Academic Programs

THE DEPARTMENT OF MODERN LANGUAGES AND LITERATURES

Department Office

King Hall D1054
Phone: (323) 343-4230
Office Hours: Monday-Friday: 8:00 A.M. - 12:00 P.M., 1:00 P.M. - 5:00 P.M. (Closed for lunch from 12:00 P.M. - 1:00 P.M.)
Email: [email protected]

OVERVIEW

The Department of Modern Languages and Literatures offers programs leading to the Bachelor of Arts degree in Chinese, French, Japanese, and Spanish, as well as minors in Chinese, French, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish. The Department also offers a Master of Arts degree in Spanish.

CHAIR

Pablo Baler
[email protected]
(323) 343-4230

THE FACULTY

Professors: Gretchen Angelo, Pablo Baler (Chair), Chisato Koike, Namhee Lee, Paola Marin, Qingyun Wu
Associate Professors: Hsin-Fu Chiu, Marina Cuzovic Severn
Emeriti: Alfred F. Michael Atlee, Abdallah J. Beddawi, Dale Carter, Joseph A. Chrzanowski, Domnita Dumitrescu, Alfonso Gonzalez, Kylie Hsu, Kazumitsu Kato, Françoise M. Pasques, Elena Retzer, Sachiko Matsunaga, Alejandro Solomianski, Elba Torres de Peralta, Hildebrando Villarreal, Yoshiko Yokota

ADVISEMENT

For undergraduate advisement, please contact the College of Arts and Letters Advisement Center located in MUS 209.

ADVANCED PLACEMENT CREDIT

Course and unit credit are granted for a score of 3, 4, or 5 on Advanced Placement Language and Literature Examinations. Students should consult the department for more information.

SEQUENCE OF CLASSES

Prerequisite courses must be completed prior to enrollment. Prerequisites appear in course descriptions in this catalog. Exceptions may be approved by departmental petition for qualified students having compelling reasons. Petitions should be filed prior to registration.

LIMITATION ON LANGUAGE CREDIT

Equivalent courses taken at the college level may not be repeated for credit toward a degree. A student with one year of high school language would generally be expected to enter 1002; a student with two years of high school language would enter 2001, with three years, 2002, and so on. However, it is recognized that exceptional circumstances may make it advisable for some students to start at higher or lower levels. Therefore, the department will allow students who have studied a language other than English exclusively at the high school level to depart from the equivalency formula specified above after consultation and with the recommendation of an adequately designated adviser.

Students who completed their secondary education in a foreign country where a language other than English is spoken natively may not receive credit for elementary language and lower-division conversation courses in that language.

LIMITATIONS ON CREDIT FOR "NON-TRADITIONAL" COURSES

A total of six units of the following courses may be applied to major programs in the department: FREN 4990, JAPN 3950, KOR 3950, ML 3990, ML 4960, and SPAN 4990. Exceptions may be made only in extraordinary circumstances and with the approval of the College of Arts and Letters Advisement Center in MUS 209 and the department chair.

ASSESSMENT

Majors in the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures must demonstrate the skills and knowledge appropriate to their baccalaureate degree. This is done through assessment procedures that include completion of required and elective courses, evaluation of language proficiency and content knowledge upon enrollment at the Upper Division level, and, at the exit from the program, completion of ML 4000. For more information, students should contact the Department of Modern Languages and Literatures before enrolling in upper-division courses.

PROGRAMS

Spanish, M.A.

Location(s): Main Campus

The Hybrid Delivery Mode Spanish M.A. is designed to enable students to attain a high level of proficiency in the Spanish language and literatures written in Hispanic countries, to solidify their understanding of linguistic processes in standard and dialectal varieties of Spanish, and to employ the language skillfully in such pursuits as teaching, writing, translating, and communications, or as preparation for doctoral study. Several required seminars for the Spanish M.A. are offered online or in a hybrid delivery mode to incorporate distance learning opportunities.

Admission to the Program

In addition to applying to the University, applicants must file a departmental application for admission and official transcripts of all previous college work. Students with a B.A. from Cal State LA only need a printout of their unofficial transcript and their application. These documents must reach the department early in the semester preceding that in which course work for the degree is to begin. Applicants holding a baccalaureate from Cal State LA and not attending another college since graduation must also file a departmental application early in the semester preceding graduate enrollment and provide a hard copy of their unofficial transcript.

In addition to University requirements for admission to graduate study, applicants must have a Bachelor of Arts degree in Spanish or equivalent, a minimum 2.75 overall undergraduate grade point average, and a B (3.0) grade point average in upper-division Spanish coursework, with at least one course in each of the following areas: Spanish Linguistics, Literary Analysis, Peninsular Literature, and Spanish-American Literature. Applicants who have not completed the following courses or equivalents with a 3.0 GPA may be admitted conditionally and will be required to take them as qualifying courses: SPAN 3050, SPAN 4010, SPAN 4080 or SPAN 4100, and SPAN 4110 or SPAN 4130. Applicants whose B.A. is neither in Spanish nor from a university where the language of instruction is Spanish may also be required to demonstrate advanced oral and written proficiency in the language to be considered for conditional admittance to the program.

