SPAN 102

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 cultures obviously have some differences but also some similarities to each other. For example I learned that American and Spanish cultures watch different sports. We as Americans call the famous sport of kicking balls into nets Soccer. Spanish speaking countries call it futbol. I also realized that in most Spanish speaking countries futbol is the most popular sport and they are very serious about it. Speaking of futbol in America we spell it “football”. Football is a totally different sport than futbol instead of a kicking a ball in america we throw and run with the ball in our hands. That is a big cultural difference between America and Spanish speaking countries. Meanwhile in America, we have multiple popular sports such football, baseball, and basketball. Americans are also serious about their sports and favorite teams. A lot of American sports fans have fantasy leagues and have outrageous punishments for those who lose theirs. I also learned that in some Spanish speaking countries most citizens use different social media sites people here in America. In multiple spanish speaking countries people use whatsapp and Facebook. In America most people use Instragram, Twitter, Snapchat, Tiktok, and so many more. Americans use facebook as well but only people tend to be on there. So America and some spanish speaking countries use similar social media apps as well. Overall it is better to not assume and do research before coming to a conclusion that people from different cultures do or use the same thing.

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 a community such as dorms, activity centers, clubs, 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 is great. I also have more options like studying in the lobby or private study rooms. There are also private rooms in the library where you could rent for free with friends and classmates to study and get work done.

Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal communication situations have been a constant throughout every unit we had and semester. From the two TalkAbroad sessions I had with the two Spanish speaking ladies. In class we also had plenty of cultural listening activities and speaking activities on LingroHub for homework and practice. TalkAbroad is basically a conversation between the Spanish speaker and I whoever he or she may be. It is online and we both have our cameras on to see each other.

As I said I did two of these TalkAbroad conversations. The first conversation I had was about family. The speaker and I exchanged information about our families in Spanish. The first speaker’s name was Adriana and she was from Nicaragua. Adriana and I had plan sort to speak with me asking her questions about her family and she asking them back. What was spontaneous about this is she talked about her sisters which was planned. Then she started talking about her 2 dogs and how old and breed they were which was unplanned. So sometimes when talking you can have interesting side conversations. The second conversation was about food. I had a different speaker this time her name was Patricia and she was from Venezuela. We talked about our favorite foods and favorite dishes to make which was part of the script. We also talked about the different type of social media we used. I remember Patricia saying she uses Whatsapp and Facebook mostly. I told I used Instagram , Snapchat, and TikTok mostly. Both conversations were kinda challenging but kudos to both of my partners being patient with me by repeating their questions and answers slowly to help me better understand. I learned not to speak so fast and take my time pronouncing new words and terms.

Presentational Speaking

This semester I completed multiple presentational speaking activities. In class I spoke Spanish during class activities and partner work. Outside of class I completed a two and a half minute video on demonstrating how to make Brown Sugar Oatmeal.

This video of explaining how to make Oatmeal was not as easy as I thought it was going to be. It took a lot of time editing the video on IMovie because of the mistakes I made with pronunciation and use of wrong terms for the project. On top of that I didn’t have anyone to help me such as recording me while I open the oatmeal packet, put it in the microwave, add ingredients, etc. I had to hold my Oatmeal in one hand and phone in the other to record. Plus sometimes on the video the sound kept going in and out so I had to adjust that so my professor and classmates could hear me better. After multiple takes I think I exceeded in clear and correct vocabulary but I still need to do better with the pronunciation of Spanish speaking words not just in this specific presentation but overall. Something I could differently next time is have someone help me which will make it a lot easier on me. https://hub.lingrolearning.com/#/62fbfe318125ea1265ac2cb1/6233b17e8e95ee7173ac53b4/6233b16f8e95ee7173ac4b09

Presentational Writing

This semester in Spanish 102 I did two different type of presentational writing concepts. The first one I did was an ad to promote fitness through sports mine being: football. The second presentational writing concept I did this year was an infographic about mental health mine being depression.

The ad I created to promote fitness through football was pretty straightforward. It was a cool assignment to do to get people to come out to exercise but also have fun and have the opportunity to make new friends. This project was all about attracting people to come out to play and/or learn the game of football. I did this by adding cool pictures and making catchy phrases in Spanish to get readers attention. On the other hand with my infographic about Depression, my goal was to bring awareness to people that depression is a serious mental health problem. This project was more complex because of the seriousness of it and all the information I had to include in Spanish not to mention. This project was about informing the public of signs of depression especially ones that are not completely obvious. In reality just because someone is smiling and laughing all the time doesn’t always mean that they are okay. I also gave suggestions of what people should do if they are qualify for any of the signs that they may be depressed. Overall I think I excelled at the creation of both presentational concepts specifically the pictures and splashes of color. Download 48639_2022-11-16-015027_500.docx

Interpretive Listening

I have completed many listening activities this year. Out of the 4 projects we completed this semester 2 of them were videos were we had to speak in Spanish. After listening to our own projects to make sure they were right and had sound we also had to listen to our classmates videos.

While listening to my classmates videos I replayed them a couple of times to make sure I was comprehending what they were saying. Not only did we as a class had to listen to each other’s projects, we also had to comment on them in Spanish. What we liked or disliked about it and what we thought was cool about the project. What I found is that we as a class for the most part did all different things and had different things to comment on about each other’s projects. For example when we did the project talking about our families we all different situations. Some had brothers, some have all brothers, other classmates have no siblings at all, and others have one sister or brother and so on. Not to mention all the listening activities on LingroHub I had to do for homework. https://hub.lingrolearning.com/#/62fbfe318125ea1265ac2cb1/6233b17e8e95ee7173ac53b0/6233b16e8e95ee7173ac4a57/

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 people from Spanish speaking countries like Columbia, Argentina, Mexico, and many more.

This kinda of goes hand and hand with the Interpretive listening section. I remember in class we would listen to a speaker read a person’s profile in Spanish and then we would have to read it on our own or in pairs. For me personally the challenge was reading and understanding because I could look at a word and translate into english for the most part. My problem was reading it aloud. This is something I’ve always struggled with the pronunciation of words in Spanish. As I said above we did 4 projects as a class and 2 of them were videos, the other ones were written projects. In those to projects I had to read classmates ads, PowerPoints, and infographics. It was kinda tough to read them because on some of them I had to look up words to see what they mean in english. https://hub.lingrolearning.com/#/62fbfe318125ea1265ac2cb1/6233b17e8e95ee7173ac53b2/6233b16e8e95ee7173ac4a96