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.

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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

Meet the World Languages Faculty

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Antonio Guijarro-Donadiós

Professor / Department Chair

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Elizabeth Osborne

Associate Professor, Director of Spanish Clinic and Placement

My primary research looks at memory in post-dictatorial Southern Cone film and literature, with an emphasis on Chile. Currently I am pursuing a second line of research on the representation of domestic labor in Latin American film from the 21st [...]

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Ana Pérez-Manrique

Professor of Spanish / Director of the Translation Center
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Naida Saavedra

Associate Professor of Spanish

Naida Saavedra is a writer of fiction interested in telling stories about people and their relationship with chaotic cities. As a scholar, her research focuses on issues of identity and migration in contemporary Latinx Literature. Currently, Saavedra [...]

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