Carleton’s language requirement is a key component of the Global Citizenship dimension of the College’s Liberal Arts Requirements. This reflects the Carleton value that a liberally educated student should understand the ways language is embedded within cultural practices and worldviews. To this end, students in our Spanish courses cross linguistic borders, experiencing another language “from the inside.” In addition to the primary benefits that competency in another language can offer (including basic communication, the ability to read foreign texts, and interaction with people of a different culture), the study of a world language provides students with a fuller understanding of the role played by their own native languages and cultures.
The Spanish Language Program equips students with the language skills and intercultural communicative competence they need in order to navigate their increasingly multicultural and multilinguistic contexts in meaningful ways. Composed by a four-term sequence (SPAN 101-204), our curriculum is designed to help students reach the Intermediate level in speaking, reading, writing and listening so that our students have functional use of Spanish in a variety of personal, academic and professional contexts. Furthermore, in our courses students develop a wide range of transferable skills relevant to other disciplines and environments, such as communication, working both collaboratively and independently, flexibility and engaging with contrasting viewpoints, resilience and adaptability when faced with challenges, problem solving and dealing with abstract concepts, memory and retention, among others.
Fulfillment of the language requirement is demonstrated either (a) through satisfactory completion of the language sequence through SPAN 204 or (b) through acceptable performance on a department-approved exam. Check the list of approved exams to learn more about placement within the Spanish language sequence.
Students beginning their study of language, as well as those who need more study to complete the requirement, should enroll in the appropriate level in their first year.
Questions? Please reach out to Vera Coleman (Spanish Language Program Director), vcoleman@carleton.edu.