Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

The textbook, Aventuras, Fifth Edition, offered a lot of insight on the Hispanic culture. In the first chapter of the text, we were shown how Spanish-speaking countries greeted each other. Throughout the course, we were also assigned to watch videos of certain events and encounters to further deepen our knowledge.

We were shown that it is fairly common to exchange kisses on the cheek when greeting friends and family.

These products and practices helped me understand the values and attributes of the Hispanic culture fairly well. Hispanic culture is one where family and friends are deeply cherished. The way they greet each other is much more intimate than what we see in western cultures. During class discussions, it was revealed to me that not everyone felt comfortable with the idea of exchanging kisses as a way to greet each other. I took this as an opportunity to understand others and their confusion on this issue. While I grew up in a household were such behavior was commonplace, I quickly realized that not everyone is so accepting and that different people have different boundaries.

Engaging in Communities

Community is what brings us together. Without community, we wouldn’t have formed cultures, languages, and traditions. People come together to build and form these communities in order to build an identity. Once an identity is found, people feel complete and fulfilled in life. I find that it’s important to have community because none of what we have now would be in place. There would be no schools, no clubs, no sports, no anything!

Interpersonal Communication

During this semester, we completed a few interviews. A couple of interviews directed us to speak with a partner. Our instructor assigned everyone a partner and this allowed us to interact with each other in a timely manner. Once we had our partners, we got in touch with each other and were able to plan a time to meet digitally and perform a Q&A in Spanish. It was a great opportunity to practice Spanish! Being that the class is 100% online, it also made it possible for us to interact with other students which I believe is important when trying to build a sense of community.

Throughout the course we had an abundance of interpersonal communication implemented. Other than the interviews, we also had discussion boards were the main focus was Hispanic culture. One module went over greetings (as mention earlier). Another module went over families. There was also another module where we had to discuss the sport of fútbol and how it’s a big part of the Spanish culture. Each assignment allowed me to learn more about the Hispanic culture. But it wasn’t just that. Through the discussions, I learned that people live very different lives and have very different cultures. I was fascinated by the different livelihoods that each person experienced. I wish I took more time to interact with my classmates to learn more about their backgrounds.

Presentational Speaking

During the semester, we had a few oral quizzes we needed to complete. Some required reading off a list a words, while others required answering questions in Spanish. Click the button below to listen to an audio recording of me answering questions in Spanish.

Some of the presentations I had to complete posed a challenge to me. On my first presentation, I had trouble pronouncing some words. Sometimes I would stumble on my words and forget how to conjugate properly when I’m in the middle of speaking. I excelled in learning the material rather quickly. Once I saw a word that I had trouble with, I would practice pronouncing that word over and over again. I would even record myself and compare it in order to determine if my pronunciation was getting better or not. Next time, I believe I’ll reach out to a native speaker so I can have real-time feedback on my Spanish.

Presentational Writing

When it came to presentational writing, there were plenty of opportunities offered in this course. Through VHL Central, we had a lot of practice when it came to writing. Some of the discussions we had even required us to answer questions in Spanish!

Many of the assignments in VHL focused on conjugation and spelling of words. As I progressed through the course, conjugation became easier with the majority of verbs. However, the course became a bit more difficult when irregular verbs were introduced. Spelling some words was also a challenge. In order to overcome these difficulties, I would refer to the textbook and practice using VHL. In the future, I think that doing drills, such as writing words over and over again, and using flashcards will help with the learning of different conjugations and spellings.

Interpretive Listening

Along with the all the writing practice offered in VHL, there was also an abundance of listening practice included. Many times this involved listening to descriptions in Spanish and answering questions based on what we heard. These types of questions were also included in our quizzes and exams.

When it came to the different things we listened to this semester, there was a huge variety. Some exercises in VHL required that we listen to a voice reciting a math problem and we would have to answer the question. Other questions involved looking at images and listening to audio at the same time to find an answer. One of the things I found challenging about interpretive listening is the speed at which the person speaks. Sometimes, I felt as if they were speaking too fast and I found myself having to replay audio in order to capture what they were saying. The most compelling part of interpretive listening was all the different accents I came across. It’s similar to America, in that where you’re from can determine the way you speak. Being able to listen and interpret what people say in Spanish is not the easy by any means. Having to identify the spoken word to the written word can deem itself to be difficult due to the fact that the pronunciation of some words don’t necessarily match the spelling. With constant exposure and repetition, I found myself growing with each activity. The more I listened to Spanish, the more I felt comfortable understanding it.

Interpretive Reading

In the textbook, there are many articles that we had to refer to. We had assignments that would draw upon these articles and we would have to interpret what these articles had to say.

I found some of the interpretive reading assignments to be rather challenging. Luckily, some practice questions would translate certain words, but that wasn’t always the case. Many of the interpretive reading assignments included words that were not covered in the textbook’s vocabulary. Interestingly enough, many Spanish words appear very similar to their English counterparts! This made deducing the meaning of some words rather easy. On the flip side, I’d look at a word and have no idea what it means. Once I found out how to pronounce a word and it’s definition, it would make the reading much clearer and easier to understand. The more I read in Spanish, the faster I was able to digest the material. Being able to digest the material faster is just a sign that I’ve grasped the basics. Having the basics down makes learning the harder stuff a lot easier!