Spanish and Portuguese

Bachelor of Arts in Spanish

Students must complete the required courses of the College of Arts and Sciences and the required courses listed below. All Spanish majors are encouraged to consult with their designated departmental advisor before they register each semester.

Required Courses and Semester Credit Hours

BA in Language and Literature Option

• SPAN 3000 Advanced Spanish Language Skills, SPAN 3100 Literary Analysis in Spanish and SPAN 3120 Advanced Spanish Grammar—11
• Hispanic linguistics requirement. Of the total 32 credit hours required for the degree, at least 3 credit hours must be in Hispanic linguistics (SPAN 3050, 3150, 4430, or 4450).
• At least 9 credit hours in upper-division literature, culture and/or language (may include the Hispanic linguistics requirement)—9
• At least 12 credit hours in courses at the 4000 level or above, with at least 9 credit hours devoted to literature (3 credit hours must come from either SPAN 4150 or 4160, and 3 credit hours must come from either SPAN 4170 or 4180). (Twelve credit hours may include the Hispanic linguistics requirement.)—12
• In addition to the 32 credit hours in the Department of Spanish and Portuguese, 6 credit hours in courses from outside the Spanish department in one or more related fields—6

BA in Spanish and Portuguese Language and Culture Option

Students must complete the required courses of the College of Arts and Sciences and the required courses listed below. All majors are encouraged to consult with their designated departmental advisor before they register each semester.

Note that prerequisites for the program include sufficient Spanish knowledge to be admitted to 3000-level courses and sufficient knowledge of Portuguese to be admitted to 2000-level courses.

• PORT 2110 Second-Year Portuguese 1 or PORT 2350 Portuguese for Spanish Speakers—3
• PORT 2120 or SPAN/PORT upper-division—3

Upper-division Courses

• PORT 3003 Advanced Portuguese Language Skills—3
• PORT 3220 Latin American Culture: Spanish America and Brazil or PORT 3230 Lusophone Cultures: Brazil, Portugal and Lusophone Africa—3
• 4000-level PORT course—3
• SPAN 3000 Advanced Spanish Language Skills, SPAN 3100 Literary Analysis in Spanish and SPAN 3120 Advanced Spanish Grammar—11
• Hispanic linguistic requirement. Of the total 32 upper-division credit hours required for the degree, at least 3 hours must be in Hispanic linguistics (SPAN 3050, 3150, 4430 or 4440).—3
• Upper-division SPAN or PORT literature, culture and/or language (may include Hispanic linguistics requirement)—6
• “Major Works and Trends” courses. Three of these credit hours must come from either SPAN 4150 or 4160, and 3 credit hours must come from either SPAN 4170 or 4180.—6
• SPAN or PORT 4000-level course—3

NOTE: Directly-related courses outside of the department, such as ANTH 4730, can replace 3 hours of Spanish or Portuguese elective credits. These courses must be preapproved by the department.

Native speakers of Portuguese, and in general, all students whose Portuguese skills are beyond the PORT 2120 or 2150 level, are not required to take these courses. However, students have to make up these credit hours by taking 6 hours of upper-division SPAN or PORT courses or any related courses outside the department. Related courses must be approved by the department.

NOTE: To fulfill the requirements for a Spanish Language and Literature or a Spanish and Portuguese Language and Culture major, students must complete 32 credit hours in courses at the 3000 level or above and at least 12 upper-division credits at CU-Boulder, 6 of which must be from the masterpiece courses listed previously (SPAN 4150 or 4160, and SPAN 4170 or 4180).

No more than 3 independent study credit hours may count toward the major. 

No grade lower than C- in a Spanish course will be counted in the major requirement.

Students seeking teaching certification in Spanish must take SPAN 3050, 3120 and 3200 or 3210. 

Students who want certification for teaching at the secondary level should note that the School of Education requires SPAN 4650 and 4660. Students who major in Spanish are expected to meet with their departmental advisor before registration. Failure to do so may delay graduation. Students considering entering graduate school for an advanced degree in Spanish, either at CU-Boulder or any other institution, should see a departmental advisor as early as possible.

Graduating in Four Years

Consult the Four-Year Guarantee Requirements for information on eligibility. The concept of “adequate progress” as it is used here only refers to maintaining eligibility for the four-year guarantee; it is not a requirement for the major. To maintain adequate progress in Spanish, students should consult with the department associate chair for undergraduate studies to obtain detailed guidelines.

BA in International Spanish for the Professions Option

In cooperation with the Leeds School of Business, the department offers an interdisciplinary major in International Spanish for the Professions which includes the completion of the business minor. It offers students numerous career possibilities, both in government and private industry, at home and abroad. Those choosing this major are not able to enter the Boulder graduate program in Spanish without fulfilling the requirements in the language and literature major. Only a limited number of students may enroll in the International Spanish for the Professions major. Courses within the major normally are completed in the student’s junior and senior years. Declaration of the major and the business minor should be completed as early as possible in the student’s academic career, but no later than the second semester of the sophomore year.

