College Handles Spanish Program Growth

Author: Deborah Jones

Recent years have seen the explosion of the Hispanic population in the United States and with it, a surge in people looking to learn Spanish as a second language. Knowledge of Spanish, once considered a desirable but optional skill, has become practically a necessity in certain parts of the country, prompting students to study it in increasing numbers. This trend is true at Middlebury College, where the Spanish language department has seen substantial and continuous growth in the past decade.

"Ten or 15 years ago, there were just four Spanish professors," said Department Chair Roberto Veguez. Today, there are 10. This semester, they will teach a total of 22 classes that run the gamut from basic grammatical structure to sophisticated analyses of literature. Each section is capped at 18 students, up from 15 in the late 1990s. Associate Professor of Spanish Donna Rogers noted that the department hopes to return to the 15 student ceiling in its 100 level classes in the coming school year.

Despite the rising number of students taking Spanish, Veguez does not consider the faculty to be strained. He explained that handling the growth has primarily been a matter of re-allocating resources. For example, most Spanish students at Middlebury begin their undergraduate studies with at least a basic knowledge of the language from their high school programs. The majority of those pupils place into 200 level classes, and as a result, the department offers multiple sections of and added support to these intermediate courses.

The faculty has also had to re-evaluate its senior seminar offerings in recent years. Rogers said that because Spanish is such a widely spoken language, there is a lot of pressure to offer courses that cover many geographic areas, each with their respective literary traditions and histories. This has the potential to become a daunting task when one considers that students required to take an advanced level seminar to complete their degree include not only Spanish majors and minors, but also students of International Studies (both European and Latin American tracks) and International Politics and Economics. Nevertheless, the department has adapted to its diverse student body and boasts a range of upper-level courses on topics from the arts and literature to sociology and politics.

Rogers noted that one of the most pressing issues faced by Spanish faculty today is competition for classroom space on campus. Language teachers tend to favor sites with easily movable chairs and tables that facilitate interactive exercises. They also value multimedia stations that allow them to make use of alternative educational methods such as television and computer programs. Although there are several classrooms on campus with these amenities, Rogers explained that, currently, the demand far exceeds the supply.

One thing that may change the dynamic of the Spanish department is the proposed hiring of a professor of Portuguese. Veguez suggested that the establishment of the Portuguese Summer Language School and an academic year program might entice Spanish and Latin American Studies students looking to try something different. Ultimately, he expects the number of Spanish students at Middlebury to remain steady if not continue to climb. "It's a fact of life that there's more interaction with the large Spanish-speaking population in the U.S. and that isn't going to decline any time soon," he asserted.