SPAN 101

​ePortfolio: Integrative Learning Framework Guidelines​

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1. Introduction: Originally, I enrolled into Spanish 101 for required course credits, but I am starting to get interested in learning a second language. I realize that this will help me significantly in my engineering career. Know a second language will open doors for me and allow me to travel around the world a little easier. Learning more about this culture will help me become a more well-rounded individual. I want to be able to walk into a place in either Spain or Mexico and be able to understand what they are saying; maybe even surprise them with a response in Spanish. This will help me grow in the long run.

2. Experience: Outside of the classroom, my experience with Spanish is very limited. My wife teaches 4 year-olds and has about 4 kids that only speak Spanish. I have listened to one of her parent conferences and I only understood a few words. I am pretty excited learning a new language. If I can get my experience and comfort level up in this endeavor, it will help me with future employment and make travelling around the world a lot more fun. I want to learn more about this culture and I am going to practice more with my wife so that I can be more proficient and speak with confidence. I wish that I could study abroad to help me with this, but I am too busy with my current commitments. I do plan on practicing more often and making use of the book and SpanishDictionary.com. I want to travel around the world and visit places in Central and South America and Spain so I can experience these interesting cultures up close.

3. Discipline: In my discipline, we deal with a lot of clients and companies that are from other countries outside of the US. The one I currently work for has important connections in China, Japan, Mexico, Britain, Egypt, and Spain to name a few. Learning Spanish and how to speak it efficiently will help when I am dealing with them and any projects that are related to them. We do have a few people that can speak well, but having additional people will help. Plus, it gives me an opportunity to grow and move up within the business.

4. Transfer: I am taking courses toward a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering technology. This field is very large and there are so many different cultures and languages involved in it. I work in a growing field that tends to travel overseas a lot and being bilingual helps. It saves money by not needing a translator to travel with you and people tend to feel more comfortable around someone that knows some of the dialect, customs, and culture. Plus, many engineering jobs, especially in sales and project management are recommending that you are proficient in at least one other language. I want to be able to do this within my career, so I need to work harder to achieve this goal.

5. Integrated Communication

   • Exploring Culture: I find their culture to be very interesting. I will admit that the cheek kissing is a little weird to me, but I understand why they do it. I wish that the US treated education like they do in Spain. Education is so expensive here and it seems to only be accessible to those that can get a scholarship or the wealthy. I believe that every high school graduate should go thru college and that the price was so much lower per semester there. Unfortunately, there are many that do not see a point for continuing education and do well without it. I have been blessed that I make enough money that I can go through this without needing loans or financial assistance.

   • Speaking and pronunciation: There were pronunciation hints given throughout the modules and the Spanish dictionary that helped me with my assignments like reciting the alphabet, speaking sentences, and saying a set of words from each letter. I need to practice this task as often as I can to be able to do this without the need of notes. 

   • Interpretive listening: The site Spanish Dictionary (spanishdict.com) had plenty of good resources that allowed me to hear how these words and sentences are spoken. Also the interactive book had this too. I like to try and imitate what I hear and it does help. I'll get better with more practice.

   • Writing in Spanish: The writing assignments helped me learn about the Spanish keyboard and how to type the letters: ¿, Ñ, ñ, á, é, í, ú, ó, ä, ë, ï, ü, ö, à, â, ç etc. I still need to practice a lot more as I do work with a lot of different people and nationalities. 

   • Interpretive Reading: The questions that required reading in Spanish were not the easiest and I spent a lot of time going through each module and rereading them to find the answer or figure out what a word meant. It made me think which is a good thing. As the semester went on, I began to recognize some words without looking it up which made me feel good. 

   • Interpersonal Communication: I learned that there are more than one way to say certain phrases. There are masculine and feminine versions to each word like "el perro" and "la perra" and it is a lot to take in at first. There are some many verbs, adjectives, and pronouns and these are all in just the present tense. So I know that there is so much more that I need to learn.

   • Engaging in Communities: Each module had a discussion board assignment based on what was being taught in it. It was a good way to get to know some of the other classmates and learn a little more about them. It required us to think and learn how to write more sentences in Spanish.

6. Self-Assessment and Reflection: I feel like I have done ok in this introductory class. I will admit that I did not practice enough throughout the semester and I rushed through all of the modules and quizzes. I did make some changes to my weekly routines, but it was not enough to get the some of the points. My plan from here on out is to practice vocal speech with my wife on a daily account, try to read and memorize the material better (before the next class), and listen to the speech thru movies and music.