Language Learning Opportunities

The downtown areas offer rich linguistic environments where students can perfect bilingual skills.

The border area is a bilingual region, which presents rich opportunities for language learning. In the stores, in the streets, in the restaurants, at the universities, in your placements, and in your families you will hear both Spanish and English. You will also hear very creative and fascinating uses of language when both Spanish and English are spoken.The Border Studies Program offers flexibility in language use and offers programming for those with higher level language skills as well as for those who are newer to Spanish. Two semesters of Spanish (or equivalent) are required prior to the beginning of the fall semester, but students with more Spanish language skills will find their language level to be very beneficial.

NEW Opportunity beginning Fall 2008: Intensive Spanish Immersion.
Beginning this fall, the Border Studies Program will offer a three-week intensive Spanish immersion. This immersion is designed to prepare students linguistically for life in a bilingual area. It will also better equip students to not only communicate on both sides of the border, but also to structure their own language learning environments once classes begin. Students enrolled in an elective at the University of Texas at El Paso are required to attend this three-week immersion. Students enrolled in an elective at the Universidad Autónoma de Ciudad Juárez are welcome, but not required, to attend this course.
The immersion is taught by an experienced Spanish-language instructor and is conducted at Casa Puente, the Border Studies Program headquarters.

Create Your Own Language Learning Experience

Faculty from the Autonomous University of Ciudad Juarez discuss border issues.

In many ways students have the opportunity to structure the level of language use and language immersion that they would like. Some students, for example, may prefer an immersion program in Spanish, while others may prefer to locate themselves in an English dominant situation where Spanish is used in certain contexts. Students have the choice to live with a Spanish speaking family in Ciudad Juárez or to live with a family in El Paso. Students also are very involved in the choice of the field study placement. These range from complete use of Spanish to use of English with some Spanish, with many variations in language use in between.

Ways to Achieve Your Language Learning Objectives

• To immerse yourself in Spanish language, you can live with a Spanish speaking family in Juárez, take a class in Spanish, choose to write your ethnography and oral histories in Spanish, participate in a field study placement where Spanish is the dominant language, and interact in Spanish as much as possible. 
• To improve your Spanish, you can live with a Spanish speaking family in Juárez, take a course in Spanish, and participate in a field study where Spanish is frequently used.
• To work on your Spanish at a different pace, you can live with a family that is bilingual or English dominant, take courses primarily in English, and participate in a field study placement where English is the main language but Spanish is also used.