Exploring Culture
Throughout the semester in our Spanish course, we have explored many different Spanish countries and have explored the different cultures they all have. We have done many assignments in pairs throughout lectures where we would have to look up details for the different countries that were assigned to our group and share our answers with the rest of the class. There have been other times where we as a whole would read out statements, writing compositions, phrases, vocabulary words, etc. Sometimes we watch videos in class that have to deal with other countries and their culture, for example, we watched a video where it was about the housing and residential life for universities in Mexico and had to do an assignment about that video along with compare and contrast to American Universities. I have learned a lot of new thigs that I had no idea it was a thing and whatnot before taking this Spanish course.
Engaging in Communities
Throughout the semester for this Spanish Course, we have had opportunities to engage in the community with several different examples that we have done. First off, we have many class activities where we communicate with each other in the Spanish language and have also done a few video projects where we would have conversations with our partner either via zoom or in person where we record our conversations and send it in for a grade. Another example I can use is another video project that we had to go to different places throughout our campus here at Old Dominion and record ourselves in public why the places we chose was our favorite place to be and why. Getting out to different social environments on campus and having to speak Spanish to a lens in public was a different experience than what I have learning Spanish. I have engaged with my peers pretty easily and this course has brought me out of my shell in trying to better myself as a Spanish speaker.
Presentational Reading
Throughout our Spanish course, we have been using LingroHub as our virtual textbook where we do assignments that are assigned through the semester. We can have assignments that are ‘Gramatica’ that have little readings that are fill in the blank. It is helpful to kind of get the hang of how sentences are written and being able to understand what the compositions that are given through the assignments. We also do read-along as a class in lecture when our professor would get the class involved by having students read sentences at a time. It helps us communicate our words verbally among peers, but also gives us the opportunity to learn Spanish by having our professor go step by step with us on what it says and how to correctly read and understand. The thing I have to work on most to become a better person at understanding Spanish text and readings is to be able to know what it says and what they mean. Once I can learn the language and its vocabulary, the better off I will be by being able to put it all together.
Presentational Writing
Throughout the Spanish course, we have had plenty of writing compositions and assignments where we would have to practice what we learned on pen and paper. I would have presented my writing composition as a visual example, but I don’t happen to have it anymore so I used a worksheet that we had done earlier in the semester to provide an example. In the course, we have done two test that have solely been about writing a paragraph down on pen and paper that were about me and the things we like to do around campus. I could get better at understanding the language, although it is somewhat easy to learn, there are phrases that I can get stumped on and with more practice and time put into learning the language, the better off I can get. I thought the second writing composition was more difficult to write than the first because it required more in depth writing to the topic we had to write about.
Interpretive Listening
Throughout the Spanish course, we have had to use Lingro Hub to help us learn the Spanish language and do our homework to go over in class. There are plenty of assignments that are on the virtual textbook that we have the opportunity to listen to the audio and interpret what they are saying and learn how it is pronounced. We have also listened to videos in class when Spanish speakers are talking on screen and our professor translating some things for us and being helpful while we try to learn. There are instances where we listen to the audio message and have to respond back by recoding our own verbal messages in Spanish and submit that as assignments. There were times where some audio massages that I listened to were stuff I had no clue about, but going and looking it up what they say and try to interpret a response could be difficult if you don’t know what to say.