Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Durning the semester, our learning activities in each chapter of Lingro Learning featured a section that took around Spanish speaking countries and gave us insite on family dynamics, traditions, gender roles, sports and activities, health and foods, and work. The investigate portion that followed had us looking up topics to write our own interpretation of what we learned. We also watched a few YouTube videos that taught us about different Hispanic foods and stereotypes.

An example of this from chapter 8 is when we had to look up a dish from a Spanish speaking country. Lingro suggested searching in Spanish to help make the search more accurate. I found that searching in Spanish helped me better understand written Spanish and also helped me understand what people were saying faster when listening to someone speak. There were activities like this for every chapter that focused around the theme of the chapter, whether it was family, activities, health or careers.

Engaging in Communities

It is important to be able to engange the community around you because of what you can learn about your community and how it can enrich your life. When you begin to work in larger companies it becomes important to engage the global community because it can improve your business and increase trade. This starts with communication skills and in a world that becomes more diverse by the day, it is important to be able to communicate with those who may speak other languages. It can also bring people into your life that you may never have known.

Durning this semster, I have had the oppertunity to engage my classmates through our discussion boards. What started as a topic item, ended up giving a glimpse of my classmates’ thoughts and values and mine to them.

Interpersonal Communication

Twice this semester I had the oppertunity to speak with someone from a Spanish speaking county via TalkAbroad. I also had 2, 15 minute conversations with my professor in Spanish. As a class, we had a discussion board topic for every chapter and 2 flipgrid videos to make that were in Spanish followed by a response video that was also in Spanish.

I enjoyed my talk abroad conversations. I met Rubén from Perú and Danilo from Nicaragua. They both helped me when the could tell I was overthinking and were easy to talk to. I could understand them but kept trying to think of what I wanted to say in English and then translate it in my head before I responded. The reflection portion of the assignment helped me see what I needed to work on and where I needed more practice. My conversatoins with my professor helped me improve on spontaneous conversation and better my casual conversation skills. Each discussion board gave me an oppertunity to express my interpretation of the topic and engage my classmates. This helped my reading and writing skills improve. In the future, I would like to focus more time on preperation before conversations. I think a little extra practice would make it flow more naturally and I would not get hung up in my head.

I also had the oppertunity to expand my conversation skills outside of class. My dental hygienist is from Panama and was very excited when I greeted her in Spanish and we had a quick conversation about what I was studying before my cleaning appointment. Additionally, my friend from Puerto Rico, Lamarie, was happy to speak Spanish with me and help me practice before my conversation with my professor. I could tell she enjoyed being able to talk with someone in her native language. Below are links to the audio files for my two talk abroad conversations.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1ScCzqm_1nWb_aHNqbc7QGNgzLn9wOCCt/view?usp=share_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1tOSEhdz48VfeAZxo8oIL4i1l0MtjpK3H/view?usp=share_link

Presentational Speaking

In every chapter in Lingro Learning I had an exercise where I would have to record myself speaking in Spanish about topics associated with the chapter. I then was able to play it back and listen to myself talk and re-record it as necessary.

For Chapter 6 I recorded myself talking about my wife, Victoria, my brother, Mike and his daughter Sarah, my sister, Sarah and her two daughters Laurel and Brighten. For Chapter 7, I talked about a soccer game a group of students were watching. For Chapter 8 I talked about what I eat for breakfast, lunch, a snack, and dinner. For Chapter 9 I gave advice to a friend on different pressure points in the feet that relieved different ailments. For Chapter 10 I talked about my ideal career managing a brewery. When I started the semester I was so worried about how I was going to sound and was overthinking what needed to be said. I would practice and practice and then record and mess up. By the end, I practiced what I wanted to say once or twice and then recorded. I feel as though they came out better at the end. In the future, I won’t focus so much on how I want to sound and just say what needs to be said. Below is a link for audio of what I recorded about managing a brewery.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1CfwMqWPnRdSwU1xPJmgASGiP7GaZUxj8/view?usp=share_link

Presentational Writing

There were several excersises within Lingro Learning that gave me an oppertunity to work on my compositional skills. I was able to read about a topic and then summarize it or was told to write based on the subject of the chapter.

As I completed these assignments it became easier to get the sentence structure right. I still struggle with the proper use of accent marks but am working on that by going over the vocabulary. I feel that my ability to understand someone speaking also helped me with the sentence structure. I believe more practice will help me when it comes to spelling and accent marks.

Interpretive Listening

In each chapter there were multiple assignments where I had to listen to a recording and then answer several questions about the recording. In our Flipgrid assignments I had to listen to what our professor said, interpret it and the record ourselves responding as if it were a conversation.

In Chapter six I listened to several different descriptions of family and had to answer questions about different family memebers. In Chapter 7 I listened to several recordings and had to select the activity that was being described. In Chapter 8 there were multiple listening excersises about food where we had to select what was being talked about or determine if it was a fact, opinion, or not true. In Chapter 9 there were several listening exercises but one that stands out is where I had to listen to a recording and then select how to prevent a sickness or what to do to treat an ailment. In Chapter 10 I listened to descriptions of activities and had to determine which picture of a profession matched the audio. In the first Flipgrid assignment in Spanish I listined to my professor speak about activities and staying active and the responded as though it were a live conversation. In the second assignment my professor asked about my health and the health of my family and then I simulated a conversation about health responding to her recording. When I started these exercises, I was a little intimidated. I had not spoken Spanish in a long time and hadn’t studied it in over 15 years. By the end I was understanding what was being said very well but I am still struggling with responding in a more natural way. Below are links to my Flipgrid responses to my professor. Unfortunately, you cannot hear my professor.

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1t3WU1yQL1UxWqkRvRsTov5SZTAhOY6Cy/view?usp=share_link

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1KA09clD1h3EicOUzzlpD_xw2WLTa5bWP/view?usp=share_link

Interpretive Reading

Throughout Lingro Learning there are exercises to read and answer questions or select images that were described in the reading. There were also exercises to identify different types of verbs. Some of the objectives were to read an article and or paragraph and summarize the content.

The most obvious example of this to me is in the exploration section of each chapter. I would click on different countries that were highlighted and read a blerb about someone from the country and a topic related to the chapter. Then in the next section I would have to identify who each statement referred to based on what I had read in the previous activity. Sometimes, more than one person would say something similar and I would have to go back and re-read what each person said to make sure I was selecting the right person or country. I felt as though there were a lot of important cultural behaviors or tendencies that were identified in these activities that you really need to pay attention to should you travel to these countries. Each assignment made me more efficient at scanning to get an idea of the topic and then re-reading for substance.