Interpretive, Interpersonal, and Presentational Modes of Communication

Address the reflection exercises in each of the following sections. For each section, you will need to embed portions of these assignments and activities as artifacts to substantiate your reflection. Then, at the end of each section, include a link to the document or embed it as a PDF. 

Tutorials are available:

• Embedding a PDF
• Embedding Media (Images, Audio)
• Embedding a Video

An Effective Reflection Is

• Written in English.
• A demonstration, explanation, comparison of skill and growth described through what you learned and the challenges you had in that learning while highlighting your best work.
• A discussion of how you overcame any weakness or obstacles. Explain what you mean.
• Supported by evidence as represented by your artifacts (course materials, photographs, video, conversations, projects, news reports, authentic materials, etc.).
• Specific, addressing particular strengths, weakness, skills, transformative experiences, etc., avoiding vague generalizations (ex: “I learned a lot.”).

An Effective Reflection is not

• Only sharing an artifact without context or discussion.
• Only a description or explanation of an artifact. Focus on your learning and growth as a result of having completed that experience.
• An attempt to justify your work to an instructor. Instead, think more broadly about future audiences that might benefit from seeing evidence of your work and the skills you are developing.

Artifacts

A good artifact is a portion or clip of an assignment. It needs to be carefully selected to provide evidence/proof that supports what you are saying in your reflection.

Your reflection will help you determine what that will be. It is a quest for quality. It will represent you academically and professionally, and have personal meaning. It can be written, audio, or video.

At the end, ask yourself if the artifacts best demonstrates your abilities and growth over time.

At the end of your reflection in each section, link or embed the assignment/artifact. If the assignment has multiple pages and seems to overwhelm the section, consider adding just the first page and offering to provide the rest upon request.

Exploring Culture

I believe that some products and practices that helped me gain an understanding of cultural perspectives has to be food, for example, my first time eating Hispanic food had me thinking of why is it so much different than American food and how they have their own style of cooking. It is very fun to see different cultures create things that are different and not something you see every day.

This helped me better understand the Hispanic culture within the products and practices because of the vibe Hispanics carry, they are very hard working people and like to have tons of fun and party as it helps them get along better. Regular Americans celebrate the traditional holidays as Hispanics have an extension of holidays.

Engaging in Communities

I believe the importance of me engaging in my community is giving back to others, because I know one day I can make a difference in someone’s life for something as simple as having a conversation. It has been a pretty long time since I have done something in this community specifically but I look forward to doing it this summer.

Interpersonal Communication

I think that the Talk Abroad assignment was probably my favorite since I have been taking Spanish, because it allowed me to communicate with a person from a different Spanish speaking country. I was able to learn and compare a lot of the culture from here to the two different types of people I got the chance to speak to.

Each assignment I have done with speaking between Talk Abroad and Flip grid post, is my Spanish speaking ability has improved as well as my understanding of Spanish. Even though I was born as a Hispanic and I have family all from El Salvador, I was never really able to comprehend the nature of the language. I think the only difficult part of these assignments were knowing what to say and when to say it when responding to certain questions. I learned from this because I feel like I should be more engaging in the conversation and include my thoughts when speaking.

Presentational Speaking

For presentational speaking I would say the only activity would be a Flip Grid conversation with my Spanish teacher was as close as I could get to it, due to the fact of it being available for everyone else to see.

As far as I know this semester I was able to complete two flip grid activities/conversations with my Spanish teacher. One thing I believe I struggled with the most were understanding some of the questions I was being asked, it would take me a while to comprehend some of it but eventually I was able to break it down and answer the questions correctly. I exceled at my Speaking and answering questions correctly and how they should’ve been answered. Next time I would study a little more to understand more vocabulary.

Presentational Writing

For presentational writing I was able to complete lots of discussion boards this semester as part of being graded assignments, I was able to learn different things from watching videos on people from Spanish speaking countries on things they liked and how their culture is. I would say my most favorite video I watched was listening to kids talking about what future job careers and then comparing them to people in the US who generally choose the same career paths as kids.

Some things that became easier was just learning the Spanish culture in general, some countries really aren’t much different than the US as far as stereotypes as being human beings, but obviously living their lives slightly different. What became easier was probably for me with these assignments were reacting to what my classmates had to say as well as being in the assignment and seeing their opinions and such.

Interpretive Listening

I think most of the listening activities I had to do were mainly from LingroLearning activities and they were able to help me listen to how to pronounce words I didn’t know how to pronounce.

The only difficulties for me were when I had to listen and then write down the word that I would hear from the recorded voice of the word being said, over time I was able to get better with it and all it took was time and more practice. What I found most interesting about these activities were that they were mainly interactive type activities and they were fun to do. My biggest takeaway was learning how to write in Spanish and I have grown from each activity I have done.

Interpretive Reading

Most of the reading that I had to do for this semester in Spanish was probably from taking exams when answering true or false questions and we would have to read a long paragraph about some type of information. I also did some reading in Lingro Learning.

The only thing that was really challenging for me was breaking down the paragraphs to a point where I could understand a little bit of what was being said within the readings. It was challenging most of the time because there was vocabulary that I didn’t know much of. I was able to overcome this obstacle by continuously reading more than once and expanding my vocabulary. My takeaway from reading was increasing my overall knowledge of Spanish. I believe that I have grown from each assignment by just knowing more vocabulary each time I read.