MLO1: LANGUAGE PROFICIENCYStudents are able to communicate effectively in Spanish in three modes: interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational, and in a culturally appropriate manner in a variety of social and professional settings and circumstances at the Advanced Low level of language proficiency, according to ACTFL Guidelines Courses I have completed:SPAN 301, SPAN 304
Language proficiency is a highly important aspect of the Spanish major, allowing students to fluently communicate in an interpersonal, interpretive, and presentational mode. I was able to strengthen my abilities in the interpersonal and presentational modes in my SPAN 301: (Spanish Composition & Oral Practice). In this class, we had the opportunity to practice our writing skills by having discussion boards where we reflected on our thoughts regarding different topics related to the course and we were also able to respond to our classmates in a correct and polite way. During this class we discussed topics such as abortion, sexism, and feminism while utilizing academic discourse. Based on these discussions, I completed a group presentation titled “Los artistas que apoyan la igualdad de género y el empoderamiento de la mujer” where we talked about artists who raise their voice in service of social justice and gender equity through their works of art, whether through music, short films, or movies. This class helped me to gain more confidence and to improve on the interpersonal and presentational modes of my Spanish. I have practiced the interpretive mode in all my classes, especially in my literature courses, where we closely analyzed literary works by focusing on elements such as their historical and social contexts, their literary movements, the writer's style, literary techniques, messages, purposes, and how each text applies to the subject matter on a social and personal level. An essay which exemplifies my use and practice of these skills is “God ,” which analyzes mysticism in the poems of St. Teresa of Avila, in which the main themes are faith and the consecration of the soul to God. Despite having improved my skills a great deal, to this day I have trouble with literature and the elements I mentioned above. This is difficult for me because in literature there are poems or novels written in a different era, making the grammar and sentence formation convoluted. But in general my communication in the interpersonal, interpretive and presentational modes has and will continue to improve over time.