Our mission is to prepare students to live, work and serve as global citizens, with the responsibility, empathy, openness to diversity and commitment to social justice that distinguish the Jesuit educational tradition. Our curriculum is designed to achieve three overarching goals: to empower our students to become independent users of language in real-life contexts; to develop reflective, analytical, critical-thinking and discursive abilities through the study of a wide range of cultural products, practices and perspectives; and to foster the cultural competence that will enable our students to forge meaningful connections with people from cultures different from their own. With the knowledge, skills and attitudes they acquire in the study of modern languages, our students will be able to contribute to a diverse and changing world as active participants who can work within and across cultural perspectives

The Spanish major and minor focus equally on Latin America and Spain. Gonzaga students may study in Granada, Spain during the Fall or Spring semesters or attend a summer immersion program offered occasionally in Cuernavaca, Mexico. These immersion programs include coursework in Spanish (Spanish/ Latin American literature and films), cultural trips, and a home-stay with a local family. In South America, Gonzaga also offers study abroad programs for Spanish language students in multiple cities in Chile and Argentina.

Our faculty continually emphasize language performance and intercultural competence and create innovative and exciting opportunities for individual, hands-on experience. Our approach allows students to learn a language with upper-level courses in literature, film, society, linguistics and more, furthering our mission of exposing students to new cultures and developing a tolerance for difference.

OUTCOMES

The Modern Languages and Literature major will: • Communicate orally entirely in target language in both everyday and professional/academic settings with a high degree of phonetic, syntactic and semantic accuracy ACTFL advanced level). • Comprehend complex information provided orally at the normal conversational tempo of a native speaker (ACTFL advanced level). • Write with proficiency to contrast, criticize, analyze, defend opinions, and advance and support a thesis (ACTFL advanced level). • Comprehend and interpret challenging and diverse reading material in the target language (ACTFL advanced level). • Demonstrate insightful and complex understanding of the target language culture(s) and function comfortably in a wide range of social situations in the target language environment(s).