Fall 2026

Introduction to the Romance Languages

An introduction to the structural similarities, differences, and historical developments of French, Italian, Portuguese, and Spanish.

no offering record for this termCredits unavailable
Recorded instructors · Fall 2026 No instructors listed

Summary

1 / 5

Historical reviews of Fernando Tejedo-Herrero, Thomas Cravens: Exams are described as reasonable by one reviewer, but others find them unpredictable or based on unclear criteria. One review notes that texts are unnecessary, while another reports unclear questions.

Grade history

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average GPA
letter grades
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All recorded terms · compare terms & instructors

Prerequisites

Course map

SPANISH 226,FRENCH 228,ITALIAN 311, or PORTUG 226

FRENCH/ITALIAN/PORTUG/SPANISH 429 used by

“Used by” includes alternatives; linked courses may have other requirements. This is a best-effort interpretation; check the catalog requirements above.

Prerequisite text tree

Professors

Fall 2026

No instructors recorded for this selection.

Historical instructors & teaching patterns

Historical reviews for Thomas Cravens show a divide between students who found him approachable and inspiring, and those who criticized his disorganized lectures and unpredictable exams. Some reviewers noted his deep linguistic knowledge, while others found his instruction arbitrary and difficult to follow.

FERNANDO TEJEDO-HERRERO is recorded teaching in Spring 2018, Spring 2019, Spring 2020, Spring 2023. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

THOMAS CRAVENS is recorded teaching in Spring 2007, Spring 2008, Spring 2009, Spring 2010, Spring 2011, Spring 2012, Fall 2012, Spring 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2016. Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Recorded history may be incomplete and does not establish a future schedule.

Calendar & sections

Fall 2026

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SectionModeEnrolled / capacityWaitlist

Times are Central. Select a meeting for details; export includes recorded dates for the selected sections.

Meeting source records

No records available.

Student experience

the class

Reviews for historical instructors Thomas Cravens and Fernando Tejedo-Herrero are polarized. Cravens is described as either inspiring or disorganized, while Tejedo-Herrero is praised for enthusiasm or criticized for unclear grading.

Recent recorded grades — Spring 2019: 3.70 GPA, 73.2% A/AB (n=41 letter grades); Spring 2020: 3.40 GPA, 59.6% A/AB (n=47 letter grades); Spring 2023: 3.60 GPA, 74.3% A/AB (n=35 letter grades).

difficulty & workload

Historical reviews of Fernando Tejedo-Herrero, Thomas Cravens: Exams are described as reasonable by one reviewer, but others find them unpredictable or based on unclear criteria. One review notes that texts are unnecessary, while another reports unclear questions.

Historical reviews of Fernando Tejedo-Herrero, Thomas Cravens: Students report mixed experiences with lecture clarity and organization. Cravens is called approachable yet arbitrary, while Tejedo-Herrero is seen as enthusiastic but potentially frustrating due to grading issues.

Topics

  • Phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon.
  • Structural similarities and differences in Romance languages.
  • Historical developments of Romance languages.

Skills

  • Identifying structural similarities and differences among Romance languages.
  • Analyzing basic linguistic features including phonology, morphology, syntax, and lexicon.
  • Understanding the historical developments of Romance languages.

Grades

Latest available · Spring 2023— not enough history to project Fall 2026.

average GPA
A / AB grades
letter grades
Instructor

Grade distribution · % of letter grades

A
AB
B
BC
C
D
F

Grades over time

Through Spring 2023

More grade details Grade mix, volume & source data

Where this course fits relative to

Latest available grades · Spring 2023 · all course levels

GPA

Higher than % of other courses in this group.

Course GPAs · red marks this course’s range

letter grades

More recorded grades than % of other courses in this group.

Typical course in this group: letter grades.

About this comparison

1188 courses over the same term, each with at least 30 recorded letter grades. Cross-listed courses count once. GPA is not a measure of difficulty or teaching quality. The typical course is the median by recorded grade count; tied values are not counted as lower. Grade counts describe course scale, not unique students or typical section size.

Descriptions compare GPA with this group’s average: at least 0.20 higher or lower; otherwise close to average. Section size uses median recorded enrollment: small up to 30, mid-sized 31–99, large 100+. Lectures and discussion/lab sections are described separately.

Sources & history

UW–Madison

Catalog & offerings

Descriptions, prerequisites, and recorded course offerings.

Catalog observation history

Observations at scan time; dates do not imply when a catalog change took effect.

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Selected offering source records

No offering records for the selected term.

Raw records 
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Student reviews

Original comments behind the course and instructor summaries.

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Madgrades

Grade history

Recorded grade distributions by term, section, and instructor.

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Dataset & model

Recorded 2026-09-07

View the dataset on Hugging Face
Model outputs & technical records
nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4
LLM outputs across runs
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Full model traces

Recorded model configuration, reasoning, and tool conversations.

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Model & dataset provenance 
{
  "model": "nvidia/Qwen3.6-35B-A3B-NVFP4",
  "model_revision": "1355db6a052410cfd62085d94b58866fd0f2c3c5",
  "task_version": "14",
  "output_id": "54b85ab11273384d800009bcfff587aaeee3e263d9b25544cbfe0eac0d64aa83",
  "requirements_status": "valid",
  "dataset_revision": "e243353dcb7d79b7247ced91d69443ef4c2a6349",
  "observed_at": "2026-09-07 15:55:43.033547+00:00"
}