Master in Applied Linguistics: Teaching Spanish to Speakers of Other Languages

Master’s Degree in Applied Linguistics: Teaching Spanish to Speakers of Other Languages

Presentation

The Spanish language is the mother language of more than 500 million people and the second communication language in the world.

From 2000, the learning of the Spanish language has experienced a really strong increasing trend until nowadays, according to the most recent report issued by Instituto Cervantes (2016a), there 21 million students throughout 106 countries. Interest in learning Spanish has increased even in continents where it was not usual, such as Africa, Asia and Oceania.

In this context, the need for leaning on Spanish as foreign language professionals is consolidating for they are well-trained and able to cope with these new educational realities.

The Master in Applied Linguistics: Teaching Spanish to Speakers of Other Languages offers an excellent training that integrates and interrelates the theory and practice with the aim of training professionals of Spanish didactics who are capable of planning and teaching in a diversity of educational contexts, critically reflecting about their own teaching practice and learn autonomously through life. The master’s degree’s purpose is to train the student for the professional practice.

The program is entirely online with the aim of easing the access to this specialized training to people who would not have access to it otherwise. All the training activities develop in a virtual campus pedagogically designed with that purpose.

The platform has an online library, different synchronic and asynchronic spaces (discussion forums, chats, etc.) and methodological resources that favor learning and an autonomous and significant learning by the students, as well as the constant interaction between students and professors.

The master’s degree has been approved in accordance with the convergence criteria of Bologna and counts on the official recognition of every country from the European Union.

Learning Results

Along the Master in Applied Linguistics: Teaching Spanish to Speakers of Other Languages, the students will have to develop the following specific competencies:

  • Interpreting and applying in a critical and reflexive way the linguistic, pragmatic and cultural knowledge acquired on the use of the Spanish language in context in the planning of the teaching and learning process of Spanish as a FL.
  • Analyzing the functioning of the formal system and communication acts in Spanish and speaking of them in the Spanish classroom by using appropriate teaching materials.
  • Planning and evaluating the teaching-learning process of Spanish as a FL in a short and long term, taking into account the teaching context, the methodological approach, lesson plans and the interests, needs and learning styles of the students.
  • Integrating ICT in a meaningful way into the teaching activities and learning process of Spanish as a FL, and critically analyzing digital materials that are generated in this field.
  • Introducing the specific training to learning strategies when required and according to the needs of the students, the objectives and contents of the program and of each unit, and provide the students with the learning tools that they require.
  • Integrating the socio-cultural content in the Spanish classroom in such a way as to allow the students to gradually know the Spanish culture, its facts, cultural products, and the socio-cultural attitudes of Spanish-speaking countries; the development of an intercultural awareness; the capacity to be a cultural mediator and to effectively deal with cultural misunderstandings in conflict situations; and the development of empathy, openness and interest in other cultures.
  • Dealing adequately with the Spanish varieties in the foreign language or second language’s classroom depending on each teaching and learning context.
  • Analyzing and evaluating the own teaching performance and professional development, through observation, writing diaries, self-evaluation, the teaching portfolio, etc.; identify weaknesses; plan and implement a personal plan of improvement and continuous training.

Graduate Profile

The master’s degree trains the student for these careers:

  • Teacher of Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL).
  • Designer, reviewer and pedagogical coordinator for teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language (FL).
  • Pedagogical advisor and linguistic consultant in the field of Teaching Spanish as a Foreign Language FL.

Degree

Once the program is completed, the student will obtain the diploma MASTER IN APPLIED LINGUISTICS: TEACHING SPANISH TO SPEAKERS OF OTHER LANGUAGES issued by the European University of the Atlantic.

Study Programme

The Master in Applied Linguistics: Teaching Spanish to Speakers of Other Languages is organized in 60 credits distributed into the subjects, the external internship and a master’s degree final project. Estimated time for completion is a whole academic year.

