Hello! I'm Kayla
¡Hola! Soy Kayla
Welcome to my Spanish portfolio
Kayla at Park Güell in Barcelona, Spain
Advertising & Spanish major at Drake University
Kayla in Sayulita, Jalisco, Mexico
I’m an aspiring advertising creative who is eager to learn, ready for a challenge, and always putting together the pieces of the consumer puzzle. My adventurous spirit and can do attitude help me to execute the best ideas that I can dream up.
But, I’m not only interested in the advertising world. I started studying Spanish when I was in the 7th grade. Little did I know then that now, nearly 10 years later, my interest in learning Spanish wouldn’t have ceased. Over time, my interest turned into a passion. As I learned more about the culture and got better at speaking, I was excited to start putting my skills to work. I even eventually got to experience that culture and put my linguistic skills to the test through study abroad trips to Barcelona, Spain and Guadalajara, Mexico.
Summative Reflection
Introduction
After three years at Drake University, my Spanish skills have really strengthened and developed through practice. Though my middle school and high school classes prepared me to memorize vocabulary and conjugate verbs, challenging myself to apply my knowledge in new and complex settings such as travel, film, business, and legends allowed me to expand my skills. Through my coursework, I gained a new understanding of both Spanish language and culture and practiced using Spanish in all areas: listening, reading, speaking, and writing. In this reflection, I will refer to "Language skills" and "Levels of competency." These skills and competency levels have been defined by Drake University and represent a novice, intermediate, and advanced level of Spanish. "Beginner" notes an early understanding of Spanish, "Developing," the intermediate level, and "Expanding," the advanced level.
Reading
Reading has always been an area of Spanish where my skills are the strongest. At the start of my Spanish studies at Drake, I was still in a stage where I was reading for understanding. At this point, I have moved on from basic reading for information and can analyze the complexities in a variety of academic, journalistic, and formal texts. My strengths in reading are in texts in social, historical, or literary areas, and I still have some difficulty with reading scientific texts. In this area, my skills are at the "Expanding 1" level of the Language Levels of Competency. With some additional practice, I can move up to the "Expanding 2" level. My goal is to work towards being able to read texts on theory or scientific studies without any difficulty. This will come through practice, which to me means sitting down and reading through those texts slowly, putting phrases I do not understand into my own words, looking up words as I go, and writing short summaries at the end of sections. These were strategies I implemented in my first Spanish classes, and I believe that they were very effective in elevating my reading skills for more complex academic texts. Putting in more effort in this area is a sure way to help my reading progress. Another of my reading goals for the future is to read an entire novel in Spanish. I have never read a full Spanish text before, but I think that I am ready and it will be a fun challenge to continue using my Spanish after graduation.
Writing
Logical organization and flow in my writing is a strength. I can clearly and concisely write an analysis and present my research. I have written many essays over my time as a Spanish major, and each text I write gets more specific and the topic more complex. I feel that I am approaching the "Expanding 2" level of language competency. When I started in Spanish 52, I was writing simple sentences on the general topic of mental health, but by the end of the previous semester, I was writing up business plans completely in Spanish and analyzing the effects of evangelization on legends about mermaids in the Andes region. At this point, I can typically write fluently and with few grammatical errors. Where I can improve my writing is in practice with writing in different styles. When I write, I tend to fall back on a very academic and formal style. I would like to challenge myself to write more emails or perhaps a news article in Spanish to push my capabilities. While I know that I am capable of doing so, it would be great exposure to practice.
Interpersonal speaking
My interpersonal speaking skills are an area where I have a lot of room for improvement. At the beginning of my Spanish studies, I had very little practice with speaking, which was apparent in the choppy and slow way I spoke in my early classes. I had a hard time with conjugation when I spoke. When I went to Spain and was immersed in the language, I got much more comfortable with speaking out of necessity, Through that daily practice, I became a more fluent speaker. Although I would say I can express myself fairly fluently in a variety of situations and can say what I need to say, I want to work on my comfort level in doing so and in elaboration. I am between the "Developing 2" and "Emerging 1" levels of language competency. I find that when I’m having an informal conversation with my classmates and I feel that I am in a low pressure situation, my Spanish is much more fluent and I am more willing to elaborate and express my ideas. However, when I need to speak in a larger group or in a setting like TalkAbroad where I know that the people I am talking to know a lot more than me, I can freeze up. I want to continue working on developing my confidence in speaking by simply challenging myself to do it more. For example, when I was in Mexico I made a point to always speak Spanish with people working in stores and restaurants as an easy way to practice. My grammar and word choice are not yet as developed as I would like in conversations, but I think that with more confidence and experience I will be able to improve. I have shown that practice in the classroom improved my ability to speak in my classes, and I just need to keep making it a goal for myself to speak whenever I can.
