Spanish (Graduate Certificate)

Through advanced study of Hispanic languages, literatures, and cultures, the Graduate Certificate in Spanish strives to expose students to various forms of authentic cultural production from numerous regions of the Spanish-speaking world, including the United States. It is designed to provide teachers, professionals, and graduate students from other disciplines with additional language training in Spanish as well as advanced analytical skills in the fields of literature, linguistics, and cultural studies. Coursework is offered in face-to-face, online, and hybrid classroom environments in the following areas: Second Language Acquisition, Pedagogy and Methodology; Hispanic Literature and Cultural Studies; and Hispanic Linguistics and Cultural Studies. The program also supports work in interdisciplinary Hispanic studies.

Program goals include

• Improving students’ proficiency in oral and written Spanish.
• Fostering skills required to analyze linguistic, literary, and cultural texts and objects produced in the Hispanic world. The acquisition and mastery of these skills is the core of the Graduate Certificate in Spanish; whereas the specific material studied varies from course to course, students will develop linguistic (interpretive reading and listening, presentational writing and speaking), cultural (intercultural competence), and analytical (textual analysis) skills that will complement their primary programs of study.
• Promoting cultural understanding and awareness of regional, national and international Hispanic-language communities.

Admissions Requirements

Students applying for the Graduate Certificate in Spanish must have a bachelor’s degree from an accredited institution with a minimum grade point average of 3.0 (on a 4.0 scale). If the B.A./B.S. degree did not include a major or concentration in Spanish, students must have completed advanced-level conversation, composition or advanced language course(s), or equivalent. Study abroad in a Spanish-speaking country is highly recommended. Degree and course equivalency is determined on a case-by-case basis, in consultation with the Graduate Coordinator (who serves as the administrator for the Certificate Program).

The Graduate Certificate application consists of: 1) An online application for admission (available through the UNH Graduate School website; 2) Undergraduate transcripts; 3) Two letters of recommendation are required and may come from current or former professors or colleagues; 4) Graduate Record Examination (GRE) scores are not required.

Program Requirements

Completion of the graduate certificate requires five three-credit courses in Spanish, organized in logical manner to provide knowledge and expertise relevant to a specific aspect of professional and/or personal development. These five courses may include any combination of online, hybrid, or face-to-face classroom environments. Only courses completed with a grade of B- or higher may be used to fulfill certificate requirements. A student who receives more than one grade below B- will be required to withdraw from the certificate program. All course work for the certificate must be completed within 3 years from the date of enrollment in the program after admission.

Program Courses

The graduate course offerings in Spanish are, with the exception of the two pedagogy courses (SPAN 890 and LLC 891), always special topics classes. These classes are not occasionally offered ‘extras’, but rather the core of the program. The flexibility of the specific topics allow faculty to teach classes closely related to their research interests, while still fitting within several core areas, as indicated by the letters/topics specified in the catalog descriptions. For SPAN 897, the core areas are: Spanish literature, film, and cultural studies; Latin American literature, film, and cultural studies; and U.S. Latino literature, film, and cultural studies. For SPAN 898, these core areas are: structures of the Spanish language; variation of the Spanish language; and history of the Spanish language.