Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Exploring the Hispanic culture has shown me that while there are some differences, it has also shown me many similarities. Reading about the different culture subtypes in the text helped me to understand as well as having discussions with my classmates via discussion boards. Due to COVID, we couldn’t fully immerse ourselves in the language with classmates, but I still learned. Every country has its customary greetings and practices. While the greetings in Spanish speaking countries may not be widely accepted here in the United States, it could be quickly learned. Sports are very similar in the two countries. We all take our sports very seriously.

I would not say that I had any stereotypes that I held on to when beginning this class, I am very open minded and excited to learn about new cultures and the way people live it is very exciting and rewarding to me to get to know people who are different.

Engaging in Communities

It is extremely important to engage in the community of the language you are learning. This helps you to learn the language quicker, understand why people do things the way that they do, and help you learn to appreciate their culture as it differs from your own. The Hispanic community locally is just important as it is globally, but unfortunately due to COVID restricting in-person activities and travel I was not able to participate in community activities at all. I do wish that we could have experienced more of the Hispanic culture this semester in person. Reading about culture is great, but you don’t get to fully understand or appreciate the differences until you can experience it. I am hopeful that in the near future I will get to immerse myself more in the community and the culture.

Interpersonal Communication

Most communication this semester was two-way communication in the form of writing discussion boards to classmates, zoom interviews with our instructor. There were times when we had oral quizzes that were one-way recordings.

I would say all communication this semester was planned. Because we had a virtual semester, the opportunity for spontaneous communication was slim. Zoom conversations/interviews and others face to face virtual interaction proved to be difficult for me. With the challenges of unstable internet and listening to a new language, and responding without much prior listening practice, it was difficult. Throughout the semester, I improved my listening and responding skills, but I prefer written communication because I can understand it a bit better.

With written communication among classmates, discussion boards via blackboard are our means of talking with one another. Although this is the communication I prefer as far as understanding, I do not feel as though I grow as much because you are less likely to have multiple back and forth responses leaving less room for growth in our talking skills. Had we been in an in-person classroom setting, I believe these conversations among students would’ve benefitted us greatly.

Presentational Speaking

For presentational speaking this semester, we recorded ourselves speaking Spanish. This was one-way communication where we answered sets of questions. Another form of presentational speaking was participating in interview style scheduled conversations, this was a two-way conversation.

When answering the questions in a one-way communication setting I believe I did better because I knew what was coming and what was being asked. With the two-way conversation, I couldn’t prepare, and sometimes I didn’t understand the questions being asked. There was a lot of asking someone to repeat themselves. I think I got better at understanding and responding as the semester went on.

Interpretive Listening

For interpretive listening, we had songs we would listen to or video presentations given by our professor. For some exam questions, we also had to listen to radio commercials or other audio recordings.

Listening is the hardest concept for me to grasp. I have to listen multiple times to understand, and even then, I only grasp certain concepts. I struggle to keep up with the fast pace of native and/or fluent speakers. One of my biggest takeaways is that I need to practice listening and understanding. It isn’t easy to pick up on when you do not interact with the language outside of class, and the class was online, leaving even less interaction. I did, however, enjoy listening to music. I really enjoy all types of music and enjoyed getting to experience a different culture.

Here is a link to one of my favorite songs we heard this semester. https://youtu.be/THBP1tq49wk

Interpretive Reading

The interpretive reading we did in class mostly came from our textbook, Adventuras. The culture sections or written sections of homework for answering questions.

I wish we had more reading in Spanish other than the homework. Reading really helped me to learn the context of other words and how to properly use the grammar rules. When I would come across a word I did not know or understand I would look it up in the spanish dictionary or in the textbook to help me interpret the passage. I think I was able to understand the readings fairly well and it helped me feel like I understood the language better when I could read passages correctly without having to look up a word in the dictionary or textbook.