Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication
Exploring Culture
2-Exploración cultural | LingroHub (lingrolearning.com)
There were different ways that these sections in the lesson helped me better understand values and attitudes in the Hispanic culture. In unit 2 when I learned about the formal and informal ways to address people, it gave me an understanding of the dynamics people different types of people in Hispanic cultures. People address others that are older than them and/or are superior to them in a formal way. On the flip side, friends address each other in an informal way. In unit 2 culture exploration, I did an assignment where I had to way which situations I would use “tú” and “usted”. Tú is used informally when talking to friends and family. “Usted” is used in formal situations such as a conversation between a college professor and a teacher. At first, I had a hard time with this concept because I would mix up “tú” and “usted” but I overcame this weakness by telling myself “usted” is giving more respect (hence the longer word) to someone in a formal situation, and the word is longer than “tú”. With additional practice, I felt more comfortable with memorizing the differences between each and gained confidence in my skills.
3-Exploración cultural | LingroHub (lingrolearning.com)
In unit 3 where I learned about the siesta, or where people practice a midday nap during the workday, it opened my eyes to how this is much different than in the United States. I also learned how some customs change over time, such as how many Hispanic cultures do not practice the midday as often as they used to. Just like American cultures, some cultures change over time. It was a bit challenging to learn this concept because it is much different than America. I overcame this difficulty by allowing myself to be more open-minded and accepting of cultural differences compared to mine. This then further allowed me to be more open to differences in the Spanish culture compared to my culture and helped me learn more quickly.
Engaging in Communities
There is much value and importance in engaging in my immediate community and the global community. My immediate community helps me learn about the people around me and how diverse the area is. The global community helps broaden your horizons and learn new cultures. It connects people of different backgrounds and brings them together to share their own traditions.
My experience with my immediate community is awesome. I live where there are a variety of different people. I have young friends, old friends, and friends my age who all come from different backgrounds. I like to try new experiences to widen my understanding and experiences with those around me. The global community I have to do more work on. I have traveled to Mexico to practice my Spanish skills and fully be emerged in the Spanish culture. Mexico was a lot of fun and there were a lot of great people. I did have some challenges though when it came to speaking. I could understand others more than being able to come up with complete sentences to speak back to them. It was also a bit challenging knowing where the good places were to learn about and explore, versus traveling to parts that were not the safest for tourists. I also have traveled to France to learn more about the French culture and language. I excelled at learning about the culture because many people there knew English, so if I had any questions they could educate me. I did not excel in refreshing my French speaking and understanding because so many people would know I was a tourist and automatically speak in English to me.
Interpersonal Communication
Throughout this course, I have completed writing assignments, reading assignments, discussion board assignments, and oral video assignments that have helped improve my interpersonal communication growth in Spanish. With the discussion board posts and oral assignments, I could engage in conversations with my peers in Spanish.
I did have some challenges when it came to the oral video assignments. I struggled with pronunciation and creating complete sentences. I overcame this challenge by continuing to practice every day so that I would become more confident in myself. Over time I would have less anxiety about the activities because I built my confidence up. I excelled at writing assignments because I felt they were much easier for me since there wasn’t the stress of someone watching me mess up and pronounce something incorrectly.
Presentational Speaking
There have been a handful of presentation-speaking activities that I have completed this semester for Spanish. Attached is an example of one of the speaking activities I have completed for class. In this speaking activity, I am discussing who my favorite person is in my life and why. Please see the below link.
Flip | 5fd0b451 (flipgrid.com) – In this attached Flipgrid I discussed basic information about myself. I discussed what my name is, how I was doing, what my age is, where I am from, how many classes I have and what they are, as well as what my degree is in. This was a great assignment to overcome the challenge of pronunciation of Spanish words. I excelled at being able to speak full sentences in Spanish.
Flip | 3e812e0c (flipgrid.com) – In this attached Flipgrid I discussed information about my semester in Spanish and the events that I have to do during the week. This speaking presentation challenged me to memorize the new vocabulary words that I learned and to practice speaking the vocab words correctly. Something I would have done differently is practice the pronunciation before posting my video so that the sentences would flow more smoothly.
Flip | 2cc7541e (flipgrid.com)– In this attached Flipgrid I discussed who a favorite person is in my life and why. I excelled at being able to combine vocab from the begging of class to the end of the class. One thing I would have done differently is adding more information about my favorite person to show off more of the vocab I have learned.
Presentational Writing
Throughout this course, I have participated in many different presentational writing activities. Most of these activities happened during the discussion boards. This is where I would write a discussion board and then respond to my classmate’s discussion boards in writing.
Topic: DB 5: Mi persona favorita (odu.edu)
One presentational writing assignment I completed was when I wrote about a person in my life that I admire. In this, I wrote about someone special to me why. It was challenging to do this because I really had to remember all the different Spanish vocab I learned throughout the course. It was also challenging because I had to use the vocab and put them in grammatically correct sentences the best I could. I overcame these challenges by taking it one sentence at a time and not rushing through the work. It seems overwhelming when you do not break the assignment down into small parts. I was able to overcome my anxiety about the written assignment by doing this. I could have added more Spanish writing in my presentation but I was on a time crunch to get schoolwork done. Next time I should prepare more so that I can spend more time on the assignment.
Interpretive Reading
There have been many interpretive reading activities that I have done throughout the class. A lot of times when it comes to the cultural exploration section, there is a paragraph of reading to complete that is all in Spanish.
In this interpretive reading activity, I learned about the different characteristics people look up to. This activity was challenging for me because there were lots of words I did not recognize right away. I overcame this challenge by picking out the words I was confident I knew, then filling in the sentences to what sounded correct. I also would look back at my vocabulary from the units so that I could make sure I was interpreting the reading correctly.
1-Exploración cultural | LingroHub (lingrolearning.com)
In this interpretive reading activity, I learned about the importance of social media in the Spanish community and what social media platforms are favored by certain regions. This activity was challenging because there were words that I did not recognize right away. I again used my strategy of picking out the words I was confident I knew and then pieced together the rest of the sentences after that to overcome this challenge. Moving forward, I could have improved on spending more time trying to figure out the words before referring to my vocab from previous sections. This would help my confidence in my Spanish reading skills.