Degree Title: Master of Arts

Program Name and Number: Spanish – MA5229

Department/Unit: Department of Modern Languages

Delivery Mode: Athens Campus

Program Mission: The mission of the Master of Arts program in Spanish in the Department of Modern Languages is to provide students with a rigorous program wherein they learn to analyze literature, become informed observers of linguistic usage, and acquire advanced language and cultural skills.

Program Learning Objectives: Successful graduates of our Master of Arts program will:

• demonstrate deep knowledge of the target language and culture
• compare and contrast world cultures
• identify and describe major literary movements
• explain how an individual literary work reflects the literary movement in which it was created
• analyze literary and other cultural products creatively through appropriate theoretical and historical lenses
• analyze linguistic phenomena in terms of syntax, dialectology, phonology, and historical linguistics
• design and carry out an original research project, write up results using conventions appropriate to the discipline
• present research results to an audience of professors and peers
• implement teaching strategies in line with current language acquisition theories

Program Overview: The Master of Arts in Spanish is a two-year academic program with both thesis and non-thesis options. Graduates posses a familiarity with the history of Spanish and Latin-American literature, the various subfields of Hispanic linguistics, and a panoramic comprehension of the cultures of the Spanish-speaking world. Our MA students learn to analyze literature, become informed observers of linguistic usage, and acquire advanced language and cultural skills. They pursue research projects leading to academic papers, which some present at conferences or publish in journals. Most full-time students receive support in the form of teaching assistantships, through which they receive a stipend to teach one class per semester.  High school teachers can register to take graduate courses as non-degree students or apply to earn their Masters of Spanish through a special one-year program. We offer various possibilities for study and teaching abroad: a six-week TEFL program offered in Cuenca, Ecuador, during the summer session for which all tuition waivers apply; an exchange program with the Universidad de Sevilla in Spain that allows a student to register for courses in Spanish or in the Masters program in translation and inter-culturality while working as interns in the Office of International Relations translating during the second year of a three-year program leading to the Masters of Spanish; a one-semester assistantship in Mérida, México, with the department’s spring semester study abroad program.

Opportunities for Graduates: Approximately 50% of our graduates enter PhD programs to prepare themselves for careers in academia. In recent years, students have earned PhDs from the University of Arizona, University of North Carolina, University of Chicago, University of Virginia, University of Kentucky, Ohio State University, Columbia University and University of Missouri. Most other students enter the teaching profession either as Spanish language instructors at US universities, as high school Spanish teachers, or as English teachers abroad. Several of our MA students receive nationally competitive awards such as the Fulbright in order to conduct research abroad after graduation.

Link to Program: http://modlang.ohio.edu/graduate/graduate-spanish/

Graduation requirements:

Minimum Requirements for the Master’s Degree:

The MA in Spanish consists of a total of 50 semester hours:

• 7 core courses
• 4 elective courses
• 1 seminar
• 2 semesters of SPAN 6920
• All new Teaching Associates must take 6920 (Problems in Teaching College Spanish) during the first two semesters (1 cr. per semester).
• Comprehensive written and oral examinations in the major language are required. These examinations are based on course work and the MA Reading List, which is available online in the Spanish Graduate Handbook. The usual time required to meet the course requirements for the MA is two academic years. Advanced courses in the department are not always offered during the summer.
• Writing a thesis is optional.

Specific Requirements

The Spanish MA is awarded after successful completion of a minimum of 12 courses, one of which must be a seminar. Every student must fulfill a seven-course “core” requirement consisting of the following (one of these will be a seminar):

• 2 Peninsular Spanish content courses
  • SPAN 5348 Spanish Civilization and Culture
  • SPAN 5530 Literature of Golden Age Spain
  • SPAN 5551 Medieval Spanish Literature
  • SPAN 5558 Don Quijote de la Mancha
  • SPAN 5560 19th Century Spanish Literature
  • SPAN 5565 20th Century Spanish Literature
  • SPAN 5570 Contemporary Spanish Literature
• 2 Latin America content courses
  • SPAN 5349 Spanish American Civilization and Culture
  • SPAN 5513 Survey of Spanish American Literature I
  • SPAN 5514 Survey of Spanish American Literature II
  • SPAN 5517 Themes in Spanish American Prose
  • SPAN 5518 Contemporary Spanish American Literature
• 2 Spanish linguistics courses
  • SPAN 5437 Applied Phonetics
  • SPAN 5438 Hispanic Dialectology and Sociolinguistics
  • SPAN 5439 Modern Spanish Usage
  • SPAN 5441 Stylistics
  • SPAN 5457 History of the Spanish Language
  • SPAN 5460 Introduction to Hispanic Linguistics
• SPAN 5640 – Teaching Spanish

The remaining 5 courses can be taken from departmental offerings in SPAN or ML courses.

Students are expected to work on completing the Spanish MA Reading List during the three semesters preceding their comprehensive exams. Comprehensive exams will be held in April of the last semester in the program. During the aforementioned semester, students may register for SPAN 6940 (4 hours) in place of one of the regularly scheduled courses in order to review the works on the Reading List. SPAN 6930 (independent study) can be used for special projects in any academic year term, but cannot replace one of the student’s regularly scheduled courses.

Admission Requirements:

1. Online application form along with a nonrefundable application fee submitted to the Graduate College via the following link: http://www.ohio.edu/graduate/apply/. Information on fees, reference forms and graduate programs can also be found at this link.
2. Official transcripts from post-secondary schools, sent to the Graduate College.
3. Diploma and/or Degree Certificate – If the transcript/mark sheet does not name the degree and date earned, students must submit a Registrar (or equivalent office) certified or attested copy of the degree diploma and/or degree certificate. Chinese students must submit both the Degree Certificate and the Certificate of Graduation.
4. Students can upload an unofficial copy of their transcript, marksheets, diploma and/or degree certificates with their on-line application, but they must also submit official copies by mail. An official transcript is one that arrives in an envelope that has been sealed by the issuing institution. Transcripts that have been opened, photocopied, or marked as unofficial are not accepted in lieu of official transcripts.
5. If the above documents are not in English, students will need a certified translation into English of all documents.
6. Official score from TOEFL sent directly from ETS to Ohio University (code 1593). A minimum of 550 [600 preferred] (paper based) and 80 (internet based) is required for admission and to be considered for assistantships.

Send the following directly to the Department of Modern Languages:

1. Three letters of recommendation (preferably from professors who can comment on students’ academic progress, if they have experience teaching - or similar - a letter from their employer is also very valuable).
2. A written statement of purpose in both English and Spanish.

All candidates will be required to schedule an interview to be conducted via phone or Skype.