Reflections F2023/S2024

Name: Daniel Rodríguez Arciga Powell

Date: Friday, February 23rd, 2024.

ImmerseMe Topic & Category: Spanish: immersion, typing, spelling, speaking

e-Portfolio Artifacts are digital evidence of progress, experiences, achievements, and goals over time.
Artifacts are examples of your work.
Be sure to record your ImmerseMe experience in Zoom.

Answer prompts 1-5 below in English to help you process your language learning progress using the
virtual experience of ImmerseMe:

1. Why did/didn't this ImmerseMe category/lesson in particular appeal to you?

I am a native Spanish speaker. I participated under the fluent in Spanish category. During the typing
exercise, the audio did not match the words we were asked to type. The directions say to write down
the sentence we hear, in particular, the audio said “vivan” but in order for the sentence to be scored
correctly, I had to type “vives”. This issue happened a second time, the audio said “completamente” but
the correct response was “totalmente”. This would ultimately discourage a Spanish learner from using
the features on this online platform.

2. Which scaffolded learning mode from ImmerseMe was most helpful to you this week
(pronunciation, writing/dictation, translation, immersion). What specific aspects of the lesson
made it helpful to you?

Spelling and writing are the most beneficial for students who require help strengthening their listening
skills. This is the case because those activities require students to break down every word they are
listening to; however, the system still has bugs which would adversely impact learners’ acquisition
process.

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 3. How did you feel about the experience offered by ImmerseMe? Did the use of visuals, audio,
interaction, and the depiction of the space impact your learning in a positive or negative
fashion? Please explain.

The audiovisual content is great because it truly brings the Spanish-speaking world to the student. I
would definitely use this platform with my future students once the system bugs are fixed.

4. What were some of the multicultural learning experiences for you? Consider the authentic
location. What did you learn, notice, negotiate, connect with, etc.?

The person speaking had a European accent when speaking Spanish. This allows learners to not
only focus on Latin American Spanish, but also other idiomatic expressions. Additionally, the
authentic setting allowed me to visualize what the living conditions are of someone else using
the target language.

5. How did the ImmerseMe category reflect your strengths and interests this week? What have
you done well? What was your biggest challenge when completing this ImmerseMe category ?

My biggest challenges involved technical obstacles I encountered with the online platform. I am using an
iPad to complete the activities and the keyboard characters/symbols/letters were sometimes not
recognized when typing. Additionally, I wish the immersion task would allow free speech instead of
memorizing pre-designed phrases. This takes the student away from spontaneous speech to
memorization and rehearsed conversations. Basically, this last feature is not authentic. Furthermore, I
have completed the last activity multiple times (over six times) and it still only shows 50% completion.