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Spanish and Portuguese

Graduate Programs

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Spanish (MA)

An MA degree in Spanish gives the student a solid foundation in Spanish principles and strong research experience. The MA degree is designed not only to enhance a student’s reading, writing, speaking, listening, and researching skills, but also to push the mental, psychological, and social boundaries in light of the Hispanic world. MA students choose to specialize in either pedagogy, linguistics, or literatures—preparing the student for a wide variety of employment experiences in industry. Typically, starting salaries are slightly higher than those for BA graduates.
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Portuguese (MA)

An MA degree in Portuguese gives the student a solid foundation in Portuguese principles and strong research experience. The MA degree is designed not only to enhance a student’s reading, writing, speaking, listening, and researching skills, but also to push the mental, psychological, and social boundaries in light of the Portuguese world. MA students choose to specialize in either pedagogy, linguistics, or literatures—preparing the student for a wide variety of employment experiences in industry. Typically, starting salaries are slightly higher than those for BA graduates.
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Faculty

See a full list of Spanish and Portuguese department graduate faculty

Courses

See all Spanish and Portuguese graduate courses
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Contact

3190 JFSB
(801) 422-2838
spanportgradstudies@byu.edu
Department Website

Two degrees are offered through the Department of Spanish and Portuguese: Portuguese—MA and Spanish—MA.

Most students who complete a master's degree in the department either seek jobs in secondary education or continue their studies on the PhD level. Some have located positions with government agencies or in the business sector. Each year about fifteen students are admitted to the program.

The program is designed for a student to complete the degree in twenty-four months of intensive work.

Chair:  Scott Alvord
Graduate Coordinator:  Brian Price
Graduate Program Manager:  Linda Chaston

Resources & Opportunity

Faculty research interests currently include:

  1. Acquisition of Spanish as a second language (language teaching methodology, teacher training, oral proficiency testing, computer-administered placement and speaking tests)
  2. Hispanic literature (Spanish medieval literature, Spanish Golden Age literature, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Spanish literature, Spanish American women writers, Spanish women writers, Hispanic film, Spanish American poetry, modern Spanish poetry, literature and philosophy, contemporary Hispanic theatre, Mexican prose, metafiction and metatheatre, Hispanic romanticism, Spanish realist narrative, intersemiotic analogies, literature and science, Spanish cultural studies)
  3. Portuguese literature (classical Portuguese literature, Brazilian literature)
  4. Hispanic linguistics (Caribbean sociolinguistics, phonetic spectrography; Romance semantics, Hispanic paleography, mood in the nominal clause, language contact, bilingualism)

Financial Assistance

Students may receive a position as a student instructor depending on departmental needs and on their qualifications. All potential student instructors must have completed a 3-hour methodology course, and they must participate in an intensive workshop held during the week previous to the commencement of fall classes. Continuing employment and the number of sections assigned to candidates each semester depend on department needs and on the students’ performance as instructors and on their own academic progress. Additionally, most students receive partial scholarship grants (generally 50-80% of required courses) to help cover tuition expenses.