Spanish Program

Spanish at Virginia Tech

Welcome to the Spanish Program of the Department of Foreign Languages and Literatures at Virginia Tech. Spanish is in high demand at Virginia Tech and our Administration has responded with additional faculty positions to help meet expanding student needs. We currently have 16 faculty members and 2 Graduate Teaching Assistants. Nearly 600 students major or minor in Spanish at Virginia Tech, and hundreds more take our lower level classes. We are ever growing!

Our MA in Foreign Languages, Cultures, and Literatures with an emphasis in Hispanic Studies allows students to pursue graduate work in Spanish to enhance their career qualifications or to prepare for doctoral studies. Our ever-expanding faculty enables us to offer an exciting array of topics and areas of expertise for graduate courses.

At the undergraduate level, we offer a proficiency-oriented program for majors, double majors, minors and interested students, with specific proficiency-level goals for all first-, second- and third-year courses. Additionally, we offer a wide range of upper level courses in language, literature, culture, linguistics, translation, business, and oral proficiency.

Important Information for Undergraduates:

Enrollment Policies

  • Spanish Placement Test: If you wish to take Spanish at VT for the first time, and you've had two or more years of high school Spanish or its equivalent, you need to take the Spanish Placement Test before enrolling in a Spanish class. Even students coming in with Spanish AP or IB credit must take our Placement Test before enrolling in their first SPAN class at VT. Click the link for details, exceptions, what to do if you miss it, etc. The location of the Placement Test will be posted as soon as the Registrar's Office is able to assign it.
  • Spanish Force Add Policy: Due to high demand, the Spanish Program has its own force add policy in order to enable us to meet student need. Click the link for details. If you wish to be counted as a major or minor for our force add policy, you must submit the declaration form to the departmental office well before the first week of the semester begins. The form is downloadable from link in the blue column to the left.
  • If you cannot pre-enroll for a class for next semester because you are meeting/will meet the prerequisite via transfer credit or study abroad credit that has not yet shown up on your record:
    • First, make sure that your SPAN study abroad or transfer credit has already been evaluated and approved by your SPAN Advisor on the Authorization to Take Courses Elsewhere form.
    • Second, after the Course Request period for the next semester is over and the Drop/Add for that semester begins, contact your SPAN Advisor and ask him/her to: a) verify that you are completing or will complete the prerequisite prior to the start of the next semester, and b) force add you into the class if there is room, according to the preliminary caps set by the Spanish Program Director.

    Oral Proficiency

    We offer SPAN 3125 and 3126, two Spanish Oral Proficency classes that train students in speaking skills according to the guidelines of ACTFL, the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages. The following are important policies and procedures for students to know about these two classes:
    • 3125 is offered for elective credit. 3126 is required for the major, but may also be taken as an elective by minors or other students, provided there is space in the course. Each class is capped at 10 to ensure that all students have ample opportunity to speak a great deal so that they can progress to the next level on the ACTFL scale, which is a requirement to pass the class. Students must test at Intermediate Mid to enter 3125, and test at Intermediate High to pass it. Students must test at Intermediate High to enter 3126, and test at Advanced Low to pass it.
    • SPAN 3125 is a lower level than 3126. Students should take the entrance exam for 3125 the semester before they plan to take 3126, to see if they need to take 3125 in order to bring their oral skills up to the level necessary to test into 3126 the next semester. Otherwise, they may try to test into 3126 only to find that they are not advanced enough to take the class, which would delay completion of their Spanish major.
    • Students cannot pre-register for the Oral Proficiency classes. Instead, they must attend the first day of class and make an appointment to take an individual oral entrance exam with the professor. These exams are generally administered by appointment the first few days of the semester. Those who test high enough will be force added into the class in order of priority, according to the Spanish Force Add policy on this website.
    • Students with highly advanced speaking skills should see "Credit by Exam for SPAN 3126" under "Advising Information" in the column to the right.

Advising Information

As soon as you declare the Spanish major or minor, you are assigned to a Spanish Advisor. To learn who that is, consult the list of advisors/advisees that is available in the departmental office, 331 Major Williams Hall, and updated regularly. If you have not yet declared the major or minor, please consult the Spanish Advising Information Sheet link, below, to find out which advisor to contact.

