Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Practices that helped me understand cultural perspectives include direct interactions with friends and team mates as well as their families. Through interaction I gained awareness of cultural normalities in Spanish speaking families and their communities. The main challenge was communication and I gained a sense of appreciation for the difficulties they have for trying to communicate in English, while also having my own difficulties to speak in Spanish. I also respect their efforts to communicate together in a way we can both understand.

Engaging in Communities

As I have mentioned earlier, my hometown had a pretty high hispanic population. I got to experience home life, celebrations, soccer, and going out with friends. I enjoyed spending time with people from various communities and backgrounds and felt welcomed.

Interpersonal Communication

In each module we were given a partner to have a conversation in Spanish about the material from that module. In total we had four conversation assignments as well as the introduction assignment where we introduced ourselves. Throughout the semester I had a total of two partners for the multiple conversation assignments.

In the first conversation assignment, me and my partner discussed our birthdates, where we are from and something that we have now. In the second communication assignment me and my partner asked each other three questions as if we were the instructor. In the third communication assignment my partner and I looked at a map and asked each other if the campus on the map had certain buildings and if so where each were located. In the fourth and final conversation assignment me and my partner were asked to describe what we thought being a good person meet as well as what we thought being a bad person meet. Each of these conversations were planned, the greatest difficulties for each were remembering the vocabulary as well as finding a time me and my partner were available to meet. I feel like the technology aspect of each assignment got easier with each assignment. Next time I would take longer time on studying to help ensure I remembered the vocabulary better.

Presentational Speaking

In our first week of class we were asked to record ourself and discuss our majors and minors as well as our experience with Spanish or any other languages. 

Each presentation that I completed was difficult and required extraordinary efforts on my part. I do not believe my understanding of cultural or language benefited from these presentations. Next time I would take a Spanish class when I have a lesser credit load and was not so overwhelmed with all my course work from my different classes.

Presentational Writing

In Module 3 we wrote out our schedule and described it in Spanish. This was the module that we learned how to discuss times and days of the week as well as months.

In the assignment posted below, I learned how to discuss time and communicate with others in Spanish regarding time. This module was probably the easiest for me because I already knew my numbers so I just needed to learn the vocabulary to discuss hours and the morning and afternoon.

Interpretive Listening

Throughout the semester we have had gramatical quizzes where we listen to a word or phrase and we answer what was just heard. This has helped me learn how sounds are pronounced.

This semester we have learned how to discuss times, and ask what time a class or other activity is. We have also learned how to describe ourselves as well as those around us. We have learned how to say where buildings are on a map. We have also learned how to say different objects in classrooms and homes. At the beginning of the semester we learned how to introduce ourselves and how to ask others where they are from, what they are majoring in and their age. Along with learning how to ask those questions we also learned how to answer them.

Interpretive Reading

Communicating, reading, writing, and trying to navigate assignments. A lot of the time I did not understand the vocabulary or grammar in the modules.

Every week we would have 2-3 quizzes as well as two sections of vocab, two sections of grammar and an individual as well as a partner project. With all of this trying to remember all of the different terms and correct grammar was extremely difficult. I had a hard time overcoming these challenges but I tended to just do as many Spanish assignments at the beginning of the week and leave the rest of the week for my other classes. I took-away from these assignments that I need to alot times for me to study and not just times to do assignments.

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