Here are some activities and assignments I completed while in Spanish 102!

Exploring Culture

Spanish 102 has allowed me to continue and strengthen my Spanish skills. Not only has it strengthened my skills, but it also has allowed me to learn more about Spanish-speaking cultures. This course has provided me with numerous helpful tools to make me a well-rounded culturally competent student. Tools such as VHL Central and the Aventuras Textbook taught students about various cultures and incorporated interactive video to give students virtual tours of numerous Spanish-speaking countries. Opportunities such as TalkAroad enabled students to speak with students from different countries in real-time. These opportunities ensured that students learned culture while learning a new language. By engaging in TalkAbroad opportunities and utilizing VHL tools, I was able to take away innumerable lessons from this class! 

The learning opportunities providing by the resources listed above made my last year of learning Spanish a memorable one. For example, TalkAbroad allowed me to meet with two friendly students in Nicaragua and Mexico. I was not only able to learn from these students but I was also able to connect with them in unexpected ways, making my experience using TalkAbroad unforgettable! Experiences such as this one have allowed me to understand the values and attitudes of Hispanic culture. By speaking with others and exchanging thoughts, feelings, likes, and dislikes I was able to compare and contrast my cultures with the lives of others. 

The resources mentioned above also helped change my worldview and challenged me to become more open and accepting of other cultures. Learning a new language can be a challenging and humbling experience. It puts students in a vulnerable position, where it is essential to be open and accepting of new things. These new perspectives showed me just how much I don’t know, and opened my eyes to a world full of new and interesting knowledge! These resources asked students to put aside stereotypes and pre-conceived notions and be open to new perspectives! This made my experience learning Spanish a fruitful one!  

Engaging in Communities

When learning a new language it is critical to engage in communication, both within your intermediate and global community. This can not only help strengthen your skills but also help diversify your perspective as a foreign language student. To make Spanish more familiar to students, my professor used little English in class and asked that students converse with one another in Spanish. To help strengthen my skills I made sure I engaged in Spanish conversations with family members and friends!

Conversing with others in only Spanish was a challenge. It was particularly challenging to pronounce unknown words and phrase sentences properly. Unlearning grammar and sentence structure in English made speaking in Spanish very challenging, it made it especially hard to verbalize what I was thinking. Even though conversing with others was a challenge, it was important to get consistent practice!

Interpersonal Communication

TalkAbroad is an online resource provided to students learning new languages at Old Dominion University. It allows students to speak with other students from different countries and allows students to put their Spanish speaking skills to the test. Before the virtual meeting, students are given a topic of discussion and are asked to use the vocabulary learned in class to engage in conversation. Students are then asked to reflect on their experiences and record what they learned. These opportunities allowed students to engage in interpersonal conversations, or conversations between people.

Another way in which students engage in interpersonal communication is through break-out rooms in class. During class, students are asked to engage in conversation and complete activities using only Spanish. Breakout rooms allow students to work out mistakes and misunderstandings with each other. Once the class joins back together, students can discuss their findings and express concerns. This allows everyone to actively work on their interpersonal communication skills while working on other skills through the completion of assignments.

VHL central also gave students the chance to work on interpersonal skills through the use of audio and oral activities. These activities asked students to listen to the conversation and type down responses in Spanish. In doing this students can work on multiple skills at once!

These activities have allowed me to grow, and strengthen my Spanish speaking skills both in class and in my everyday life. While many of these tasks were challenging I was able to overcome these challenges by pushing myself and remembering to stay motivated.

Throughout the course of the semester, I have been able to see myself excel in interpersonal activities as I have seen myself slowly start to overcome anxiety and get more comfortable with Spanish conversations. In the near future, I plan on dedicating more study time and practice to these forms of communication.

Presentational Speaking

Throughout the semester students practiced presentational speaking. Students practiced presentational speaking in class by presenting answers to activities in Spanish aloud. Students were either called on at random or volunteered to present their answers to the class. This allowed students to overcome fears of speaking in Spanish aloud and allowed them to receive feedback from the professor or other students. 

Completing presentational tasks was both challenging and nerve-wracking. It was hard to quickly overcome the fears of making mistakes while attempting to speak in Spanish. However, my classmates and I quickly learned that mistakes are perfectly okay and bound to happen when learning a foreign language. Our professor reassured us that we would never be penalized for making honest mistakes and said that effort and hard work were always greatly appreciated, especially in class. When learning a new language with a group of people participation is necessary, especially in virtual class settings. In the future, I plan on being more accepting of failure, this will give me the confidence to participate more and not be afraid of slipping up.

Presentational Writing

Throughout the semester students, were also asked to work on presentational writing skills. Students were asked to write compositions to demonstrate their writing abilities and use of chapter vocabulary. Here are some examples of compositions from this semester!

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In each of these activities, students were asked to write short pieces of writing, students were asked to imagine themselves in different situations and write about them using vocabulary learned from the textbook. The two compositions listed above asked students to use the vocabulary learned about daily routines, clothing, food, and activities to produce writing about two unique situations.

Tasks such as these challenged my Spanish writing and vocabulary skills. Compositions gave me the opportunity to gain insight and constructive criticism from my teacher and the chance to work through my mistakes. Compositions also allowed me to see the progress I’ve made throughout the semester.

The most challenging part about the compositions was being able to write sentences grammatically correct. Learning grammar for a new language is challenging and the compositions put my grammar skills to the test. In the future, I plan on dedicating more of my study time to grammar so I am more prepared for assignments like these.

Interpretive Listening

Throughout the semester students practiced their interpretive listening skills. One of the ways students practiced these skills was through actively listening to their classmates and professor. Students also practiced interpretive listing skills through audio and recorded activities provided by the VHL website. TalkAbroad also gave students the opportunity to listen to a native speaker speak. Students were also encouraged to listen to audio and recordings outside of class such as T.V shows and movies. These opportunities gave students the chance to work on their listening skills. Here is an example of a video provided by VHL Central that students were required to watch.

Videos like the one provided were challenging to listen to. When learning a new language it can be hard to actively listen and comprehend things being said. To gain a better understanding of videos, I paused, rewind, and took my time listening to videos to gain the practice I needed to participate in real-life conversations.

Interpretive Reading

Throughout the semester students were given the opportunity to work on interpretive reading skills. Students exercised these skills by reading different forms of writing such as short stories, brochures, flyers, menus, and many more. By engaging in activities such as these students were able to put their interpretive reading skills to the test!

Activities like these were challenging for me, they challenged my vocabulary skills and ability to read in Spanish. To help work through struggles I used context clues such as images to help me gain a better understanding of the writing. In the future, I plan on preparing for tasks like this more by actively reading in Spanish in my everyday life.

Conclusion

Overall, my experience in Spanish 102 this semester was an enjoyable one. I was able to expand on my Spanish-speaking skills and become a more culturally competent student!