Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Exploring Culture

Through the various exploration assignments on Contraseñas, I was able to learn a lot about the countries I chose to research. I could learn how their social media works, what kind of schooling they have, and their famous celebrities that make an impact there. It was interesting to learn about those things while trying to research them in the Spanish native language. I not only learned how to research in Spanish but through reading various articles in the countries I was able to read and comprehend the reading to understand it better.

Learning the different ways they speak in different Spanish-speaking countries made me realize that it was sort of like different dialects and slang used here in the US. As well as their different forms of speaking and language they value different types of social media more than we do in the United States. A lot of the people here in the US do not use WhatsApp like people in Spanish-speaking countries do and I found that really surprising. Additionally, they also have different ideas of colleges and universities, their prices alone are very different varying from the United States and I realized a lot of different countries price things like college in different ways.

Learning that the culture and ways of thinking are in some ways very different but also the same made me realize that there are a vast amount of opportunities to learn something new about all the different countries out there. Viewing and researching places like Spain and Argentina and how they work and function gave me a glimpse inside their little but wide world.

Engaging in Communities

Exploring and engaging in your community and even giving help to the people where you live is very important to build a relationship with people you are always surrounded by. It can even help you in the long run if you might find yourself in trouble or need assistance within your community. Establishing a relationship with the people of your community helps build meaningful connections with people you grow up with, live aside, and see each day. Even if you just go to local events and talk with a few people here and there you are engaging with others you live aside and it is a wonderful thing to build on. Even helping a little with local fundraisers or food drives is a drop in the bucket with helping in your community.

Interpersonal Communication

With having to communicate and establish a conversation with another classmate over zoom to complete various different scenarios I was able to learn how to carry a conversation fluidly. With also having to prepare beforehand for what I should include in the conversation I could practice what was in Spanish and understand it in English more each time. As the weeks progressed I improved on how fluid the conversations should go and I feel as if now I get the idea of how conversations should flow.

Through the weekly zoom calls with my project partner, I was consistent in learning how Spanish conversations should move and I spoke in Spanish weekly because of it. With learning how to carry conversations in Spanish I also made a valuable partnership with my partner as we worked together through the semester. I feel as if I built communication skills through talking to someone new who goes to the same college as me but lives so far away and off-campus.

At first, I found it very difficult to carry through with the conversations as I really haven’t had that opportunity in the past to do so. With learning Spanish through most of my years in high school I did have prior knowledge of the basics and foundations of the language but I have never had the experience to carry through numerous conversations. As time progressed though I feel as if I have significantly grown with verbally speaking Spanish as a whole. I really excelled at speaking it with conciseness and correctness but I do also feel at times I was choppy with my wording. With learning from previous videos I recorded I could see how I can improve on things such as grammar and word choice, like when to use ser or estar.

Presentational Speaking

In this video, I practiced my vocab and how to say different words in Spanish. This activity through video helped me look back at how I pronounced each word and I can reference it for further practice and look back on my improvement as this was the first presentational video I submitted.

Through this video, I submitted I was presented with questions that I would have to answer about myself on the screen in front of me. Without any notes, I was to answer the questions that were on the screen in Spanish completely.

Although the first presentational video was easy and I just had to read off of vocab it still helped me learn things and it helped me improve my pronunciation. I can look back at the first video and see how I started off and in the second one, I can see how I improved by stating various sentences. Going from just stating various words to producing and completing full sentences from a set of questions, really shows how I improved from the start of the semester towards the close end of it. In each of the videos, I could have spoken more clearly and overall pronounce each word more vividly.

Presentational Writing

In this work, I submitted I had to create a weekly calendar of what I do on a day-to-day basis. I had to document when I would study, work out, and even go to class.

Maria-Toombs-Proyecto-3

In this assignment, I had to write a nomination letter about someone who I admire.

Maria-Toombs-Mi-carta-de-nominacion

Through both of these pieces of text I had to write I learned how to document my day-to-day in Spanish and I also got to elaborate and showcase the Spanish vocabulary I learned. Through the calendar alone I had to repeat a lot of steps I did daily for other days of the week and through this repetition I learned permanently what most words meant. Typing and writing it out for myself helped me retain the information more clearly and helped me grow further down the line when I had to do a quiz in the future on vocabulary. In the nomination letter, I learned how to write a letter in Spanish formally to a person. This type of assignment could be useful in the future if I ever find myself having to write a letter in Spanish.

Interpretive Listening

In this video, I had to listen to a conversation of two people meeting for the first time. I had to understand what they were saying and comprehend it to respond to the discussion board for our class.

This video was pretty hard to comprehend without the subtitles as I tried to learn what they were saying without them. I attempted to understand the word choice they used and how formal they were with each other through their tone and dialect. Now that I am listening to it now it is easier for me to understand and I feel good about where I stand with learning word choice and formality in Spanish.

Interpretive Reading

In this assignment, I had to research siestas, or workdays, in a Spanish-speaking country of my choice. I had to use my skills of learning some vocabulary in Spanish to navigate different websites and what they told me about typical workdays in that country.

https://www.serargentino.com/gente/asi-somos/no-me-toques-la-siesta

On this website which was fully in Spanish about Argentina’s siesta, I first tried to comprehend what they were saying without translating. I not only used the vocabulary I know to understand the article but I then used that information I gathered to fill in the information needed for my assignment. It was difficult navigating through a search bar in Spanish and looking for the correct website I needed to get the information for the website, but I recognized the skills I was learning by reading a passage fully in Spanish. Through the articles, I was able to research through various assignments like this one on Contraseñas I was able to learn how to read, comprehend, and even write, words and sentences I understood in Spanish through the course period.