Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Address the reflection exercises in each of the following sections. For each section, you will need to embed portions of these assignments and activities as artifacts to substantiate your reflection. Then, at the end of each section, include a link to the document or embed it as a PDF. 

Tutorials are available:

• Embedding a PDF
• Embedding Media (Images, Audio)
• Embedding a Video

Reflection

This semester, I have learned basic communication skills in Spanish. I have had some major personal challenges which hace made it difficult to focus and continue learning, but I made the decision to stick with it and successfully complete the course and learn as much as possible.

I have come to a better understanding of not only the Spanish language, but of the cultural similarities and differences .

Artifacts

A good artifact is a portion or clip of an assignment. It needs to be carefully selected to provide evidence/proof that supports what you are saying in your reflection.

Your reflection will help you determine what that will be. It is a quest for quality. It will represent you academically and professionally, and have personal meaning. It can be written, audio, or video.

At the end, ask yourself if the artifacts best demonstrates your abilities and growth over time.

At the end of your reflection in each section, link or embed the assignment/artifact. If the assignment has multiple pages and seems to overwhelm the section, consider adding just the first page and offering to provide the rest upon request.

Instructions

Exploring Culture

Having a professor from a Spanish-speaking country was very insightful. She provided a lot of examples of how the country and culture which she grew up in was different. She explained differences in how others are addressed and explained why parts of the language are different. I was able to understand the concept of addressing elders, people in a position of authority, or those in a professional setting and relate it to how I was told to address people in those situations in the Deep South. I was raised to always address people in these situations as “Sir” or “Ma’am” and always be respectful and polite. I also explained that I understood the idea of how last names are passed down. Although it has become less common in the United States, it is still very common in the south for women to keep their maiden name instead of the middle name and change their last name when married. I found it interesting that my professor was not aware of these commonalities, but also enjoyed telling her about them.

Engaging in Communities

It is always important to engage in the community around you no matter how different it may be. Understanding the differences in culture helps with communication and life-long learning.

Interpersonal Communication

This semester we had a couple of projects requiring videoed conversations or explanations. I recorded a basic conversation with a friend from church who speaks Spanish and is currently taking courses to become a certified translator. Using what I’ve learned in a conversation helped to better understand the way Spanish language is used. We also recorded a video about life on campus. Describing the different places on campus and why I liked or disliked them allowed me to better understand the vocabulary, how to apply the words, and how to better communicate with others I may come into contact with.

I did find it somewhat difficult to keep up with someone who speaks Spanish. I had to ask for the to repeat what was said more slowly, but realized it is ok to let them know that I didn’t understand or need to hear it again. Speaking in a conversational setting definitely helps with comprehension and practicing is necessary to be able to retain information and learn more.

Presentational Speaking

We had a couple of video assignments due. Aside from interviewing someone who speaks Spanish, we made a video describing what we liked and disliked about campus life.

For my interview video, I was very nervous. I thought I would forget what to ask and how to respond. I also was worried I would pronounce something incorrectly and not be understood. I really took my time to think about the questions I was asking and did my best to understand the responses.

For the video about likes and dislikes of campus life, I wrote down what I planned on speaking about and studied before making the video. I feel like I did a good job explaining what some of the places I liked were and also those that I disliked.

Presentational Writing

We had a few written assignments to complete, but I did not save any of them. I handwrite these assignments which included a transcript of our interview and a paragraph about a famous latino/a singer or actor. I am attaching my rough draft of my paragraph on the actress Salma Hayek.

I didn’t really find it difficult to write these paragraphs, but I did look up some words that we have not learned since there were some descriptions I wanted to use.

Interpretive Listening

The listening activities we completed were primarily the ones through contraseñas. There were quite a few activities which required listening to a sentence or even a paragraph and choosing the correct answer or response.

I did listen to some music, tv shows, and news at various points throughout the semester. I had a hard time understanding, though, because the speech is so fast. I used subtitles when possible. I understand that when spoken fluently it is much faster than when speaking with someone else who is learning.

Interpretive Reading

I honestly didn’t read much else than the content provided. Occasionally I will read instructions or info on boxes or containers just to see if I can understand what is being said.

When I read things in Spanish, it’s interesting to me how similar a lot of the words are. There are so many that sound or look similar which helps with comprehension. I do like learning the words that are completely different and find it interesting how dissimilar some are. The hardest thing for me is learning all the different forms of the verbs, remembering which tense to use, and conjugating the verbs to match the pronoun. The format for sentences is completely different than English and often doesn’t make sense to me. However, I am getting better and feel like I could carry on a very basic conversation with someone who is Spanish speaking and actually get somewhere.