authors from the colonial period to the present.
3 credits

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