Exploring Culture

Using the virtual text was the most beneficial resource used for the course. Additional practices, writings, tutorials, and listening helped me adapt to the Spanish language easier. Outside of the classroom I also try and immerse myself in the culture in order for me to really understand what I am studying. Personally, I choose to listen to Spanish music outside of the class so that I can hear it clearly and try to gain fluency in the way that I speak. In Spanish, I find it very important for pronunciation, this is why I try and listen to understand what they are saying but also make me sound better when trying to speak the language. Below I have attached an example of one of the songs I listen to practice my Spanish.

The textbook allowed me to access additional listening practices. These practices helped me prepare for dialogues presented by other classmates. While they were talking I attempted to decipher what they were talking about. These practices also taught me different information about Spanish culture. For example, the text over to the right is an example of me learning about how Mexicans form their last names.

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Without this information, I would have no clue as to why the individuals had multiple last names upon them getting married to their spouse. One stereotype the text helped to clear was the different ways different countries greet each other. I presumed that everyone just shook hands. This is not true at all as some countries greet with kisses, only accompanied by familiarity to the person.

Engaging in Communities

It is important to engage in my community to serve as a benefit and ensure that everyone is living in a loving open community. As a community, we depend on each other whether we keep each other company or safe. In my community we have built relationships, hoping to keep everyone aware of everything at all times. Studying Spanish will allow individuals to gain more information, possibly informing others of their situation. This may be a positive effect, as it may cause individuals to try and better living conditions for the individuals living in those global communities.

While working in a store, I have experienced using my Spanish skills to help me with my day to day work. This showed me that the Spanish language could be applied to our everyday lives. Reflect on your experience and participation in these communities. Include artifacts such as photos, audio/video clips, etc.

Interpersonal Communication

Throughout the semester, we used audio assignments, writing assignments, and listenings to help us grab the Spanish concepts. Below I have attached a video demonstrating how we benefited from the resources presented within the digital textbook. These include tutorials on pronunciation, practices choosing logical or illogical while using audio, etc. These tools are infinite, covering all topics and helps us to gain a better writing skill for Spanish.

Here I have added a demonstration of the activities we have completed during this semester outside of the classroom for homework as a personal practice.

These assignments have allowed me to get more practice outside of class, strengthening my grammar skills when writing in Spanish, As we wrote numerous prompts throughout the time my content became stronger. With every feedback, I could see improvement in the way that I made fewer errors. Although understanding exactly what structure was a bit difficult, as time continued my understanding of the requirements grew stronger. I eventually grasped the concept and began writing better structurally. What I learned through this course is that using all of the resources will be of benefit to me and it is important to practice outside of class. As you may dismiss the saying, ” practice makes perfect, it shows in the work you present. I gradually got better at lengthening my work as well. At first, I would give simplistic answers but with time I would elaborate more on my response, including as much vocabulary I could.

Presentational Speaking

As we entered the first week of class we have introduced ourselves and talked about our families. This is one of the many speaking activities we participated in, as it was important for us to share each day. Typically this would include us filling in the blanks in class and doing the practice recordings after class in the textbook.

While presenting my work, I have grown experience in chronologically organizing my sentence making sure the structure is in order. The speaking was truly easy but also allowed me to better my Spanish accent as I spoke in Spanish more often. There were a couple of ways that I excelled in my speaking. As I continued to speak I have gained the ability to speak with more swiftness, not having a choppy tone or speaking extremely slow. This shows the progress I have made as a whole.

Presentational Writing

While learning from different chapters of the text we were asked to create visual representations of what we learned from each chapter. This included news ads, family trees, paragraphs concerning our families, etc. In addition, we replied to Forums each week pertaining to the presented topic, providing basic information that could be posted within flyers to help spread the message around. Example being Cinco de mayo festivals and what it represents to Spanish families.

Here I have created a family tree showcasing the relationships between the vocabulary from chapter 3. This helps to showcase Spanish culture in our daily lives and shows us how we can use it in relation to our family.

Completing these assignments helped me to understand the relationships and definitions of the Spanish language. As I continued to apply the Spanish, It made it easier for me to understand the structures for each tense presented. With my previous experience, there weren’t too many difficulties to overcome but having to type on the website, it helped me learn the importance of capitalization. A common mistake I would make would include capitalizing a day of the week, which I later learned was incorrect. Through the completion of the course, I was able to excel in my fluency in Spanish. One thing I could work on is taking more time to really reflect on what I am saying. As I may attempt to say something I may use the wrong conjugation rather than the correct by rushing.

Interpretive Listening

Interpretive listenings has helped me as a student to be able to better understand Spanish through hearing exercises . Listenings helped us to distinguish whether something was true or false or mentioned in the listening . Questions where asked such as ; what did she do every Sunday , did the gym open at six a.m, what was Elana’s sister name etc .

Throughout the course, I have listened to various audios that we were required to listen to. As I continue to listen to the audio , I gained a stronger since of what I am looking for . Some things I found a bit difficult would be hearing the audio’s clearly . Through continues practice I gradually got better , acing it on the first try . The thing I enjoyed the most was listening to the stories which my classmates would tell . I has showed me different ways that people apply spanish to their daily live . It has truly helped me grown to hear spanish and truly understand it .

¿Lógico-o-ilógico_-1

Interpretive Reading

Reading has a fundamental aspect of learning Spanish. While reading we have grasped new tenses, looked at how vocabulary was used in the text, and also read Flash Cultura which is usually accompanied by a video.Along with these activities , we also read homework assignments , which we typically used for discussion for class .

While in class we participated in numerous reading activities, analyzing the text to answer questions based on the text. This helped me to overcome the difficulty of reading the dialogue to figure out what the conversation is about. I found it especially interesting as we read the content we were presented with new information pertaining to the Spanish culture. I’ve learned basic principles about Spanish. This contains the principles of Spanish last names, traditions, Comida , music, etc. With each assignment my knowledge has grown, making me more hungry for more content.