Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Using the LingroHub textbook helped me explore culture outside of the United States, it allowed me to understand how different spanish speaking countries conduct their practices as well as their beliefs. One thing I learned through this is that same sex marriage is not allowed in many spanish speaking countries, while it is allowed in others as well as the United States. With this information and researching it, it has allowed me to explore the spanish culture on a deeper level than before.

Using the LingroHub textbook, it gives many descriptions on different ways the spanish conduct themselves. I learned that while in the United States we eat three meals a day, in many spanish speaking countries they eat up to four meals a day. They have two dinners, and the last dinner is eaten rather late. This was hard for me to understand because in the United States we eat breakfast, lunch, and dinner and normally dinner is eaten around 5:30 PM in the United States, while in spanish speaking countries they typically eat dinner at 9 PM.

Engaging in Communities

It is so vital to engage in the community around you not only for personal gain but to also better understand the world around you. With engaging in the community around you, you learn about traditions as well as common practices that you might not gave known about previously and it adds to your knowledge of the area around you. Engaging in your community also diversifies your understand of different cultures and practices that people bring from outside of your country.

Engaging within my community has allowed me to not only understand different things than what I am used to, but it has also brought new friendships. When I am engaged within the community I am focused on the now and not worried about capturing a moment with my phone but rather locking it in as a core memory that I will forever remember. However, I have a picture of my friend (left) and myself (right) taking a picture in front of an event sign that we were apart of raising awareness for illiteracy not only in our community, but also also globally.

Interpersonal Communication

The TalkAbroad that was used during the semester allowed students, as well as myself, talk to individuals from spanish speaking countries. With the discussion boards there were many times that we would watch videos that were in spanish and we as the students would have to understand what is being said in order to create a well thought out reply to the discussion board question.

Using the TalkAbroad feature this semester, it has helped me become more confident and comfortable when speaking spanish. Not only has the TalkAbroad helped me with this, but also the frequent conversations with the professor has made my weakness of the language become one of my strengths. With each conversation I feel I became stronger and stronger in speaking and understanding what was asked with few questions of repeating.

Presentational Speaking

Throughout the semester I have completed multiple presentational speaking videos. While I struggled in the beginning with it, as I practiced more and more I became more used to it. Each time I participated in presentational speaking it offered more knowledge and understanding of the language.

The thing that challenged me most with my presentational speaking, specifically in spanish is when I completed the specific video attached below, I did it via memory. I enjoyed the presentational speaking, it allowed me to become more confident as well as fluent in speaking spanish.

Presentational Writing

In the semester I created a pamphlet on the importance of mental and physical health. I completed this in spanish and it is attached below. It stresses the importance of taking care of yourself and the risk that it could involve if one were to not care for themselves in the proper way.

With the assignment attached below it really helped me with the grammar of the spanish language. Grammar in spanish can be very different than that of the grammar in english, so it takes practice to become good at it. It was easy to create the pamphlet while writing in proper grammar is what gave me the most trouble. I overcame this simply by practicing grammar through homework and through quizzes that were given to us throughout the semester.

Interpretive Listening

Throughout the duration of the semester for this course, I have shown great improvement. I began the semester struggling to really understand and comprehend the language. My biggest struggle was being able to listen to something in spanish and translate it to be able to answer a question or match the correct response. I made a point to set extra time aside each day to study, speak, and listen to the language more and more to help me grasp a better understanding of it.

One way I did this was through music. Music has always helped me learn so, I would find a song that was in spanish and that had a faster tempo to it and I would listen to it on repeat while looking at the lyrics once in spanish, the next time in english and would continue with that until I felt I understood the song without the lyrics. By doing this it allowed my brain to comprehend the fast pace speaking and translate it well enough to show a better understanding of the language.

Interpretive Reading

In the semester I did a great amount of reading in spanish, It helped me understand not only vocabulary, but as well as the importance of grammar and how to use it. In the artifact attached below it is an example of one of the many things that I read throughout the duration of the semester. I read things like this to understand how to do an assignment or simply just to practice that language.

Sometimes, it was challenging to understand what was being asked, as I do not know all words in spanish so at times it was difficult for me to complete certain activities when I could not fully understand it. I would simply email my professor if I had any questions and she would lead me in the right direction, or explain it in simpler spanish. I found it interesting that as the semester went on, and i continued to read things only in spanish it helped not only in my comprehension, but also in my speaking, writing, and listening capabilities for the language.