Spring 2021

Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Products and practices that help me gain an understanding of cultural perspectives consist of my personal family traditions and being able to practice my Spanish speaking skills outside of class (for example, homework assigned to help better understand the Spanish language, and talking to my family in Spanish more.) My mother is Puerto Rican, and my father is Jamaican, so I have always had a close connection to my cultures and their perspectives, I just didn’t know the language. With this being said, now I am able to better practice speaking Spanish with my mom and grandma while still being in tune culturally such as food and music. The more I study my homework online and practice at home I can further my ability to deeply connect to my Hispanic culture.

This honestly hasn’t changed my attitudes in the Hispanic culture or my worldview since I have already been culturally involved, I just didn’t know the language but I am beginning to feel more connected to my culture because of it. This has helped me go through the stereotype of being Hispanic and not knowing any Spanish, since usually family members or friends usually make fun of you if you don’t speak your culture’s native language. Attached below is a picture of my lovely family consisting of Afro-Latinos 🙂

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Engaging in Communities

The value and importance of engaging in your immediate and global communities are very high being that my classmates bond together in class even if we’re nervous about an assignment, interview, etc. We always work together and help each other so we all can succeed. This consists of a global community since we’re all on Zoom, and we all come from different places, backgrounds, ethnicities, and nationalities. This can go for any community, if you’re willing to engage, lead, and communicate you can make the community expand, grow, and prosper in various aspects. Attached below is a screenshot of my classmate and me engaging in our formal class interview. This consists of engaging in my class community as we all prepared for class together and helped each other learn the material so we all can succeed.

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Interpersonal Communication

Interpersonal oral/audio activities, discussion board, and interpersonal writing/reading activities I have completed this semester consist of Composicion drafts that discuss our personal lives while writing the essays in Spanish along with having breakout rooms in class (on Zoom) and discussing how we can either help each other with furthering our Spanish vocabulary and comprehension. So far, we have written about our age, birthday, major, where we are from/where we currently live, description of our families, and where we are from. We also completed 2 discussion boards about which classes we take and what times while responding to a classmate and related to them in any way possible. These activities have helped me relate to my classmates whether if we take the same classes, major, or even struggling with learning how to say certain phrases or remember conjugations. At first, I hated doing breakout rooms, then I learned that I wasn’t alone in terms of learning Spanish and that everything was going to be okay, I just had to keep studying and practicing. I believe I have been studying and doing the assignments and Composicion essays very well and at a great pace, I just have to continue to get more comfortable during break-out rooms and asking for help whenever it is needed. Attached below are my composition 2 final draft, and a discussion board we did about our classes and their description. This shows interpersonal communication and its effectiveness.

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Composicion-2-final

Presentational Speaking

A presentational speaking activity that I have completed this semester consisted of conducting an interview in Spanish with another student for a grade. We spoke about where we are from/where we live, our classes, and when we have them.

What challenged me was trying to fully remember whole sentences and even certain words that I needed to describe my classes. I overcame the challenges by continuing the conversation or directing it elsewhere (asking a different question, etc.) and practicing between my partner and me to where we both felt comfortable. Something I would do differently next time would consist of not waiting last minute to study for an interview, and continue practicing my Spanish speaking with my family members so when I have to do an interview with another student or my professor I can feel more relaxed. Attached below is the clip of my Spanish interview with my classmate Keri, and presenting our speaking skills in Spanish.

Presentational Writing

A written presentation that I have completed consists of the Composicion essays/drafts that I have also stated above. In our essays, we discussed our family members and describe their characteristics, what classes we take and what times, if we work, where we are from, and what we do in our free time. This was a bit difficult at first being that we would really have to expand our Spanish vocabulary, but as time went on of I studying more and more vocabulary, I was able to start writing more to where I can write a full page about my life in Spanish. This allowed me to fully understand the language, and better remember sentences and phrases so I can even read the essay out loud with no problems. Attached below is my first Composicion final draft that shows presentational writing, and how we are able to thoroughly expand our Spanish vocabulary when required to write the essays.

Composicion-Final

Interpretive Listening

Some interpretive listening activities I have completed this semester for/related to my Spanish learning consist of Lectura lessons, Competenia Culturals, and student or teacher interviews that we have to watch on the VHL textbook and conduct interviews with classmates or our professor. This would challenge my ability to fully interpret and comprehend the Spanish language. This would be a bit challenging at times, but this is what has really allowed me to comprehend and grasp the concept of the Spanish language. Being able to translate from English to Spanish or vice versa when reading, can be a great tactic to the full conception of anything that you are learning. I have also done an interpretive listening activity by watching Jane the Virgin on Netflix, or any other novela with my grandma while reading English subtitles. This would also help me fully understand Spanish in a greater context while being able to connect words from English to Spanish. Attached below is a screenshot of a VHL assignment we had to complete that required us to listen to Jose and Anabela’s conversation and comprehending their answers to the statements/descriptions that were presented.

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Interpretive Reading

Interpretive communication activities I have completed consist of Lectura Lessons that I would have to complete in the textbook. I would have to read the material in Spanish and answer the questions in English to show my comprehension of the language and culture shown. It would be challenging because some tricky questions would come across every now and then, but if you are patient and take your time trying to fully understand the material and what it is asking, you will succeed. It would be very intriguing and compelling when challenging myself, but I was able to get through every assignment that consists of reading and interpreting. This has also been one of the best ways of fully grasping the Spanish language while also learning about different parts of the world through the textbook. Attached below is another VHL assignment that we had to complete, which is a Guia flyer and we had to read all of the details of the flyer and answer questions about different parts and details of the flyer.

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