Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Products and practices that helped me understand the cultural perspectives were the Exploración Cultural chapters within the LingeroLearning textbook and the conversations held in class to discuss the cultural differences between Spanish-speaking countries and the United States. The Exploración Cultural chapters should show the similarities and differences between Spanish-speaking countries and the United States. These chapters taught us about art, fashion, and the texting culture in Spanish-speaking countries. I grew my understanding of Spanish-speaking cultures through the textbook based on the information on the topics listed. 

These products and practices helped me better understand values and attitudes in the Hispanic culture and my own by showing me the comparison and differences between my culture and Hispanic culture. These products and practices challenged my worldview by making me think more critically about different cultures’ values and practices. I have gained more of an understanding of various cultures worldwide through the products and practices I learned in class. The practices and products taught within the class and the textbook have helped me gain more knowledge of Spanish-speaking cultures to help work through stereotypes and misconceptions caused by a different perspective. 

Engaging in Communities

Engaging in communities, including global communities, is essential; therefore, we can learn from each other and grow as we learn more about each other’s similarities and differences within our communities. 

I have no participation or experience in engaging in communities, but I have learned through my lectures about the use of WhatsApp. WhatsApp allows individuals to communicate, and the messaging app helps individuals engage with each other to learn more about each other’s communities.

Interpersonal Communication

We used TalkAbroad to further our interpersonal communication in Spanish. TalkAbroad is a website that pairs students with a native speaker in their target language. By speaking with our speaker, we understand and understand their culture, values, and beliefs within their country.The units used for our TalkAbroad were la moda, el ecoturismo, emigración/inmigracion y el tiempo de la obra de arte.

This was my second time using TalkAbroad. This time, participating in TalkAbroad was a lot easier because I knew how the website was and what to expect. I have grown with each assignment/activity by being able to think more critically, use context clues, and learn more about pronunciation. I excelled at putting together context clues to understand words I did not know within a sentence. I learned to take my time with the pronunciation of Spanish words.

Presentational Speaking

Presentational speaking is a two-way communication mode that is considered to be interpersonal. It was mainly done within the classroom during our in-class communication activities. Presentational speaking outside the classroom included our two TalkAbroad conversations. A presentational speaking activity that was done within the class was reading stories out loud.

I faced many challenges during each presentation I completed, mainly punctuation when speaking in Spanish. I overcame these challenges by taking my time to figure out the word’s pronunciation. I excelled at one of the in-class reading activities. I did a good job with this assignment by taking my time to pronounce words I was struggling with.  

Presentational Writing

The presentational writing in our class consists of classwork assignments and rough drafts of our writing projects. These assignments were done inside the classroom. Although they were done individually, we would come together as a group to check over our answers. Presentational writing is a one-way communication and is considered a presentational mode of communication.

I have grown from each assignment and activity by increasing my word count. Increasing my vocabulary and word count became easier over time with practice. Learning more grammar and being more consistent with Spanish grammar was more difficult. I overcame these difficulties by studying my grammar sheets from the textbook. To do better next time, I plan to practice the new grammar and vocabulary more.

Interpretive Listening

Interpretive learning activities that I completed this semester were part of the LingroLearning textbook. These activities involve learning new vocabulary and grammar for the unit. Interpretive learning is a one-way communication and is considered an interpretive mode of communication.

The different things I listened to/heard this semester were a part of the LingroLearning textbook. These activities happened inside and outside of the classroom. These activities were more challenging because I could not read what was being said within the audio. I overcame this difficulty by replaying the audio to gain an understanding of the recording. Understanding what was being said within the recording was very interesting. My takeaways from the listening experience are to take my time and to re-listen to recordings to understand better what is being said. I have grown from this experience and each activity by understanding what is being said and putting keywords together to gather more information.

Interpretive Reading

Interpretive Reading activities that I read were both inside the classroom and outside. These activities included assignments handed out in class, chapters in the LingroLearning textbook, and Exploración Cultural chapters within the book. Interpretive reading is a one-way communication and is considered to be an interpretive mode of communication.

Reading the assignments and chapters within the textbook was different because I would get confused by the new grammar. I overcame this difficulty by taking my time to re-read the assignment and to pick out keywords to put context clues together. My takeaways from the readings are taking my time, re-reading the assignments if needed, and picking out keywords and clues to help figure out what is being said within the passage.