Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

When learning Spanish, what really helped me gain an understanding of the various cultures was through watching the videos in the text book website. I was able to witness the various foods they ate, where they attended school and how they lived on a day to day basis. I had to learn about their favorite activities and study some of their history as well as their origins. Then I was required to take tests and complete homework based on their culture. One of the homework assignments is shown below. I was excited to learn about their culture.

These products and practices helped me learn that hispanic people are very family orientated and they are a community that always helps others. They enjoy big bright celebrations and they love their food. Learning things about hispanic culture showed me how different America was. It also taught me that there’s various dialects of the spanish language but they all mostly stemmed from Spain.

Engaging in Communities

It is important to engage in your community because when you help others as well as the environment of your community, you create a better quality of life not only for yourself , but for others as well. It is important to engage in the global community because the world is connected. What effects others now will eventually effect you. A great example of that is COVID-19.

COVID-19 has prohibited the gathering of large crowds and limited travel. This took a big tole from our normal day to day lives. So the most I have done this year in my immediate community of ODU is paint pumpkins for halloween. Below is a photo of Erin, Megan, Ashley and I painting some wooden pumpkins in front of the web. Next to it is the pumpkin I painted.

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Interpersonal Communication

This semester we participated in various ways of communication between students and the professor. One way we communicated was through the discussion boards we did on black board. In the picture below our assignment was to write sentences about how our family was related to one another.

Spanish-Family-Tree-

During class we would be asked to answer questions randomly based on the topic that we were learning that day. This was challenging because we didn’t always have the vocabulary that was needed in front of us. This forced us to study and know our vocabulary.Then we would have to preform our oral exams, sometimes with another classmate. To prepare with a classmate I would make a script of what was needed and call her a couple of nights before to practice and work out the problems. Below is a link to one of the scripts. This allowed us to study together and it helped make sure that we met all of the requirements of the oral exam. The reason why we started doing this was because during our first oral exam we were speaking questions from the wrong unit. This meant that we had to redo the oral exam. I definitely learned from my mistakes. I grew from learning just how to say hello, to now knowing how to speak coherent sentences and tell others about my day, what my favorite hobbies are and where I like to go. Spanish has really taught me a lot.

Spanish-oral-script

Presentational Speaking

As was previously stated earlier, the only means of presentational speaking activities was through oral exams. These exams would be between just students, or it would be with just the professor. Since the only speaking that we did was either in class or in the oral exam, there are no videos of my presentations. 

The oral exams were difficult because we had to memorize the questions and come up with our own answers. We had to use the proper grammar and vocabulary as well as making sure it made sense. The Spanish language is different from english because everything is masculine or feminine. So learning that was challenging. The concept that time was considered feminine was odd to me. I studied hard on flash cards and I made sure that I participated in class to make sure that I understood what we were learning about. I definitely excelled at descriptive adjectives. One thing that I would do differently is maybe make online flash cards so I can just add on and it would allow me to review my vocabulary a lot faster.

Presentational Writing

During this semester, we had to complete composition activities. For one of the activities we had to write a paragraph for our university website. This paragraph talked about what activities were available. It also stated when and where they would be held. Through the information on it was inaccurate, it was fun to make.

Spanish-composition-2

Writing the compositions taught me how to make coherent sentences that made sense next to each other. I had to make sure that it was in order based off time or day. I also had to make sure that the activities aligned with the time. No one would eat dinner at eight in the morning. I believe that using detail in sentences became easier over time because I was able to use more vocabulary. I excelled at talking about things you would do with your friends because the activities that I wrote about were actual activities that I would do with my friends. One thing that I could work on is doing some more research to make sure that I had accurate information to write about real things to do on campus.

Interpretive Listening

For interpretive listening we had to listen to a conversation and answer questions based on that conversation. Most of these assignments were on the textbook website and they would be taken for as a grade. The photo below is one of the assignments from the text book.

We would also have to listen to some youtube videos to answer questions from the discussion board. I always listened a couple of times to make sure that I heard everything correctly before answering. I found learning the countries the most interesting because is showed how many people spoke Spanish. Its crazy to see all the places around the world. I used to have to slow down to videos to pick out the words because of how fast they were talking. Now there is no need for me to slow down the video because I am able to recognize the words faster. Below is a youtube video that is similar to one we had to watch to complete a discussion board. We no longer have access to our old discussion boards.

Interpretive Reading

In class we read about the popular activities in the Spanish culture. One of which is soccer. We learned about the different teams and the political history behind it. The picture below comes from our Spanish text book, which is VISTA Aventuras Students Edition.

What was challenging at first about learning this topic was that I dint understand how the rivalry was political. It made no sense. But after learning about the history I was able to understand why people were such diehard fans. I wish that I was as connected to a sports team just like how some people are in the reading. It taught me how important soccer is to hispanic people. It also showed me that Spanish football is the same thing as American Soccer. Hispanic people call football, football americano.