Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

 I found that traditional Hispanic families are more family-focused and often live with or close by extended family members. They also spend more time with their extended family members. Modern Hispanic and modern United States families tend to spend time with just the immediate family members. Seeing these cultural differences and similarities in families around the World helped me see the importance of all types of families.

Engaging in Communities

Communicating with Spanish-speaking family members, friends, and one day patients is my goal. Being able to communicate with someone in their native language effectively makes the person feel more comfortable.

I plan on becoming a Graphic Designer/Business Owner in Virginia. Its about 828,154 Virginians that are Hispanic, so being able to speak Spanish is very important. I want to be able to treat my customers and provide what they need. Being able to speak Spanish will greatly increase my ability to do so. 16.7 percent of the World is of Hispanic descent, and Spanish is the third most spoken language. Learning Spanish provides me with an increased ability to communicate with 52 million more people!

Interpersonal Communication

In Spanish 101, I performed an oral with another student over Zoom. We were able to discuss what our families were like, where we lived, and what we did every day. Performing this two-way communication was very informative and helped me learn how to have a continual conversation with another person in Spanish.

Every day for Zoom class, we would talk to each other in Spanish and often ask questions and think of responses. This spontaneous interpersonal communication helped me to learn and comprehend the vocabulary and question words quickly. In the discussion board posts, the posts increased in difficulty each week and helped tie in what we had learned each week. The discussion boards were not always easy.

During the discussion boards, I would read my classmates’ responses and see what they thought about the assigned task each week. It was fascinating to learn about each of them. Next time, I would comment on their discussion board post and ask each of them what they thought about a particular portion of the post.

Presentational Speaking

For the oral portion of the final exam for Spanish 101, I had to perform an oral presentation. I talked about myself, the university, the classes I take, my family, what I do each day, and my hobbies

For all of the speaking presentations, I got very nervous prior to and during the presentations. By the final presentation, it was a little bit easier to present the orals. I practiced a lot and went over the topics and my answers multiple times. I know how to form sentences and convey my thoughts properly when I am calm and not nervous. Next time I would try to take deep breaths and take a short walk to calm myself before presenting an oral.

Presentational Writing

In class, we wrote a letter to a penpal. I composed a letter to my friend, Trinity. The letter included below describes who I am and who my family is.

 enjoyed writing a letter to Trinity for composition 1. It helped me to improve my sentence structure and comprehension of the vocabulary I learned in class. It also provided a baseline of my ability to write sentences and form complete thoughts in Spanish. When I completed the second composition, I better understood how to write in Spanish effectively. The most difficult part was trying to find the correct words to make the sentence sound correct. Next time I would try to use more of the vocabulary words provided in the textbook.

Interpretive Reading

On VHL quizzes and tests, we often had a reading comprehension section.

Interpretative reading was the easiest part of Spanish 101, in my opinion, because I could see the exact phrases within the reading and answer the questions. In the quizzes and tests, I would perform the reading sections last because I knew they would take me the least amount of time. I would complete the listening portions first so I would have time to listen and review the questions.

Reading comprehension in Spanish is no different from in English; you look for phrases and context clues within the reading section. The majority of the time, you can determine what is being conveyed. Interpretive reading helped me to increase my Spanish vocabulary and see how words and phrases are strung together to make a complete thought. I cannot wait for next semester!