Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Products and practice each have helped me gain understanding of culture perspectives. Religious and spiritual practices, medical treatment practices, dietary preferences, and childcare practices are some of the many cultural practices that have expanded my knowledge of practices. As for products, I have gained the knowledge of knowing that they are tangible or intangible creations.

Comparing the different products and practices it reveals that every cultures value and attitude is different. In Hispanic cultures, members turn-taking during social interaction is a helpful practice. It challenged my world view by showing the difference in simple daily living activities like dancing, music, language, and cuisine. Uneducated, lazy, and the mentality that all Hispanic individuals have the same background and race are common misconceptions. Working through these, show me that there can be many Hispanic origins and those titles may only stand true for some but should not apply as a stereotype of Hispanic culture.

Engaging in Communities

The importance of community engagement is necessary to lead more considerable public decisions and improve communities. Having the opinions of the community, it helps public organizations understand the communities’ needs and desires.

I have never had a personal experience in a community setting but, in my community, there has recently been a march for Black Lives Matter. Seeing these clips made me believe that there was a possibility for change around racial injustice and police reform.

Interpersonal Communication

TalkAbroad, audio activities, discussion boards, and the writing activities have all been useful toward learning Spanish. I really enjoyed doing the discussion boards because I could be creative and explore the many differences of Hispanic culture to Americans’. TalkAbroad was new for me but I found it enjoyable because I was able to hold a Spanish conversation apart from the textbook. Lastly, the audio activities were helpful for learning pronunciations.

TalkAbroad was a new communication activity so preparing for this conversation was tense and difficult. I overcame this difficulty by writing the questions and answers in different colors, and took turns reading it. Being that I was extremely anxious for my first TalkAbroad, the next time I knew to take the proper preparation time. While completing the first discussion board post I found more worry towards the work than difficulty. I was worried about missing information that should considered included. Discussion boards have excelled my vocabulary, spelling, and sentence structure.

Presentational Speaking

Much of our class time dealt with presentation of speaking activities. We would review the homework which consisted of dealing with grammar, spelling, sentence replacement, tenses, and pronunciation. I do not own a recording of these speaking activities as they were done and class and projected through my participation grade.

Many times, I found myself feeling nervous and shy before presenting. After I completed it, I found myself growing more confident my ever go. I excelled at presenting present participles, because I was excited to begin using the -ing form in English for Spanish.

Presentational Writing

This semester I completed a Brochure for a trip to the Hard Rock Hotel in Cancun. Through completing this activity, I explored Mexico and picked a place for relaxation and fun. In Spanish, I described its location, details of the rooms, and a price. I also included places that guest can visit, restaurants to make reservations at, and all there is to do that makes Cancun the perfect place to be! 

I excelled in this activity because I loved when the professor assigned work that required a little research but a lot more creativity; although sometimes I found it difficult to be creative and speak in Spanish. I would find myself wanting to use words that I may not had known or learned yet. To overcome this difficulty most times, I referred to the book or would ask the question to a classmate or professor. 

Interpretive Listening

In the homework there where many interpretive listening activities. They consisted of picking the correct answer, true or false, and fill in the blank. Listening activities related to my Spanish learning because it is mandatory to be listening, in order to select the correct form, verb, or tense.

I have heard many different topics during the listening activities. Sometimes they were conversations between two individuals, one person telling a story, or an individual just speaking in general conversation. These could be challenging when beginning a new chapter but easy to overcome as everything was referenced in the textbook. With each experience I have grown my knowledge with new grammar, stem-changing verbs, and the other components included in the chapter. 

Interpretive Reading

Recently I completed an interpretive communication activity. In the activity it discussed fruits and vegetables in America because the chapters topic was food.

What I found most interesting is when a tomato was first seen they thought it was poisonous and now it is used in a most popular dish and sauce: pizza and ketchup. I also thought it was interesting that the drank the cocoa powder with water and chili. I have grown from this reading because it has taught me about many of the fruits and vegetables that I love to eat today and how they originate from this “New World”.

Personal Reflection

Throughout the semester I have learned a a great deal of Spanish vocabulary, developed the understanding of grammar concepts, and through many textbook activities, speech acts, written assignments, I understand the diversity of Spanish-speaking culture.