Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Each unit we had an exploring culture section where we learned about different topics from various natives.

We learned about the social media influencers in different countries and how certain native people felt about them. We learned to talk about life experiences, stereotypes, customs and traditions. A lot of the traditions discussed revolved around food, I believe food is something that unites us all because everyone eats! Tradition around food is something that nearly everyone can relate to. When we learned about “mate”, we learned the different words to explain who serves it, who engages in consuming mate, and how it is done. Although I don’t have something like this in my family, I know of others who have similar traditions with foods or drinks from their countries or passed down by their families.

We were also given the opportunity to learn with Immerseme which is a VR (virtual reality) learning platform.

Engaging in Communities

This semester we engaged with each other online via discussion board posts and talk abroad assignments. Online classes make it far more difficult to engage in community because there is not the opportunity to go out and physically experience the culture and conversations.

Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication mostly occurred online. We communicated with our classmates, our teacher, and others online. This type of communication can be the hardest because you can’t really plan what to say because it is based on what someone asks you and how they respond. You can prepare with questions, notecards, or studying certain topics, but it can be very difficult for me to come up with things on the fly. I’d like to think I’ve gotten better, but I know I struggled more than others at times. I still have difficulty understanding spoken conversation, and would say it is my greatest weakness.

Presentational Speaking

This semester we did research on poets and recited one of their poems.

It was difficult to get the tone and inflections right, but it was fun to try and say it just as the artist did. My poem was in English, but it was heavily influenced by the artists life and upbringing. The poem was titled “Mami Says Hold Still It Will Be Quick Don’t Cry”.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vwaqgrM11GLtvb4haNm3OzsGGYdzgF0n/view?usp=sharing

Presentational Writing

This semester we did a few presentational writing pieces this semester. Some of which were in the form of discussion boards, writing our own poem, and doing researched based writing.

Interpretive Listening

We participated in lots of interpretive listening, we listened to grammar / vocabulary videos, native speakers talk about culture, their country, watched a video series from an influencer a TED talk about food, and people in their native countries speaking in immerseme.

It is sometimes still very difficult for me to follow the language. With auditory processing disorder when people are speaking it takes me a bit longer than normal to process things and therefore I get tied up on the first few words instead of hearing the entire sentence. Despite this, I can use context clues, and if I can see the person speaking read body language or gestures to fill in the blanks. I understand the best when I can read and listen at the same time. I think despite these struggles, my listening improved a lot this semester and I became much more comfortable with understanding the language. The Immerseme program really helped me with this portion because to was low stakes because it wasn’t a “real” person it was a recording / video piece for me to respond to.

Interpretive Reading

This semester we read short stories, and pieces about tourism, historic events, artists and museums.

My favorite thing was reading and learning about the poems and artists who write them. I researched a couple different artists and read many poems before I settled on one that I related to and wanted to read.