Exploring Culture

Each unit of Lingrolearning included a cultural section that provided explanations and details regarding how life is similar and different from the culture in Spanish speaking countries to the United States. Throughout the course, using the module gave insight into a range of concepts from family, education, careers, and holidays. The importance of these various topics are weighed and recognized differently in other countries than in the US. For a brief example, many countries, including the US, recognize Christmas as a religious holiday and also as a time for family to be together. Other topics, such as career, show that Spanish speaking countries are still fighting for gender equality in the workforce, similar to the US, but not as fully realized. Working through the cultural sections of Lingrolearning displays an understanding that language is sometimes the only barrier between life in other countries.

Interpersonal Communication

I think that one of the hardest parts concerning learning a new language is building the confidence to practice speaking with others, especially those that are fluent in the language. TalkAbroad was an excellent tool to help students, like myself, get out of our comfort zone and practice speaking Spanish to a complete stranger. Seeing the subtle differences between what we learned and people using the language more casually brought a good deal of insight to me as someone looking to learn. Learning new vocabulary and grammar this semester made me feel more prepared for the TalkAbroad conversations than I initially thought I was ready for. The difficulty came with not having a full understanding of a wider Spanish vocabulary, but having a newer level of comprehension, as well as a new level of skill with being able to translate helped shape a better experience with the language.

Presentational Speaking

Throughout the semester, the class had to participate in the conversar section of each Lingrolearning unit. Each one of these exercises involved speaking and writing to each other in Spanish to answer questions revolved around the subject material for the specific unit. These assignments gave each of us the opportunity to practice and learn from mistakes, while working with someone we view as a peer, who is also learning. I feel as though I excelled with my pronunciations, but my spelling needs the most work. I would like to spend more time practicing verb conjugations, as I still find myself struggling with that the most. 

Presentational Writing

During the semester we worked on a handful of writing assignments, such as a health pamphlet and a sports team flyer. With each assignment we were able to use the vocabulary learned from the current unit, as well as previous units in order to showcase our growth. In doing these assignments I began to realize how comfortable I’ve become with the language, although there’s still much room for improvement. Finding the words to explain myself and create descriptions became much easier, especially with being able to make a point without excessive repetition since my on-hand vocabulary has grown so much. Even though I’ve made a lot of progress, I still find difficulty trying to fully explain myself in detail because of my limited experience with Spanish and difficulty with many verb conjugations.

Interpretive Listening

In Spanish 102 our typical lecture and Lingrolearning assignments gave us opportunities to listen to Spanish. Many of our assignments included listening portions to gauge our understanding of the sounds of the Spanish alphabet, and to test our ability to recognize words and their spelling. I have had a few chances to listen to Spanish speaking through different platforms besides learning purposes. I have family members who mainly communicate in Spanish that I practice with to gain more experience. I also watch shows and movies in Spanish to familiarize myself with a more common practice of the language in order to hear and understand how different words are pronounced, and expand my diction. Listening to another language can be extremely difficult, as the unfamiliarity can make words sound incomprehensible, but the more time spent building experience, the easier it is to understand each individual word and sentence.

Interpretive Reading

Throughout Spanish this semester we didn’t have much text to read other than our learning material, which included assignment instructions and plenty of cultural learning. The cultural reading gave a lot of insight into the lives of many different Spanish speakers and the countries they live in. There was a wide range of information available to us to learn about social media, social status, gender roles, and familial importance and how each differs from the social norm here in the United States. The most challenging part about reading was not knowing the translation to each word, the trick we learned to overcome that issue was to translate what we DO understand then build around the context. Each piece of reading was interesting, mainly from the perspective that the individual lives in each country we read about are very similar and relatable to life here.