Presentational
speaking
Presentational speaking is another area where I have grown in my time at Drake. I had presented in Spanish before coming to Drake, but I always memorized what I was going to say, which is not a great way of showing my skills and fluency. Now, I can clearly communicate my argument and explain my knowledge in a presentation of varying length without memorization. I am able to quickly present my work in a 2 minute synopsis or explain and analyze an issue in a 10-20 minute presentation. I have participated in a group business pitch, which is another example of my presentational speaking skill in a different way. I have shown that I can effectively convey information in a presentation to classmates, which is the result of practice, planning and attention to detail. I still have difficulties with fluency and flow at times in my presentational speaking, which may make it difficult for the listener to follow along. I can better my presentational skills by moving beyond a focus on communicating my point without any grammatical error and hitting all my talking points, but rather becoming a more engaging Spanish speaker by employing the same emphatical skills and variances in tone to help make my speech memorable. When I am able to do so, I will move from the "Emerging 1" level to "Emerging 2."
Listening
At this point in my Spanish learning, I feel that I have strong listening skills. My study abroad experiences allowed me to test my listening skills while watching TV in Spanish, listening to music or the radio, or simply listening to people having informal conversations. I have little difficulty listening to varied types of spoken Spanish at this point, so I would classify myself in the "Expanding 1" range of the Language Levels of Competency. Listening is an area where my skills have improved significantly in my time at Drake. Previously, my Spanish classes were not taught completely in Spanish. This was the first change that made it necessary to hone my listening skills for success in each of my classes. Furthermore, speaking with my classmates and listening to their speech helped me to improve my listening skills because they spoke at a much slower speed than native speakers, especially in my earlier Spanish courses. The course that had the biggest impact on my ability to easily listen to speakers from many different countries at a variety of different speeds was Spanish Film. I began listening to the dialogue and reading the subtitles on the movies, but by the end, I was able to listen with little issue without subtitles.This was a very significant step, and to this day I do not let myself put on subtitles when I listen to videos in Spanish to continue to challenge myself to listen carefully and not rely on reading. At the beginning of my Spanish studies at Drake, accents threw off my ability to listen to speakers from different countries. However, visiting other countries, recognizing differences in pronunciation in Spanish speaking countries, listening to music, and watching films and videos of speakers from a variety of countries allowed me to overcome this obstacle. I can keep improving on and working toward improving my listening skills moving forward by listening to more music in Spanish and watching TV shows to keep my listening skills sharp.
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Culture
I have always had an interest in the expression of Latin American and Spanish culture through art and food. My most memorable growth in the understanding of the historical, political, and social concepts that create a culture have come from my trips to Spain and Mexico. Learning about the Americanization of Mexico also led me to an understanding of the ways that culture has remained traditional in many ways, and which historical and social factors contribute to that culture. In Spain, I learned so much about the Catalan identity and culture through the study of the city’s history, important figures, art, architecture, urban planning, unique language, and cuisine. With that, I was able to learn about the historical context of social phenomena like the independence movement in Catalonia. I was able to see and learn about this movement at the same time. Living within a family in Barcelona, interacting with them, and observing everyday life have been instrumental in my understanding of culture. I also have experienced how to adapt to different cultural expectations in a variety of settings. For example, in both countries there were expectations for dress in certain settings which is ingrained deeply in tradition and respect. I also learned about the expectations of addressing people. In Spain, that meant greeting my host family with a handshake for the man and kisses for the woman. In Mexico, people expected a level of conversational friendliness while out shopping or in general when coming across other people on the sidewalk. Where I can improve in my cultural literacy is accepting, rather than comparing the cultures that I have experienced to my own. Working toward being an objective and observant traveller is an area that I can use to help myself learn more about other cultures and immerse myself in them more deeply.
The Future
After graduation, I hope to continue to use my linguistic and cultural competency in travel and in everyday life. I hope to continue to apply what I have learned about the culture of Spanish speaking countries to be a more understanding and open person. Understanding other cultures has really helped me to understand how my own thoughts and actions are interlaced in the culture I grew up in. In the future, I want to work in advertising, which is all about communication. I can always apply my deeper understanding of other cultures and the skills that I have learned to communicate with people in Spanish to make myself a more effective and sensitive communicator in the workplace. Additionally, I am very passionate about travel. Being able to speak the language in the places I travel to is very important to me. Not only does it make travel easier, it also opens up windows into everyday life and communication with locals in a way that I could not have done without my spanish linguistic skills. I have been to Spain and Mexico, and my next travel goal is to go to Costa Rica and Chile.