Romance Studies / Romanistik / Español como Lengua Extranjera

The structured exchange programme between the Romance Studies Department in Bonn and the Departamento de Lengua Española at the University of Salamanca offers students the opportunity to obtain, within a two-year period, both the two-year Master’s degree in Romance Studies from Bonn and the one-year Master’s degree in Español como Lengua Extranjera (ELE) from Salamanca. In this way, the broad philological, literary, and linguistic profile of the Bonn programme is uniquely combined with the application-oriented and professionally relevant competencies developed in Salamanca, which are grounded at the highest level in linguistics and language pedagogy. The prestigious and internationally oriented degree programme in Salamanca, which is subject to stringent admission requirements, reserves two places per academic year exclusively for students from Bonn. The exchange programme concludes with a linguistics Master’s thesis written in Spanish in accordance with Bonn’s academic regulations (30 ECTS credits), which is evaluated and recognised by both universities. Graduates are awarded two Master’s degrees. As part of the structured exchange programme between the two Master’s degrees in “Romance Studies” and “Español como Lengua Extranjera,” students begin their studies at the Rheinische Friedrich-Wilhelms-Universität Bonn, the tradition-rich “cradle of Romance philology,” which, since its founding figure Friedrich Diez, has been shaped by outstanding linguists and philologists such as Wilhelm Meyer-Lübke and Ernst Robert Curtius. In the second semester or academic year, students continue their studies at the Universidad de Salamanca, founded in the thirteenth century and thus the oldest university in Spain, where the enduring humanistic tradition of linguistic scholarship was established by Antonio de Nebrija. In this beautiful and vibrant university city on the Río Tormes, students follow in the footsteps of Spain’s most renowned writers and scholars, from the two Siglos de Oro to contemporary Spain. The Bonn curriculum is firmly rooted in Romance philology: linguistics, literary studies, and cultural studies can be pursued in the three major Romance languages—Spanish, French, and Italian. A disciplinary focus on linguistic modules is required in preparation for the period of study abroad in the professionally oriented field of “Spanish as a Foreign Language,” which is characterised by a systematic approach to content acquisition in line with the most up-to-date methodological standards.