Undergraduate
Placement Guidelines
- Students who wish to study a language that is not their native language, click here.
- Students who wish to study a language that is their native language, click here.
- Heritage Learners of Spanish who wish to study Spanish, click here.
Most students studying a language as a non-native speaker can determine their appropriate level by following these guidelines:
- If you have not studied Arabic, Chinese, French, German, Hebrew, Italian, Japanese, or Spanish in high school, or have completed one to two years of high school instruction, take 101; for Portuguese, take 105.
- If you have taken 101 or its equivalent at another institution, take 102.
- If you have completed three years of high school instruction in French or Spanish, or scored a 3 on the AP language exam, take 105. If you have had three years of high school Arabic, Chinese, German, Hebrew, Italian, or Japanese, take 102.
- If you have taken four years of high school French or Spanish, scored a 4 on the AP language exam or a 4 on the IB exam in French or Spanish, or took the equivalent of 102 or 105 at another university, take 211. If you have taken four years of high school German, Italian or Portuguese, take 211. If you have taken four years of Arabic, Chinese, Hebrew, or Japanese, take 201.
- If you had five to six years of high school French, German, Italian, or Spanish, take 212.
- If you have taken the equivalent of 211 at another university, or scored a 5 on the AP language exam, you have completed your language requirement. If you wish to continue your studies, take 212.
- If you took the equivalent of 212 in French or Spanish at another university or scored a 4 on the AP literature exam, you have completed your language requirement. If you wish to continue your studies, take 214. If you took the equivalent of 212 in German, Italian or Portuguese at another university, you have completed your language requirement. If you wish to continue your studies, take 301.
- If you took the equivalent of 214 in French or Spanish at another university or scored a 5 on the AP literature exam in French or Spanish, you have completed your language requirement. If you wish to continue your studies, take 301.
The Department offers courses for native speakers of French, German, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish. Native speakers may not enroll in 101, 102, 105, 201, 202, 211, 212, 214, or 301 in their language. If you are a native speaker of French, German, Italian, or Portuguese and graduated from a high school where that was the official language of instruction, you may take any course above 301 (consult with the respective Undergraduate Advisor). If you are a native speaker of Spanish and graduated from a high school where that was the official language of instruction, you must take SPA 343 (described below), before taking any other SPA course.
The Department of Modern Languages & Literatures identifies as heritage learners of Spanish those students who begin their university studies of the language with little or no prior instruction in Spanish but who, because of family background or social experience, can already understand much casual spoken Spanish and have a passive knowledge of the language (though they may not usually speak the language themselves). In the great majority of cases, they have been born and fully educated in the United States, and may have grown up speaking principally English (or a ‘mix’ of Spanish and English, i.e. ‘Spanglish’) in the home with their grandparents, parents and siblings. Heritage learners may or may not consider themselves as “bilinguals” or “native speakers”, since both of these terms carry very different connotations—linguistic, social, and psychological—for different individuals. Some state that they “do not really speak Spanish” even though they are able to comprehend much spoken language (i.e., they are “passive bilinguals”). In the great majority of cases, they self-identify as “Hispanic” or “Latino/a”.
HERITAGE LEARNERS OF SPANISH MUST BE PLACED IN ONE OF THE FOLLOWING FOUR COURSES:
SPA 143 Basic Spanish for Heritage Learners is for those students with little or no prior instruction in Spanish who, because of family background or social experience, can understand casual spoken Spanish and have a passive knowledge of the language although they do not usually speak the language themselves. Generally, their abilities to read and write Spanish are very weak. CLOSED TO STUDENTS WHO GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL IN A SPANISH-SPEAKING COUNTRY
SPA 243 Intermediate Spanish for Heritage Learners is for those students WHO HAVE ALREADY TAKEN AND PASSED SPA 143 or who have studied Spanish for AT LEAST TWO YEARS IN HIGH SCHOOL. They can understand casual spoken Spanish and have some functional ability in speaking, reading and writing the language. CLOSED TO STUDENTS WHO GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL IN A SPANISH-SPEAKING COUNTRY.
SPA 244 Advanced Spanish for Heritage Learners is for those students who have studied Spanish for four years in high school and who have developed functional abilities in speaking, reading and writing the language. Students who earned a score of 5 on the AP Spanish Language Exam should register for this course. CLOSED TO STUDENTS WHO GRADUATED HIGH SCHOOL IN A SPANISH-SPEAKING COUNTRY.
SPA 343 Introduction to Literary Studies for Native/ Heritage Speakers is intended for those students who have completed secondary and/or university studies in a Spanish-speaking country and for those heritage learners who demonstrate an advanced level of productive competence (in the written and spoken modes) in Spanish because of prior formal study of the language. Many heritage learners who place directly into 343 have taken AP Spanish literature in high school and earned a score of 4 or 5.
>>> SPA 101, 102, 105, 211, 212 AND 242 ARE NOT FOR HERITAGE LEARNERS. ANY HERITAGE LEARNER WHO ENROLLS IN ONE OF THESE COURSES WILL BE OBLIGATED TO SWITCH TO A HERITAGE LANGUAGE COURSE (SPA 143, 243, 244 OR 343) DURING THE FIRST WEEK OF CLASS.
Contact: Dr. Andrew Lynch, Director of Spanish Heritage Language courses, Dept. of Modern Langs. & Lits., Merrick 212-10 (a.lynch@miami.edu) 305-284-3229
