Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Something that helped me was to look into how different parts of the world differ from our part. Reading articles about how countries in Latin America view our cultural norms, and how they differ from one another.

Talking to people in Latin American countries through TalkAbroad really helped solidify a lot of the insight I had learned during normal lecture time. And being able to, for the most part, converse in a different language is something I never thought I would be able to do.

Engaging in Communities

It is important to engage in different communities and to put different culture into one’s own community, because sharing that knowledge can benefit everyone.

Being able to describe my own community in a foreign language was very interesting, as it helped me see the places I go to on a day to day basis in a completely different light.

Interpersonal Communication

TalkAbroad is a website that allows students to go and speak to people in foreign languages in their native countries, so it seems a lot more authentic than it would if the person you were talking to spoke Spanish as a second language.

Using TalkAbroad was definitely different for me, as it made me quite nervous to talk to people who were so much more well versed in Spanish. But they were incredibly nice people, and even though I did not do well on my second conversation they were very understanding and helped me not feel badly.

Presentational Speaking

I had to do 2 videos this semester, the videos are always fun to make, it is low pressure, as I have time to practice my words before I press the record button.

For the videos I did not have many issues, I definitely enjoyed making the “Mi Favorito Plato” video more, just because I enjoy cooking, but describing my family was very interesting also.

Presentational Writing

We had to do 2 presentational writing assignments this semester, they were a bit more high pressure but overall if you prepare for them there will not be much issue.

These assignments always terrified me. I was always scared of blanking during them or I was scared that I would forget that we had a composition to write. So I always had a lot of stress when it came to the compositions.

Interpretive Listening

Most of the interpretive reading assignments for this semester were from the book, so there would be audio clips that we would listen to and then respond to.

Out of the 2 interpretive headings, listening was definitely my weaker one, Spanish is a fast language, and with it not being my main language I got caught up a lot, it is very apparent with my second TalkAbroad conversation, as I messed that one up completely.

Interpretive Reading

Interpretive reading was just something we did every class, and during homework, it was definitely the stronger one for me, as I could go at my own pace.

This one was always a lot better for me, as reading it meant I could sort of go at my own pace. A lot of Spanish words are similar to English words so feeling your way through Spanish can be an option in a lot of cases, which I really like, since it made me confident in my ability to understand Spanish.