  SUBJECTS CREDITS NATURE
SEMESTER 1 Communication and pragmalinguistic proficiency 4 MAND
Spanish Grammar for SFL teachers 4 MAND
Teaching of the Lexicon and Pronunciation of Spanish as a FL / SL 4 MAND
Language, Culture and Bilingualism. The socio-cultural component in the SPL classroom 4 MAND
The Curriculum of Spanish as a FL and the Planning of Courses and Classes 4 MAND
Reflective practice and professional development 4 MAND
The Evaluation of the Learning Process of Spanish as a FL / SL 4 MAND
SEMESTER 2 Educational technology in language learning 4 MAND
Spanish and its Varieties 4 MAND
The approach by tasks in teaching Spanish as a FL/ SL 4 MAND
Language learning strategies 4 MAND
INTERNSHIP
External internship		 6 EI
FINAL PROJECT
Master’s Degree Final Project		 10 MFP
TOTAL 60 ETCS  

*The Iberoamerican University Foundation (FUNIBER) offers financial aids for these master degrees.

 

Access Requirements

Requirements to access to master’s degrees’ studies

According to what is established in artículo 16 del Real Decreto 1393/2007, as amended by the Real Decreto 861/2010, access to these studies will be granted for students who meet either of the following conditions:

  • Be in possession of an official Spanish university undergraduate or any another issued by a higher education institution of the European Higher Education Area, which qualifies in the issuing country for the access to Master's degree studies.
  • Those students that hold an undergraduate not belonging to the educational systems of the European Higher Education Area can access without the need for the accreditation of their degrees, after the University has verified that they have an equivalent level of education to the corresponding Spanish official university undergraduate studies, and that allows to access to postgraduate studies. Access by this via does not denote, in any case, the approval of the prior diploma held by the applicant, or its recognition for purposes other than accessing the master’s degrees’ studies.
  • In the case of students with special educational needs arising from a disability, the need for possible curricular adaptations, itineraries or alternative studies.

Student profile

For the proposed master’s degree, it will be specially assessed to be in possession of any of the studies included in the list below:

  • Degree in Spanish Language and Literature or in Spanish/Hispanic Philology.
  • Degree in Translation and Interpreting.
  • Degree in Linguistics.
  • Degree in Humanities, in other Language Studies, in Education or Information Sciences.
  • University graduate of any qualification equivalent to the ones above, may they be future qualifications in the Spanish university system, may they be existing qualifications in the university systems in other countries.
  • University graduate of any specialization that accredits to have received specific training in teaching Spanish as a foreign language, through the following means: university elective subjects, specific university degrees, training courses recognized by the Instituto Cervantes, or that may be equivalent in the competent organ’s view of the European University of the Atlantic.
  • University graduate of any specialization that accredits, with a document, to have professionally exercised as a teacher of Spanish as a Foreign Language for an extended period of time in prestigious institutions.

Furthermore, the European University of the Atlantic demands, as a requisite:

  1. To prove a Spanish language proficiency as a working language in the academic field. Such domain will be granted to students who prove that they have finished their degrees in universities in Spanish-speaking countries. Otherwise, the student needs to have at least a B2 level CEFR and accredit so with documents such as the corresponding DELE of the Instituto Cervantes or other comparable in the competent organ’s view of the European University of the Atlantic. As a last chance, in case the applicant does not have any certification proving to have a language level or that the university degree the person holds is not adequate for the access to the program, a language test should be completed.
  2. Demonstrate basic knowledge, equivalent to an undergraduate level, in the academic field of the master’s degree, and particularly in the following fields: methodological foundations of the teaching of Spanish as a FL, the development of language skills, the creation, adaptation and evaluation of materials and resources for the classroom of Spanish as a FL; techniques and teaching strategies for the management of the classroom of Spanish as a FL, second language acquisition and individual factors in language learning.

