The Department of Spanish and Portuguese offers the degrees of Bachelor of Arts in Portuguese and Bachelor of Arts in Spanish. In the first stage of the major students become fluent speakers and writers of Spanish or Portuguese. At the advanced level, the major requires completion of courses in history of the language, linguistics, and the literatures and cultures of Spain, Portugal, and Latin America. Students can choose to emphasize language, literature, culture, or a combination of all of them. Many students combine a major Spanish or Portuguese with a second major in a field/discipline in the humanities, the social sciences, or the natural sciences.