Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

I was introduced to different cultural perspectives through the multiple discussions and online activities that the class participated in. For the discussions, the professor requested students to read and comprehend an article or video and then discuss it with their peers, while the online course/activity, Lingro Learning, increased my knowledge of the basic Spanish language and the Spanish-speaking world. These exercises taught me about Latin American and Spanish culture and people.

I value the lessons learned as they can benefit me if I need to communicate with someone who speaks Spanish. The learning activities were a fun and enjoyable way to learn and get to know about another culture. A video article from our class discussion mentioned other Spanish colleges and how they compare to United States colleges. I noticed similarities and became interested in learning more about the cultural setting at these colleges. We also learned from the several activities on Lingro Learning, where we would read and research about the Spanish-speaking world.

Engaging in Communities

In my intermediate community life, I work for a company that recruits a diverse group of people; some speak fluent Spanish and barely any English. I value learning and understanding Spanish to not only help my co-workers but also be able to add the language to my resumé to be looked upon as an asset to an organization.

Interpersonal Communication

Post-discussions with other students were very helpful for my learning and interpretation of other cultures and languages (Spanish). My peers and I are tasked with reading or watching videos on Spanish learning, discussing it with the class, and utilizing the space to conversate about our feelings towards what we read or listened to. Another activity assigned to students was Flipgrid recordings, where we were given instructions to record our response to a recording of the professor and add questions to the end of our recording to interact with the rest of the class.

The discussion wasn’t troubling; however, the Flipgrids can be time-consuming and difficult to record our responses, as we cannot read notes but rather remember our responses prior to recording. Nonetheless, I overcame this difficulty with much practice, which also helped me respond to questions swiftly when heard on the basic level.

Presentational Speaking

Flipgrid would be considered a presentational speaking and interpersonal communication exercise. With presentational speaking, students are able to use the platform to practice speaking Spanish and post on the class board to have discussions with their peers. In the below link is a demonstration of presentational speaking:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/11axs33e9BqYd0jnMMuB_rMsBT0wrpjda/view?usp=sharing

The video link above is a demonstration of the activity mentioned before. I wasn’t speaking to the professor, but there was a recording of the question we could reference and get practice from before recording. I enjoyed these presentational speaking practices as they challenged my knowledge and quick response. I would have to do a practice run a few times before the final conversation, and as you can see, I’ve mastered the basic questions in Spanish 101.

Presentational Writing

On Lingro Learning, students practice presentational writing with an exercise that allows them to type out several sentences in Spanish in regards to the prompted question.

With this, I can apply words to the short paragraph assignment that are difficult to spell. I also excelled in these types of activities that were challenging by practicing how to pronounce and spell words that expressed my thoughts that I attempted to convey.

Interpretive Listening

In our class, students are able to use a platform called Lingro Learning, which enables students to listen, read and interpret, write, and speak in Spanish. With the interpretive listening activity, we are given a recorded question or statement in Spanish and then prompted to answer in Spanish, English, or even with a picture that best fits. I’ll insert a screen recording of the activity below:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1vQVsohWwaO9XmgfFwMFsxZ4E3Mri8q1m/view?usp=sharing

Clear instructions were given so students wouldn’t experience difficulty with the questions. The objective was simple and gets progressively more challenging as you proceed through each module. I found this exercise intriguing because you get to check your answer before submitting the entire knowledge application module at the end to ensure you understand the material. With much practice, I can quickly respond to questions similar to this.

Interpretive Reading

On Lingro Learning, we have articles in complete Spanish and are asked to interpret them and/or answer appropriately in Spanish or English. I’ve screenshot this activity from the platform below:

These activities give students the practice they need to excel in this course. With this, we were assigned to interpret the following short paragraph, on the left, for each person and complete the description for each individual on the right. I found these interesting because the only words that were unfamiliar or weren’t cognate were those in parentheses, which was helpful for any difficulties that may emerge when completing the assessment on the right. I’ve grown with every activity as it demonstrated my ability to interpret and understand the language.