NOTE: Prerequisites for the program include sufficient Spanish to be admitted to 3000-level courses, ECON 2010 and 2020 and a C- or better in a statistics or calculus course (the statistics or calculus class will also count as one of the LD area courses described below). SPAN 3040 and SPAN 4070 must be taken at CU-Boulder. A 2.00 GPA or better is required for the Leeds courses.

Professional Spanish Courses (no substitutions permitted): 15 credit hours

• SPAN 3030 Professional Spanish for Business 1—3
• SPAN 3040 Professional Spanish for Business 2—3
• SPAN 3200 Spanish Culture or SPAN 3210 The Cultural Heritage of Latin America or 3220 Latin American Culture: Spanish America and Brazil or SPAN 3420 Catalan Culture—3
• SPAN 4060 Problems of Business Translation in Spanish 1—3
• SPAN 4070 Problems of Business Translation in Spanish 2—3

Spanish Language Courses: 17 credit hours

• SPAN 3000 Advanced Spanish Language Skills—5
• SPAN 3100 Literary Analysis in Spanish—3
• SPAN 3120 Advanced Spanish Grammar—3
• Any SPAN 4000-level course—3
• Upper-division elective (recommended: SPAN 3050, 3310, 3340, 4930)—3

Courses in  Economics and the Leeds School of  Business for College of Arts and Sciences students (no substitutions allowed): 15 credit hours:

• ECON 3403 International Economics and Policy (prereq., ECON 1000 or ECON 2010 and 2020)—3
• BUSM 2001 Management/Marketing—3
• BUSM 2002 Accounting/Finance—3
• BUSM 3XXX Track (any one of three)—3           
• BUSM 4XXX Strategy/CES and Business Plan—3

NOTE: To enroll in Leeds Business minor courses, arts and sciences students must have a minimum 2.00 GPA and must apply for the business minor after completing statistics or calculus with C- and 26 hours (12 hours at CU or with transfer work). In addition, they must attend a five hour “On-Boarding Experience” before the first BUSM class and pay applicable course fees. For complete information and application forms visit leeds.colorado.edu/minor#overview.

Courses in Leeds School of Business for Double Degree students:

15 credit hours of BCOR classes, which cover comparable functional areas as those in the BUSM courses will be approved for the business course component and the 12 credit area course requirement will be covered by other courses required for the Leeds degree. See faculty director of the international Spanish for the profession major for approval of specific courses. 

Area Courses: 12 credit hours.

Students are required to take courses outside the Spanish department in a field related to their professional interests or a certificate program, second major or degree. These may include courses in business, economics, computer science, linguistics, another foreign language, Chicano/a studies, Latin American studies, international affairs, any course dealing with the Hispanic world from anthropology, history, political science and geography. Often some of these courses can be fulfilled on study abroad. Courses meeting this requirement must be approved by the faculty director of the major.  

Six credits may be taken in lower-division courses and three of these credits can be the statistics or calculus class taken as the prerequisite to the BUSM courses.

Six credits must be taken in upper-division courses.

NOTE: The College of Arts and Sciences does not allow more than 45 credit hours in any one discipline to be counted toward the 120 credit hours required for a BA degree. This rule does not mean that a student may not take more than 45 credit hours in Spanish, but rather that one must have at least 75 credit hours in courses other than Spanish. PORT 2120 or 2150 will be accepted as partially fulfilling upper-division courses in other foreign languages. No Spanish or approved area courses with a grade lower than a C- will be counted in the major requirements. The ancillary GPA (made up of the combined grades from the economics, business and area courses) must be at least 2.00.

Study Abroad

The department strongly recommends that all majors include some study in a Spanish-speaking country in their major program. The university cooperates with full-year and semester programs in Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Costa Rica, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, Mexico, Nicaragua and Spain. There are also programs in Brazil and Portugal for Portuguese speakers. Credit earned normally counts toward satisfaction of the major requirements, but the student should see the associate chair for undergraduate studies before enrolling in a foreign program to discuss transfer of credit. Credit for work done in special programs offered by foreign universities is evaluated on an individual basis. It should be noted that courses taken abroad and designated as Spanish are also subject to the 45-hour maximum rule of the College of Arts and Sciences.

Students who present transfer work or credit earned in CU study abroad programs to satisfy major requirements are expected to complete at least 12 upper-division credits, including at least 6 from the 4000-level "Major Works and Trends" courses listed above, on the Boulder campus.

Minor Program in Spanish

This track emphasizes knowledge of the Spanish language as well as the arts and cultures of Spanish-speaking countries. The program focuses on critical thinking and communicational skills (written and oral) and their application in today's real-world global setting. The Undergraduate Minor in Spanish consists of 20 credits. For more information, visit spanish.colorado.edu/content/minors-spanish-portuguese.

Minor Program in Portuguese

A minor program is offered in Portuguese. Declaration of a minor is open to any student enrolled at CU-Boulder, regardless of college or school. For more information, visit spanish.colorado.edu/content/minors-spanish-portuguese.