SPAN 101

Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Address the reflection exercises in each of the following sections. For each section, you will need to embed portions of these assignments and activities as artifacts to substantiate your reflection. Then, at the end of each section, include a link to the document or embed it as a PDF. 

Tutorials are available:

Exploring Culture

I have learned that American and Spanish speaking universities have some differences but also some similarities to each other. For example I learned about the difference between the universities websites and how they are set up. The University of Sao Paulo gives a summary of the college like where it is, when it was founded, and pictures of the University. Compared to ODU website the pictures look to be taken from a far distance on Sao Paulo’s website as ODU website pictures look to bet taken up close with students in the background. A similarity between the two websites would be having a lot of the same tabs on the top of the website such as “Home” and “About”. I also learned that in some Spanish speaking countries most students at universities don’t live on campus or have a roommate, they live off campus. I just assumed that like me as a student in the U.S., that underclassman full-time students such as freshman and sophomores would have to live on campus as a requirement. It is better to not assume and do research before coming to a conclusion.

Engaging in Communities

It is very important to be involved in your immediate community. Building relationships that can last a lifetime is very valuable in the world with knowing people. In College there is a lot of places you can go and be a part of an community such as dorms, activity centers, and places to study to get good grades. For example being able to go to class and then come back to my dorm and do homework and study in the lobby or private study rooms is great. Instead of going to library I can study close to my room instead of being out all the time.

Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication situations have been a constant throughout every unit we had and semester. From the three interviews we had with you professor and participation with group discussions. Every now and then we played games where you rolled the dice and it would pick up a word and we would have to pick a word and then the form of which ever one you chose.

The one I remember the most and had the hardest time with was reading paragraphs in Spanish and sounding the words out. We had lots of times where we would be reading about a Spanish speaking person and they had a paragraph they wrote in Spanish. You would call on people to read them and the rest of class would have to translate in English. Translating it in English wasn’t as hard as reading the paragraph in Spanish for me personally. Something I did to get better at reading in Spanish was read the paragraphs as homework and when I had to do listening activities practice as much as I can to speak in Spanish. I’m getting better at but I have to keep practicing to be fluent with it.

Presentational Speaking

Presentational speaking activities I completed this semester would be the interview with an Spanish speaking person, the interview on units 3,4,and 5 about my schedule, the university, and who I admire.

I think for the last interview I did the area I was confused about the most was when the professor asked questions, I didn’t understand all the questions. When I answered the questions I wasn’t confused about I think I did good with enough detail and verbs I could use as much as possible. To get better I must get used to fast speaking and comprehend the questions better. With the interview of the Spanish speaking person I think I did pretty good. https://hub.lingrolearning.com/#/61a4afa52e19aed8f6287cbe/6053b1309a99c1c88b357230/6053b1189a99c1c88b356843/

With almost all the questions I asked, I asked them in the correct way with full sentences. The difficult part was understanding everything she was saying and how fast she was talking but I understood for the most part. To get better I could practice with fellow classmates by asking them questions in Spanish and them asking me questions in Spanish.

Presentational Writing

One example of presentational writing I wrote this semester would be coming up with my schedule and having to talk about it an interview. For my schedule I had to write when all my classes were and what time I had them, plus what day those classes were scheduled. The interview was a little bit challenging with anticipating what the professor was gonna say especially if I didn’t understand them. https://hub.lingrolearning.com/#/61a4afa52e19aed8f6287cbe/6053b1309a99c1c88b35722c/6053b1169a99c1c88b356746

The link I shared is my schedule I conducted that I follow almost every week with of course something coming up and me doing something else but for the most part I did this every week. I learned the days of the week and more importantly how time is similar but also different in Spanish to English. Instead of after noon of it going to 1 it goes to 13:00. 13:00 is military time for 1:00 and 14:00 is 2:00 and so on. In the interview with the professor I struggled with the times a little as I said but I eventually got the hang being I was able to look at my schedule during the interview. For the most part the interview was easier than writing the paragraph. In the paragraph I had problems starting the sentence off with how many days I do this activity or if I do a certain activity at all.

Interpretive Listening

I completed multiple Interpretive Listening activities throughout this 101 course. One activity that stands out is the one where I have listen to a word and figure out which form is it in. For example the word ensenas would be the tu form of the word ensenar. Another example would be listening to a word and determining if the word is Spanish or English sound. https://hub.lingrolearning.com/#/61a4afa52e19aed8f6287cbe/6053b1309a99c1c88b357230/6053b1189a99c1c88b356806/

The link above is from lingrolearning where I had to determine what the person was saying. This listening activity is from unit 2 in the aplicar section. I had to listen to the conversations and comprehend what they were saying to later prepare for interviewing a Spanish speaker later in the unit. One thing I struggled with was being to branch what they were saying because they were speaking a little fast for me. Be that as it may I got a decent grade on the section with a few mistakes confusing if what questions they asked and didn’t ask. For example in one conversation I thought they said no entiendo but they said que significa. I have grown to play the conversations back until I understand them fully.

Interpretive Reading

In class this semester we read a bunch of articles and brief descriptions about people living in Spanish speaking countries. I remember reading about famous people from Spanish speaking countries like Shakira the singer and Jose Andres a famous chef. I also recall reading about letters and nominations in Spanish about students writing about how they admire fellow classmates and professors. https://hub.lingrolearning.com/#/61a4afa52e19aed8f6287cbe/6053b1309a99c1c88b357232/6053b11a9a99c1c88b3568ce/

This link shows the letters written about nominating someone in unit 5 based on someone the writer admires. In the first letter someone is being nominated as employee of the month in October for working at a university. What I struggled with was reading the paragraph because I had to familiarize myself with new vocabulary. I read through the paragraph too fast instead of taking my time which caused me to only read the words I already knew and assume that would be what the questions are on but I was wrong. This caused me to get the first question wrong which was about what the letter was conveying then I had to reread and I was fine. I could of got a 100 but instead I missed one or two questions.