Commercial Spanish at Eastern Michigan University.

The commercial Spanish courses at Eastern Michigan University, examinations in commercial Spanish, and cooperative education exchange programs are described, and the university's new programs that combine the study of foreign language and business are briefly addressed. A six-course sequence offered on the junior, senior, and graduate levels cover Spanish for international trade, business Spanish, and Spanish for business practices. All have basically the same major components: commercial correspondence and documents, Spanish articles on business-related topics, and a textbook covering vocabulary on a wide variety of operational areas. In each course, students must both translate business letters from Spanish to English and compose letters in Spanish for a wide variety of commercial purposes. In addition, students examine and discuss many other commercial documents. Work with articles published in foreign periodicals has been a successful approach to expose students to the commercial-Spanish lexicon. The articles are entirely in Spanish, which encourages students to build associations among commercial and noncommercial Spanish words and expressions. The basic-level and advanced-level examinations in commercial Spanish for foreigners and the Madrid Chamber of Commerce and Industry certificate and diploma exams are described, along with the cooperative education exchange program. The courses qualify students for positions providing experience in international business and use of Spanish, both in the United States and abroad. (SW)