Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

With the use of our virtual textbook, Contraseña, I was able to explore interesting topics on the culture of Spanish-speaking countries around the world. Through investigation I was able to find that siestas are not as common as they once were, considering how businesses prefer to be open longer hours for better operations. Additionally, I have a better understanding of college life in del mundo hispano. 70% of students attending university are living off campus, in comparison to the almost 60% of students living on campus on average in the U.S.

Interpersonal Communication

Through Flipgrid, our class was able to communicate with each other via comments, similar to the setup of social media. The comments here were responses to the module 5 recording assignment. It gave us a chance to give our conversational skills a spin.

Presentational Speaking

This semester I was introduced to Flipgrid, which is an excellent tool for working on your speaking and listening skills. I was able to analyze others as they spoke with familiar vocabulary but through their own voices and interpretations of the pronunciations.

With this Module 5 assignment, I had to record myself describing someone that I admire. This was the final module and at this point, the words come more naturally. Some challenges that I ran into with these assignments would be pronunciation. I have taken my time with pronunciation throughout the semester, and with a little practice, it has improved.

Interpretive Listening

Listening has always been more of a challenge for me. In this case, practice makes perfect. Especially hearing words and conversations in many different voices and scenarios. I do try to listen in on conversations when I am out and about, and I like to spend my leisure time watching dramas or listening to music in Spanish. Each module included many listening activities. Here are a few examples of those activities:

Interpretive Reading

I have taken up reading stories on an app called BeeLingu App. Through this and Duolingo, I have spent extra time reading. Reading stories is especially helpful when it comes to finding the meaning of words through context clues. This practice has been useful in getting extra practice in as well as expanding on vocabulary and comprehension of major concepts like ser and estar.

Engaging In Communities

It is of the utmost importance that we all engage throughout the communities. Through community engagement, we can increase the view and understanding of problems and empower communities to have a say in decisions that impact their lives, neighborhoods, towns, and cities.