FLORENCE – Once again the University of North Alabama is setting itself apart by offering the only program of its kind in the area. Beginning fall 2015, UNA will offer a Master’s of Education in Spanish.
According to Dr. Claudia Vance, chair of the UNA department of foreign languages, the program was recently approved and is mainly targeted at teachers in the region who already teach Spanish, or those who just finished an undergraduate program in Spanish and are interested in continuing their studies.
Dr. Claudia Vance
“It’s going to be a rigorous program, but it’s also a program in which we’ve had a lot of interest. A lot of people have wanted us to offer this as long as I’ve been at UNA,” said Vance.
The new graduate degree will feature two tracks: traditional and alternative. The traditional M.A. in Spanish education is for students who have undergraduate degrees in Secondary Education and Spanish. The alternative track is for students who want to teach Spanish but have an undergraduate degree in something other than education.
Vance said that students must pass The Praxis II Exam in Spanish, an American teacher certification exam, to complete the degree.
“We’re only going to offer maybe one or two courses per semester as part of the Spanish portion. As far as the education portion, a lot of that is currently online,” she said. “We understand that a lot of our potential folks will be teachers who work from 8 to 3 and can’t come see us on a regular basis. So we’re going to work with them on the Spanish portion online and maybe offer some additional courses over the summer,” said Vance.
The program will begin this fall with the Spanish Literature I (SP 505) course.
For more information about this course: Dr. Scott Infanger at srinfanger@una.edu or 256-765-4982. For more information about the Spanish program: Dr. Claudia Vance at cpvance@una.edu or 256-765-4501.
For more information about the MAED at UNA: https://www.una.edu/education/graduate-programs/index.html
For more information about graduate admissions: https://www.una.edu/admissions/apply-to-una/graduate-school.html
Media Release/University of North Alabama/Bryan Rachal