These academic requirements for admission shall be credited by presenting academic documents that justify the completion of the corresponding degree (access requirement) in which subjects from areas of knowledge related to those cited above have been studied. The student will prove, by showing the study plan or the subjects’ programs, to have previous knowledge in these areas, otherwise, the student will prove to have completed continuous, permanent, complementary or postgraduate training at an expertise level, to demonstrate a previous knowledge in the areas above.

Once these requirements are met, the admission process is done in two phases: preregistration and enrollment.

Preregistration and Enrollment

Preregistration and place payment.

The admission process to the Master’s Degree begins with the submission, via postal service or courier company to the Postgraduate Admission Section the following documentation:

  • Completed Admission Application Form
  • Up-to-date resume
  • ID photocopy (only Spanish applicants), NIE or passport (only foreign applicants)
  • Academic record photocopy (finished studies or taking the last year of the studies)
  • Two color passport-sized photos.

To ease the admission process to the master’s degree the European University of the Atlantic allows the submission of the documentation via e-mail: Likewise, to formalize the admission process it is necessary to submit the required documentation via postal service or a courier company to the Postgraduate Admission Section.

Once the documentation is received, the Admissions Committee for Master’s Degrees made up by the Academic Planning head, the Admissions Department Management, the Master’s Degrees Academic Manager and two professors teaching at the Master’s Degree will check that the diploma enables the admission to the studies and will analyze the applications received in order to determine the applicants’ adequacy. In this admission phase, the following criteria will be considered:

  • Student’s academic record (80%)
  • Other merits linked to the diploma’s field (scholarships and prizes relates to the diploma, postgraduate studies in similar studies, professional experience related to the diploma) (20%)

The Master’s Degree Academic Committee reserves the right to interview the applicants, in case it deems so necessary as to complement the information stated in the submitted documentation. Once the applicants’ assessment and analysis has concluded, the Admissions Committee approves or rejects the application form. The number of places offered is 180 per academic year, distributed in two sessions of 90 students.

Once this phase is finished, the applicant is informed, via phone or e-mail, about the result of the admission process and the registration process, the documentation required, dully legalized if required by the nature of the documentation submitted, documents that have to be submitted to start the preregistration process/place reservation and then the enrollment.

Enrollment

Admitted students will be contacted by the Student Secretariat, who will indicate which documents must be submitted in order to formalize the enrollment to the master’s degree program.

Enrollment via Internet: The self-enrollment service from the university’s web allows the admitted students to make all the academic, economic and administrative procedures, without having to go the university in person.

This Master presents more than one call per year. For more information about dates and deadlines, contact with the University’s Academic Secretariat.

Transfer and credits’ acknowledgment systems

With the objective of making more effective the students’ mobility, “recognition” means the acceptance on the part of the European University of the Atlantic of the credits which, having been obtained in any official program, in this or another university, are valid for obtaining an official diploma.

The acknowledgment of credits must be requested by the student at the time of the enrollment. In exceptional cases, and with an explicit authorization, a different deadline from the one stated may be established and the student will have to pay for the academic fees established.

The credits obtained by the student included in the following list will be eligible for acknowledgment:

  1. The credits obtained in university studies leading to other degrees, mentioned in artículo 34.1 of the Ley Orgánica 6/2001, December 21st, de Universidades, modified by the Ley Orgánica 4/2007, April 12th.
  2. The experience and professional accredited experience if such experience is related to the competences inherent to the master’s degree. In this sense, those profiles defined for the master’s degree will be the general criterion.
  3. The rest of credits may be acknowledged by the University taking into account the competences and knowledge associated with the subjects taken by the student and those foreseen in the study plan or that have a cross-cutting nature.

The maximum number of credits of the assumptions (a) and (b) shall not be greater than 15% of the total number of credits that constitute the study plan. The credits’ transfer also implies the inclusion, in the official academic documents, proof of each student’s studies, of the credits earned in previous official studies, in this or another University, which have not led to an official degree.

For more information about dates and deadlines, contact with the University’s Academic Secretariat.