Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication
Instructions
Exploring Culture
The products and practices that helped me gain understanding of cultural perspectives were the activities in class or for homework. There would be homework activities where we would have to read about people from different countries and how different things are over there. For example, in Latin America, they don’t have dorms like we do in the U.S. It’s very interesting to learn the culture and customs of other countries. I’ve learned a lot about Latin America throughout the years in and outside of classes.
If I’m being honest, I never really had any misconceptions or stereotypes about Hispanic people, so throughout this course I just really learned about the language and culture. I have a better understanding of how things are in Latin America than I did before. Although I’ve learned these things over the years not just form this course alone.
Engaging in Communities
I believe it’s very important to engage in both your global and immediate community so you can give back and also help your people. You can help people who are close by and also people across the world who may need it.
I sadly don’t think I have any artifact I could include showing me helping out in the community.
Interpersonal Communication
Within our interactive textbook, there are listening and recording assignments. Throughout these assignments we will either listen to audios and answer questions or listen to audio and then record our response to the question. We have also had discussion boards where after we finish a project we will respond to our other classmates and give criticism.
I’ve grown with each activity because I’ve become more confident in what I have to say. What I mean by this is, when I give my responses to questions in Spanish, I’m a little less nervous and more comfortable that I know the material. Even if I’m not 100% sure of my answer, I still try my best to answer because most of time I’m actually correct or not too far from the correct answer. Practicing the material really helps you get better in the long run.
Presentational Speaking
So far in this class, we’ve had 3 speaking interviews with our professor. Along with that we’ve had to do video record ourselves talking with other classmates or just record talking within our interactive textbook.
For our very first interview with the professor, I was very nervous. I thought it was going to be this long 5-minute conversation and that I wouldn’t know what to say. When I finished it, it wasn’t bad, and I did very well. The conversation was maybe only 2 minutes, and I knew how to answer my professor’s questions. Although for our final speaking interview I was very scared. I wanted to do well since this was our last one and even though I did well with the previous ones I was nervous because this one covered more material. To my surprise though, I did pretty well even though it was a 10-minute conversation.
Presentational Writing
So far in this class, we’ve had 2 writing assignments. The first one was a description of ourselves, and the 2nd was discussed our schedule throughout the week.
When we did our first writing assignment, I didn’t know was much as I do now, so I wasn’t too confident in my writing. I’ve definitely gotten much better with writing since I know more phrases and how to build sentences. Although I feel it is easier to speak out loud what I know than actually writing it because sometimes I may not know how to spell out certain words. Although with writing I get more time to think of a response versus when I’m doing an interview.
Interpretive Listening
In our interactive textbook, we’ve had multiple listening activities. Some of them involve recording a response back while others you just have to type out or click on the answer. I find these very helpful because then by hearing it, I’ll know how to pronounce these words.
One thing that can make listening activities difficult is if you just hear the word, but you don’t see how it’s spelled. It can be confusing at times because with Spanish and other languages things may be spelled differently than how they sound. For example, with the word “Horario” the H is not pronounced so if you don’t know the language you would think it’s spelled with an “O.” Some of the listening activities had us listen for pronunciation, listen for colors, or even listen for tasks in Spanish.
Interpretive Reading
Interpretive communication activities that we read in class this semester was the assignments in our interactive textbook. We used contrasena for this course which uses audios, videos, sites, maps, etc. to help us learn about the Spanish language.
The activities that we had in the textbook were of a great variety so it would be helpful of people who have different learning styles. Some assignments were lengthier than others, so it took a while to complete. The ones I found not necessarily difficult but somewhat nerve wracking were the assignments where you had to record yourself responding after listening to another person questions/statements. They were basically like a conversation simulator. They were pretty confusing in the beginning but the more I kept practicing and reviewing material they came much easier.