The online Graduate Certificate in Spanish as a Heritage Language is a twelve (12) credit concentration open to students in all UH graduate, professional degree, and post-baccalaureate programs that requires the successful completion of four (4) Hispanic Studies graduate courses (12 credit hours) including:

• SPAN 6389: Methods of Teaching Spanish to Heritage Learners
• SPAN 6397: U.S. Hispanic Culture and Civilization
• SPAN 6344: U.S. Hispanic Literature
• SPAN 6352: Sociolinguistic Aspects of U.S. Spanish

Courses will be taught 100% online.

Description of Courses

SPAN 6389: Teaching Spanish to Spanish Speakers.
Professor Marta Fairclough

The purpose of this course is to introduce students to the field of heritage language education (HLE), with an emphasis on the bilingual English-Spanish student of Hispanic heritage.  Diverse aspects of heritage language development will be explored as well as relevant sociolinguistic and pedagogical issues. The course will be conducted in Spanish and will consist mainly of video lectures, selected readings, and online assignments. Readings will be in English and Spanish.

SPAN 6352: Sociolinguistic Aspects of U.S. Spanish
Professor Manuel Gutiérrez

The course offers students a first approach to the knowledge of basic linguistic concepts as applied to the study of the live varieties of the Spanish language spoken in the United States. The course consists of a discussion of several linguistic and social aspects of Spanish in the United States by means of video lectures and fieldwork in the Spanish-speaking communities of Texas. Presentations of selected readings will be required.

SPAN 6344: U.S. Hispanic Literature
Brown Foundation Professor Nicolás Kanellos

The course will teach students how to manage the technological, bibliographic, and text resources for understanding Hispanic literature and culture of the United States, within an historical context. Students will study periods, movements, themes, styles, authors, and literary works from the colonial period to the present, within the sociological and historical contexts. Oral as well as written literature will be studied. The goal is for students to learn to relate historical and contemporary texts to the language and culture of Spanish-language heritage learners. Additional skill acquired through this course are the ability to find and incorporate literary and folk texts in classrooms specifically for Spanish-language heritage learners.

Span 6397: U.S. Hispanic Culture and Civilization
Associate Professor Gabriela Baeza Ventura

In this course, students will learn the cultural history of Latinos in the United States through social, literary, and political topics. Students will have the opportunity to put in practice the theory learned in readings during class and will critically analyze literary works by writing and presenting on the material read in class. Course instruction will be in Spanish and readings will be in English and Spanish. Students will be assessed on weekly reflections on the readings, a mid term and final research project.