Bilingual Certificate

Co-Directors:

Chelsea Cornejo, M.S. CCC-SLP, Clinical Assistant Professor

Dr. Stephanie Grasso, PhD, CCC-SLP, Assistant Professor

Program Description:

SLHS offers a Bilingual certificate (with an emphasis on Spanish/English bilingual populations) to students at the MSSLHS level in Speech Language Pathology to foster specialized academic and clinical training, and competitive certification, specific to serve bilingual individuals with communication disorders. Academic support to acquire knowledge of bilingual language development, manifestation of disorders in bilingual populations, and culturally and linguistically appropriate service provision is provided through specialized coursework and experiential learning opportunities. 

Specialization Requirements:

1. Declare your interest (during New Graduate Student Orientation) to the Graduate Adviser and submit application and bilingualism questionnaire by the first day of class. Students will choose between two tracks: Track 1- Spanish Specialization and Bilingualism Theory and Track 2- Collaborative Models and Bilingualism Theory. The primary purpose of the Spanish Specialization track is to allow students who are English-Spanish bilingual speakers to accrue direct clinical hours in Spanish as a requirement for the certificate. In contrast, those students who are not bilingual English-Spanish speakers but are interested in gaining experience in supporting bilingual clients and families will have the opportunity to specialize in Collaborative Models and Bilingualism Theory.
2. Complete six credits of specialized coursework selected from the following
   1. SLH 391C Cultural and Linguistic Diversity - Survey current issues in provision of speech-language pathology services to children from bilingual backgrounds and adapting procedures to meet the needs of culturally and linguistically diverse families.
   2. SLH 391E Bilingualism: typical and disordered communication in adults - Examine the characteristics, assessment, and treatment practices of bilingual adults with acquired cognitive-communication disorders.
3. Complete 50 hours of experience with a bilingual focus. These may be obtained via formal courses (clinical practicums, externships), or clinical research rotations, volunteering or shadowing a qualified bilingual SLP with approval from the certificate directors.
   1. Note that if you are a Spanish-English bilingual speaker, these 50 hours are required in Spanish.
   2. If you are not a Spanish-English bilingual speaker, you will gain 50 hours working with bilingual populations in English via collaborative models with your supervisor, peers, and the individual’s support network.
4. Students enrolled in Track 1- Spanish Specialization and Bilingualism Theory will attend a conversation group once per month during the first three semester of the program. A total of thirteen (13) conversation groups will be scheduled across the first three semester of the program (not including summers). In this structured conversation group, assignments will be assigned prior to the meeting, including, but not limited to, podcasts, research articles, and professional terminology and role-playing scenarios in Spanish. The conversation group is facilitated by Camille A. Wagner Rodríguez, a Bilingual (Spanish-English) Speech Language Pathologist. In order to meet this requirement students must attend minimum of 10/13 scheduled conversation groups.
5. If you are a Spanish-English bilingual speaker, advanced-mid-level proficiency in Spanish is required based on self-report questionnaire and/or interview. If you are not a Spanish-English bilingual speaker, all of the other requirements are required for the bilingual experience. 

Please Note: 

• The Bilingual certificate requires additional 3 credits relative to traditional MS program
• Students in the MSSLHS thesis track who want to complete the Bilingual certificate have to take an additional six credits in order to satisfy the certificate requirements.

Frequently Asked Questions:

Who can apply?

Anyone accepted into the MSSLHS program can elect the Bilingual certificate option. 

Will I provide clinical services in another language?

The level of involvement in provision of services in Spanish is provided at a level that is appropriate to the trainee’s language proficiency.  At this time, we cannot guarantee the availability of clients or supervisors for other language pairs.