| Programme details | |
|---|---|
| Degree: | Bachelor of Arts (Honours) (BA (Hons)) |
| Discipline: |
Languages
|
| Duration: | 48 months |
| Study modes: | full-time |
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Do you enjoy:
Spanish is the native language of over five hundred million people. It is second only to English in the number of countries in which it is officially spoken. Spanish is an exciting and growing area of study. It is the second language in the United States, an official language in the European Union, the African Union, and the United Nations.
The Department will help you to discover or deepen your interest in the Spanish-speaking world, giving you the opportunity to study a variety of language, literature, and cultural courses, while helping you to develop your language skills and intellectual abilities.
Whether a beginner or non-beginner in Spanish, you will very quickly come to feel a valued member of a Department with a rich experience that goes back to 1776. Our external examiners consistently comment on the very high levels of linguistic and research skills attained by Hispanic Studies students. You can be confident that this degree will provide a lifetime of personal and professional opportunities.
The pathways available are Single Honors, Major with Minor and Joint Honors.
A degree in Spanish opens up many career opportunities in education, journalism, the diplomatic service, business administration, banking, publishing, interpreting, translation, advertising, public relations, digital communication, and visual media. Recent graduates have started careers in Google, Oracle, Telefónica, Ryanair, Central Bank of Ireland, Gerson Lerhman Group, NGOs, and the European Union. Many students have also pursued postgraduate degrees in Hispanic Studies and related fields.
At entry, Spanish must be combined with one other subject. In later years, you will be able to select additional subjects and electives and will have the option to graduate with Spanish as a Single Honors degree, a Joint Honors degree, or a Major with a Minor.
Spanish at Trinity is taught by a variety of methods to equip you with a comprehensive range of language skills. The Department offers intensive language teaching (five hours a week) for beginners.
In the first two years, the course covers three main areas:
You will continue with language study, taking classes in writing, text analysis, translation, and spoken Spanish. You will also be able to deepen your knowledge of Hispanic literatures and cultures.
In fourth year, you will work more independently and with significant freedom of choice. As well as studying Spanish language, the theory and Practice of Translation, the Spain of the Three Cultures, and Medieval Spanish Literature, you will choose other modules from a range of special topics, which include Contemporary and Golden Age Spanish Literature, Spanish History and Cultural Politics, Linguistics. You will also have the opportunity to conduct independent research as part of your Capstone Project.
At all levels, you will be assessed by a combination of exams and continuous assessment. Language modules are traditionally assessed by written and oral examinations. Final year students also write a Capstone project.
A year or semester studying abroad is one of the highlights of a student’s Trinity experience, and immersing yourself in the language and culture is also one of the most valuable ways of achieving fluency when you are studying a language. Single Honors students have a compulsory third year of study abroad, and other students are encouraged to spend a year or a semester in their third year in one of our partner universities. You will be required to spend two months in a Spanish-speaking country during the course of your studies. We currently have exchange agreements with the Universities of Granada, León, Salamanca, Seville, Oviedo, and Barcelona, among others.