Learning Outcomes

Roadmap (2020)

Requirements for the Degree (30 units)

Core Courses (18 units)

  • SPAN 5000 - Academic Writing in Spanish [3]
  • SPAN 5040 - Medieval Literature [3]
  • SPAN 5070 - Literary Theory [3]
  • SPAN 5100 - Applied Linguistics for Spanish Graduate Students [3]
  • SPAN 5400 - Seminar: Spanish Poetry from Romanticism to the Present [3]
  • SPAN 5450 - Seminar: Contemporary Spanish-American Poetry After Ruben Dario [3]

Electives (12 units)

  • SPAN 4140 - Don Quixote de la Mancha [3]
  • SPAN 4170 - Spanish-American Short Story [3]
  • SPAN 4181 - Golden Age Culture and Literature [3]
  • SPAN 4210 - Mexican Literature of Twentieth Century [3]
  • SPAN 4260 - Peninsular Literature: The Enlightenment to the Generation of 98 [3]
  • SPAN 4310 - Spanish-American Testimony [3]
  • SPAN 4441 - Masterworks of Spanish American Literature [3]
  • SPAN 4540 - Special Topics in Spanish - Peninsular [1-3]
  • SPAN 4541 - Special Topics - Latin America [1-3]
  • SPAN 4720 - Peninsular Literature: Vanguardismo to the Present [3]
  • SPAN 4750 - Spanish American Theater [3]
  • SPAN 4830 - Intellectuals and Ideas in Latin America [3]
  • SPAN 4850 - Southern Cone Fiction [3]
  • SPAN 4990 - Undergraduate Directed Study [1-3]
  • SPAN 5830 - Seminar: Contemporary Hispanic Prose [3]
  • SPAN 5980 - Graduate Directed Study [1-3]

Comprehensive Examination (0 units)

  • SPAN 5960 - Comprehensive Examination [0]

Chinese BA on K-12 Pedagogy

Are you passionate about teaching or tutoring? Do you want to work at K-12, public and private, pre-schools, or professional language schools? If yes, you will need to do the following:

  • Obtain state teacher licensure for K-12 teaching.
  • Earn a graduate degree for college or university teaching opportunities.
  • Minor or double major in another subject that you could also teach.
  • Get experience as a teaching assistant or tutor.
  • Become familiar with the cultural base of your language (literature, art, politics, etc.) and with cultural traditions.

The new Chinese BA degree will help you to complete those in 3 (for transfers) or 5 (for regulars) years.

Our Programs:

  • Chinese BA, Multiple Subject Credential
  • Chinese BA, SINGLE Subject Credential

Something You May Want to Know:

  • In California, Chinese is the second most widely spoken language, other than English, but Chinese is rarely taught in public schools.
  • 2020-2021, California issued nearly 1,200 bilingual accreditations but only 63 for Mandarin Chinese.
  • Many Californian school districts are initiating or expanding dual immersion programs in Asian languages, but they are also struggling to hire Asian language bilingual teachers.

Chinese BA (Heritage), Multiple Subject Credential BAA Coursework Roadmap

 

 

 

 

Year 1

Fall

Spring

Courses

Units

Courses

Units

GE A1

3

GE A2

3

AI: US Hist (Rec: AAAS 1500/HIST 1500)

3

AI: US Const

3

GE B4 (Rec: EDFN 1090)

3

GE B1 (Rec: NATS 1010 or NATS 1020)

3

GE C2- CHIN 1001

3

CHIN 1002

3

GE E (cl)(IHE)-ML 1010

3

GE C1 (Rec: LBS 2340 (re))

3

Total 

15

Total 

15

 

 

 

 

Year 2

Fall

Spring

Courses

Units

Courses

Units

GE A3

3

GE UD D (d)-EDFN 4400

3

GE D (Rec: CHDV 1400)

3

EDCI 4010

3

CHIN 2001

3

CHIN 2002

3

GE B2 (Rec: BIOL 1010/BIOL 1030)

3

EDSP 4000

3

GE F

3

GE UD C (with (re))

3

Total

15

Total

15

 

 

 

 

Year 3

Fall

Spring

Courses

Units

Courses

Units

Upper GE B

3

CHIN 3150

3

CHIN 3001

3

EDCI 4000

3

CHIN 3100

3

EDCI 5570

3

ENGL 4101

3

CHIN 4030

3

EDFN 4131

3

CHIN 3050

3

Total 

15

Total 

15

 

 

 

 

Year 4

Fall

Spring

Courses

Units

Courses

Units

EDEL 4020

3

ML 4000 (wi, GWAR)

3

EDEL 4150

3

CHIN 3250

3

CHIN 4510

3

CHIN 4280

3

CHIN 4010

3

EDEL 4170

3

CHIN 4080

3

CHIN 4100

3

Total

15

Total

15

 

 

 

 

Year 5

Post-Bacc.

Fall

Spring

Courses

Units

Courses

Units

EDEL 4160

3

EDEL 4190

3

EDEL 4180

3

EDCI 4560 (edTPA #2) (Optional)

3

EDCI 5560

3

EDEL 4880 or EDEL 4890

7

EDCI 4550 (edTPA #1) (Optional)

3

EDEL 4881

3

Total

12

Total

16

Major Total: 120 units | Post-baccalaureate Total: 28 units

Notes: CHIN 1001, 1002, 2001, 2002 are each GE C2