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Major in Spanish, French, Applied Linguistics, or Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages with Discipline-Specific Honors

The Honors program in the Department of Languages offers outstanding students the opportunity to engage in advanced, academically rigorous research and writing projects that expand upon the breadth and depth of the standard curricular offerings in Spanish, French, TESOL, and Applied Linguistics. Honors students will contract to perform honors work, to be defined by a collaboration between the student and the professor, in four upper-division courses in the major. The specific courses involved are delineated below according to their respective major tracks. The fourth of these courses will be an intensive research course focused on developing the honors thesis, which will be a synthesizing paper that builds upon the research focus developed in the prior honors courses.

After a student has satisfied requirements, the student may begin the discipline-specific honors program. In most cases, this will begin no later than fall of the junior year, but may begin once admissions requirements have been satisfied in order to accommodate students with multiple majors or an accelerated graduation timeline. The request to participate in the program should initiate with the student’s advisor, who will ensure that admissions requirements have been met. Students must have 3 full semesters remaining on campus in order to enroll in DSH, and honors-designated courses must be taken on-campus at Union so that the research can be directed by Union faculty. Study abroad sequences should be carefully planned in order to allow students to complete all course requirements and enroll in the program length of their choice abroad; students who plan a full semester abroad should begin the honors sequence no later than fall of the junior year, but enrolling in the spring of the sophomore year is recommended. Students may enroll in no more than two honors-contracted courses in the department per semester. All honors courses must be upper-level courses. If there is a compelling reason to do so that supports the student’s research goals, a student may request to take one of his/her honors courses outside the major department.

Specific designation of honors courses within the major will be as follows:

  1. The student in SPA or FRE honors will designate three 3-hour upper-level courses as honors courses, and the student and professor will work together to ensure that the honors component involves more in-depth and comprehensive research than the standard enrollment. The final honors-designated course will be SPA 417 or FRE 417, the Special Studies course, which will be an intensive research course completed with close guidance from the faculty member and focused on preparation and writing of the honors thesis.
  2. The student in ALNG honors will designate ALNG 315, ALNG 325, ALNG 440, and ALNG 495 as honors-contracted courses.
  3. The TESOL honors student will designate TESL 315, TESL 320, TESL 410, and TESL 440 as honors-contracted courses.
  4. All honors students in the department will present their honors thesis in lieu of the standard capstone presentation when they enroll in the required SPA 490, FRE 490, TESL 490, ALNG 490 course during their final semester of coursework in the major.

Admission Requirements:

  1. 3.5 minimum GPA in the major, including the completion of at least one upper-level course prior to entry into DSH
  2. Recommendation to the program by the student’s academic advisor.
  3. The student should have at least 3 semesters remaining at Union in order to meet the program requirement of designation of no more than two courses per semester as honors courses and allow time for preparation and presentation of the honors thesis. If students plan a fall or spring full-semester study abroad, they should plan to begin the DSH program no later than the fall of the junior year. They may incorporate research conducted abroad into their thesis research, but the honors-designated courses must be taken at Union to allow for oversight by a Union faculty member.

Progression:

  1. The student must maintain a minimum GPA of 3.5 in the major in order to remain enrolled in discipline-specific honors.
  2. The student must earn an A or B in each honors designated course and adhere to the timeline that the department specifies for his/her program.
  3. If students fall short of any of these requirements, they will be placed on probation with the discipline-specific honors program and given one semester to rectify their shortcomings. If the required adjustments are not made within one semester, the student will be dismissed from the DSH program. The student's academic advisor will monitor the student's progress through the honors track each semester.