Department of Modern Languages

Faculty

NANCY BONILLA (2009)
  Associate Professor of Spanish; Chair, Department of Modern Languages
B.A., 1996, Olivet Nazarene University
M.A., 2007, Illinois State University
Ed.D., 2015, Regent University

WILFREDO CANALES (2007)
  Associate Professor of Spanish
B.A., 1982, Universidad Nazarena, Costa Rica
M.A., 2006, Insituto Latinoamericano de la Communicacion Educativa, Mexico
Universidad de Artes y Ciencias Sociales

KAREN LEONARD (2015)
  Associate Professor of Spanish
B.A., 2008, Northwestern College
M.A., 2010, Loyola University
Ph.D., 2015, University of Iowa

The Department of Modern Languages shares the University’s commitment to the integration of Christian faith with scholarship. Its mission is to lead students to improved proficiency in world languages through a program that focuses on communication in the target language, real-life practice, and cultural competence in order to equip them to serve God in local and international settings.

Foreign languages develop students’ abilities to appropriately communicate in a cultural context.  Students learn to engage in the interpersonal, presentational, and interpretive modes of communication while learning to analyze cultural perspectives.  The program fosters opportunities to interact with a variety of native speakers, including a study abroad component. 

Foreign Language Recommended Placement

Students are placed in foreign language classes based on their background preparation and/or experiences in the language. Those with two or more years of high school credit in the appropriate language are not required to take courses numbered 101 or 111. Instead, the student may audit the lower level course or begin at a higher level course, depending on the recency of the high school experience, comfort-level with the language, quality of background preparation, or skill/ability with the language. In such cases, credit can be attained by petition for any lower level course that was audited or skipped upon satisfactory completion (”C-” or better) of the next higher level course. Such ”proficiency” credit will be noted on the transcript with a grade of ”K,” and will be charged at the rate of $50 per credit hour.

Students with three or four years of high school background in Spanish are encouraged to start with SPAN 211 . Students with four years or more of the same high school foreign language satisfy the foreign language/international culture general education requirement upon verification of the credits on the high school transcript. Such students are, however, encouraged to pursue additional studies in the language, possibly completing a minor or major in the language. In such cases, placement generally would start in SPAN 211 .

Native speakers generally are encouraged to begin with 200-level courses, pending approval of the language instructor.

Programs

• Spanish Education Major, B.S.
• Spanish Major, B.A.

• Spanish Minor