  • NEW!! This includes SPAN 3464, 3474, 3484, and 3494.
  • Two 4000-level SPAN courses offered on campus in July through our Intensive Second Language Institute. May be used for the major or minor. To find out if you qualify and for more information, contact the ISLI Director, Dr. Folkart, at jfolkart@vt.edu.
  • SPANISH ADVISING INFORMATION SHEET
  • Checksheet of Requirements for the Spanish Major for students graduating prior to 2014
  • Checksheet of Requirements for the Spanish Major for students graduating in 2014
  • Checksheet of Requirements for the Spanish Minor
  • Spanish Course Planning Guide for International Studies Majors
  • AP (Advanced Placement) or IB (International Baccalaureate) credit in Spanish: If you have AP or IB credit, you still must take our Placement Test before you may take your first Spanish class at VT. Once you take the placement test and find out which class you place into, you should notify your Spanish Advisor of your placement level and AP or IB scores, to determine how your AP or IB credit may be allocated. Until your Spanish Advisor assigns the credit, the AP or IB courses will not count for the Spanish major or minor. You should get this credit assigned when you first start taking Spanish, so you know which classes you do not need to take. See the "Spanish Advising Information Sheet" link to find out who your Spanish Advisor is.
  • Prerequisites met by AP or IB credit: The university course request computer system does not recognize if prerequisites have been met by AP or IB substitution credit. Those students must be force added. If you need a course whose prerequisite is met by your AP or IB credit, by the last day of classes you should email your Spanish Advisor your name, ID, class number, and your top two choices of class times and CRNs; your advisor will force add you if there is space in the class. THE SOONER YOU EMAIL YOUR ADVISOR, THE BETTER YOUR CHANCE OF GETTING THE CLASS. After the last day of classes, you will need to wait until the first day of the next semester, go to the class, show the professor a print-out of your transcript as evidence that you have met the prerequisite, and ask permission to be force added into the class. You have not met the prerequisite until, at your request, your Spanish Advisor has evaluated your AP or IB credit and substituted the 2XXX or 3XXX course(s) on your transcript for regular SPAN course numbers.
  • Credit by Exam for SPAN 2106: Students who take our Spanish Placement Test and test into SPAN 3105, and who then complete 3105 and 3106 with at least a B- in both courses, may receive credit for SPAN 2106. To receive the credit, bring a print-out of your transcript to your advisor. S/he will verify the following on your transcript: 1) SPAN 3105 was your first college Spanish class; 2) you earned at least a B- in 3105 and 3106 3) you do not have AP or IB Spanish credit. S/he will then request that the necessary paperwork be prepared for you, which you will pick up from Ms. Pam Saville in the department office and take to the Bursar's Office. There you will pay the necessary fee (currently $30) and they will give you credit for 2106. This option is not limited to majors or minors. This option is not available for students with Spanish AP or IB credit.
  • Credit by Exam for SPAN 3126: According to Spanish Program policy, Spanish MAJORS who test at Advanced Low or higher on their oral proficiency entrance exam may obtain credit by exam for SPAN 3126. This is our way of recognizing work you have done outside of class in order to reach the skill level expected of our majors. Once the student passes the exam, the professor administering the exam writes down the verification of the test results and sends it to Pam Saville in the department office. The student then obtains the necessary paperwork from Ms. Saville, and brings it to the Bursar's Office, where the student pays the necessary fee (currently $30) and is given credit for SPAN 3126. Students interested in this option should email one of the professors teaching Oral Proficiency that semester and make an appointment to take the exam during the first week of classes. Non-native speakers usually are not advanced enough to test Advanced Low until their junior or senior year, unless they have significant immersion experience. This option is available only to Spanish majors, not Spanish minors or other students. This option applies only to SPAN 3126, not SPAN 3125.
 

Our Location

Dept. of Foreign Languages & Literatures
331 Major Williams Hall
540-231-5361
Fax: 540-231-4812

Major Williams Hall

We are primarily located on the 3rd floor of Major Williams Hall, but we have grown so much that some of our faculty are now located next door in the

Performing Arts Building

Performing Arts Building

Announcements

La Giralda

La Giralda in Sevilla