The B.A. in World Languages allows students to specialize in two languages. In the World Languages: Spanish major, students choose Spanish as the primary language and one secondary language (Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Latin or Russian). Students must complete at least 28 credit hours of coursework beyond the first-year sequence in the Spanish primary language and at least 16 credit hours in the secondary language. The total number of hours depends on the languages studied.
Spanish has three tracks, for non-native, heritage and native speakers of Spanish. These categories refer to the students’ linguistic ability and are determined by the Spanish area adviser.
Track for Native Speakers: Native speakers will start coursework at the 4000 level. In consultation with the Spanish area adviser, native speakers who have not had formal academic training in written Spanish may begin coursework with SPAN 4358 ; otherwise, they should begin with SPAN 4357 or SPAN 4395 .
Track for Heritage Speakers: Heritage speakers must take SPAN 2323 and SPAN 4358 , instead of SPAN 2302 and SPAN 3358 . From the second category below, they may select from SPAN 3373 , SPAN 3374 , SPAN 3375 , or SPAN 4355 only.
Track for Non-Native Speakers: Non-native speakers may take SPAN 3355 before SPAN 3358 and/or may take one of the following concurrently with SPAN 3358 : SPAN 3311 , SPAN 3312 , SPAN 3313 , or SPAN 3355 .
SMU Degree Requirements
An SMU undergraduate degree requires a minimum of 120 credit hours and must include completion of the University’s Common Curriculum , one major and a combination of electives and/or other majors or minors. Completion of certain majors requires more than 120 hours to finish the degree. The credit hours within this curriculum are distributed as follows: