Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Reflection

• Before I took this course, I could hold a very short basic conversation. Stuff like “hello, how are you” and “have a good day.” That was the extent of my Spanish knowledge. After taking this course, I feel confident that I can hold a normal conversation in Spanish. A few friends from work speak Spanish fluently and I was able to have conversations with them with only a few mistakes. This class opened my mind to the different Spanish cultures in the world. I never really thought about how Mexico, Spain, and other Spanish speaking countries have such different cultures. The assignments that helped me the most was all the textbook assignments. Yes, it may have been tedious at times getting the assignments finished, but I feel there is no better way to learn a language than by actually practicing it. Between the textbook assignments, the quizzes, and conversations with others, I feel very confident in my Spanish speaking abilities. All of those practical exercises combined made me more confident in my Spanish. I feel that this class was set up very well. I liked how there were clear due dates and the assignments were not just busy work to me. Personally, I feel like the assignments that were given truly helped make me better and more confident at speaking Spanish. The challenges that I had most with this course was learning all of the vocabulary and the verbs. Quizlet was a great help for me with learning those things. The stress I felt the most during the semester was the textbook giving me issues. I was not able to get the textbook because the course code was not working for me until the beginning of June. I was able to log in and I had to play catchup with the rest of the class. I was able to complete all of the textbook assignments and also learn a lot from them. The activities that the textbook had were very helpful and I feel the assignments where I had to read or respond to a question with a microphone was very helpful. Another obstacle I overcame this semester is being deployed. My unit got to our assignment a few days before the class started and I had to juggle my time with work, school, and family accordingly. While I did not have as much free time as I would like to give myself, I realized the goal I had and set to complete it. In the end, I feel that this class was very helpful and well organized. I was putting off taking Spanish because I was worried about how the class would go, but I am glad I took this class with you Professor. You were very understanding and helpful with any question I had. Thank you for that.

Exploring Culture

My understanding of Mexican, Spanish, and other Spanish speaking countries grew tremendously during this class. One strategy that I learned that helped me find better results was typing in Spanish instead of English for searching. The results that I got were much better for the Spanish results than the English results.

When we had the discussion board about the festivals, I did mine on San Fermín, the running of the bulls. After I research the festival, I learned there was so much more to it than people running with bulls. I never knew the festival was a week long and how much went in to it. I spent so much time after this assignment researching different festivals and different cultures because everything I saw was so interesting. The running of the bulls is just a small part to the festival. This taught me to be more openminded with different cultures and I have made it a goal of mine to continue to learn more about the different cultures of the world.

Engaging in Communities

It is very important to engage your immediate and global community. Engaging your community can help make where you live a better place. Learning another language is a great way to engage other people in our community both local and globally. This is because we may have other people in our communities that do not speak our language. If we take the time to learn their language, then they will feel much more welcome and the community will become much tighter. The same can be said on the flip side, if you moved to a new place and did not speak the language. If your neighbor took the time to learn your language then it would make you feel better and more comfortable in your new community.

Interpersonal Communication

There are three main ways I learned and gained more confidence this semester. The first was with the textbook assignments. Second, was the discussion boards. Finally, and I feel the most helpful, was conversations in Spanish with others.

With the textbook assignments I feel I grew with the culture assignments and all of the little interactive assignments where I am having to work through them and they all build on each other. I feel that I was able to put what I learned to use and that I was able to build on what I was able to learn tremendously. With the discussion boards, I tried to translate other student’s posts to practice with learning Spanish and I feel like I did a great job with that and it helped me grow so much with practicing my Spanish with that technique. The most helpful to me was having conversations with others in Spanish. With my job, I work with a lot of Spanish speaking individuals. They were willing to have conversations with me in Spanish so I could practice and get better. They gave me pointers on how to say different words and when to use different verbs in conversation. One thing I wish I did for this class and I will do next time for Spanish 102 is using more flashcards. I learned so much vocabulary using this technique and I wish I started using this method sooner.

Presentational Speaking

During the semester, I participated in FlipGrid conversations, zoom, conversations, and in person conversations with others who speak the language.

With those conversation assignments I ran into the same issues. The first being that I got nervous when I was completing them so I had to do multiple takes. I would start to over think and make it perfect instead of just trying my best and knowing that this is a basic level Spanish class and that it would be fine if a few words were not pronounced correctly. The second issue I ran into is kind of related to the first, but forgetting the verbs or vocabulary I wanted to use. The third issue I found is the technical issues I ran into during this assignments. I had to find new ways to make sure the recording could be heard on both ends for example. I feel like I excelled at the pronunciation of the words. I spent time practicing pronunciation and I feel like I did a good job with that. Next time, I would spend time making sure I knew the verbs and their conjunction. I found myself stuck on certain words because I wasn’t sure what the conjunction was or what the verb meant.

Presentational Writing

During this class, we did not complete any written papers. The most we did was discussion boards or during the quizzes writing out a paragraph or so as a portion of the quiz.

I feel like from the first exam all the way to the final I showed tremendous improvement with the paragraphs I wrote. I was able to expand my vocabulary with the language and I was able to complete longer sentences without issue. I overcame the difficulties I experienced from studying to make sure I had the vocabulary correct. I feel like that is a reason I excelled with these assignments. With the assignments, I feel like I could have been better at knowing when to use the verbs that mean the same thing, but the context determines when you use what verb.

Interpretive Listening

Some interpretive listening activities I did this semester were apart of the textbook assignments. There were multiple activities where headphones were needed in order to listen to the recording and select the correct answer.

During the semester in addition to the textbook activities, I listed to Spanish TV shows and listened to Spanish music. I feel that listening to the shows and music was very helpful for me learning the language. I found myself trying to translate the different shows and music to learn the language. At first I struggled with trying to keep up with the pace, but then I moved to slower songs and that was the difference for me. Once I did that I feel like I was able to learn so much more after doing that. The most interesting thing for me with this activity was how fast they seemed to speak. I felt like I couldn’t keep up and for a while I couldn’t. It made me think about how I probably speak really fast to someone who is first learning English because I am a native English speaker. I feel like all of the activities played a role in me learning the language and getting more confident in speaking.

Interpretive Reading

One activity that I did this semester was in the textbook. The textbook had me research various topics in Spanish to see the difference in Spanish results and English results. I was able to read a few different Spanish articles throughout the semester on whatever the assignment asked of me that week.

The part that was most challenging for me was trying to translate some of the words that I had not yet learned in the class. I was able to use context clues to figure out what it was saying. My main takeaway from the assignments is that I did not expect to be able to use the context clues to get different vocabulary. I did not expect myself to know as much as I did and I feel like I was able to understand a lot more that I thought I would. What I found most compelling is that I did not know how much went into different Spanish cultures. I knew there was a lot there, but I did not expect to read about that many festivals and other things like that. With each assignment I feel like I was able to pick up different strategies for learning new words while also expanding my vocabulary better than if I were looking at flashcards. I feel like forcing myself to learn these words made me have a better understanding of the words and the language.