Here are some activities and assignments I completed while in Spanish 101!

Exploring Culture

While learning Spanish, the Vista Higher Learning (VHL) interactive website helped me both learn the Spanish language while learning about the culture. The VHL website provided me with videos about popular landmarks and activities that are important to Spanish speaking countries.

These products helped me understand values and attitudes in Hispanic culture through the use of interactive videos. I was able to test my knowledge and understand my biggest takeaways by participating in mini-quizzes and activities after watching VHL videos. 

VHL activities challenged my worldview by asking me to compare American culture to Hispanic culture. Questions and activities like these helped me appreciate and understand how unique Hispanic culture is. Questions like these revealed many challenges. VHL activities showed me how different American culture is from a Hispanic culture and even exposed some negatives about American cultures such as stereotypes and common misconceptions Americans have about Hispanics. Both VHL and my Spanish instructor helped me and my fellow students gain a different perspective on Hispanic culture and helped us work through common misconceptions by educating us.

Engaging in Communities

For a class assignment, I was asked to create an interview with a make-believe friend who I was expecting to visit me for the holidays. This presentation was a great way to put my Spanish speaking skills to the test! It challenged me to use new vocabulary and speak clearly and fluently. While creating this video I was not allowed to use notecards, this challenged me to work through all my fumbles on camera. While watching the video you can see me correcting myself and working through mistakes. Working through mistakes is an important part of learning a new language!

Interpersonal Communication

For Spanish 101, I was required to participate in an oral interview with a student. In this activity, I was asked to interview my partner and ask him questions about his school schedule and his time at Old Dominion University. In this interview my partner I were not allowed to use notecards, this challenged us to work with the Spanish speaking skills we had and use them to communicate with one another.

In Spanish 101 we worked on our Spanish speaking skills in other ways besides interviews. We also used discussion boards as a way to communicate with other students. We were challenged to not use any English when communicating with one another. Discussion boards helped us exercise our writing, reading, and speaking skills. Throughout the year, as my vocabulary grew, I was able to communicate with students in more complete sentences. By the end of the year, I was able to ask more questions and engage in more conversation!

Presentational Speaking

While learning Spanish, we were asked to practice our presentational speaking skills through various interviews and communication via Zoom. Some examples of interviews I participated in can be found in the earlier sections of this page, such as my partner interview and individual interview where I put my Spanish speaking skills to the test!

To exercise our presentational speaking skills students were asked to talk with one another in breakout rooms over zoom call. In breakout rooms, students were asked to communicate with one another using only Spanish. In breakout rooms, you were asked to present answers to questions asked in class in Spanish and engage with other students. Break out rooms were very challenging at times. Many times it was hard to break the ice and communicate with one another via Zoom. Over time my classmates and I were able to overcome these challenges through communication. We were able to help each other improve our Spanish skills by correcting each other.

Presentational Writing

In Spanish 101 I was asked to write multiple compositions to exercise my Spanish writing skills. In many of these activities I was asked to practice my writing skills and sentence structure by learning to write about myself, my family, and school life in Spanish.

In this activity, I was asked to write a one-page letter to a friend. In this letter, I was asked to use my Spanish vocabulary to describe myself and my family. I was not allowed to use any English. This assignment was super challenging because I had to work on my sentence structure, spelling, gender agreement, and conjugation. For me, sentence structure and conjugation are my two biggest struggles. I was able to overcome these challenges and learn to fix my mistakes with help from my professor, who went back and helped me work on my rough draft. With help from my professor, I was able to come up with a final product!

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In this assignment, I was asked to test my Spanish skills by putting together a flyer for my university. In the flyer, I was asked to write about the different activities offered at my university. This assignment challenged me to write the days of the week, time, and locations in Spanish. I was able to overcome these challenges with the help of my professor, textbook, and in-class notes. Assignments like this are great ways for me to practice my writing skills and put my vocabulary to the test.

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Through out the semester I noticed that my sentence structure and vocabulary improved, allowing me to compose more advanced pieces of writing!

Interpretive Listening

Throughout this semester I was tasked to listen to clips of Spanish-speaking voices and interpret those clips. On exams and VHL, I listened to 2 to 3-minute voice clips. After listening to these clips I was asked to interpret what was being said and answer some questions.

These tasks challenged my Spanish listening skills! Many times these tasks challenged me because of the speed the speakers were speaking. When learning Spanish, it can be hard listening to fast speakers while trying to understand what is being said. Over time I was able to overcome these challenges through practice. As my Spanish vocabulary grew I was able to break apart recordings and listen out for key words to help me understand what is being said. My goal is to be able to understand voice recordings and Spanish speakers without having to pause or ask speakers to slow down.

Interpretive Reading

Throughout the semester I was asked to test my Spanish reading skills. To challenge these skills, I was asked to read multiple texts. Some of the texts provided by VHL included flyers, brochures, text messages, phone calls, and excerpts. 

Many of these tasks challenged me. Many of the reading tasks included vocabulary I did not know, to over come these challenges I had to use key words to help understand what I was reading. By reading words and phrases I did not understand, I was able to learn new vocabulary and see old vocabulary in new contexts. 

My future goal is to expand my vocabulary so I can understand new words when reading challenging texts!

My Take Aways

The most interesting aspect of this semester was VHL culture videos. I enjoyed learning about Hispanic culture. I always enjoy learning about cultures that are not my own. I feel that learning about other cultures will allow me to be a more open and understanding person.

The interviews, discussion boards, speaking, and listening tasks all challenged me in different ways this year. Many of my challenges stemmed from vocabulary issues. My goal for next semester to study more of my vocabulary and practice speaking skills more often. The more I practice next semester the more challenges I will be able to overcome!

Throughout this semester I grew a lot. I am not able to have a basic conversation, speak about myself, my family, the days of the week, time, activities, what I don’t like and like to do, and many more. this semester has taught me that hard work does pay off!