English Portfolio 1:
All About Me
Yashaswin G .Macherla
SCLA 111 Minsun Kim
Introduction
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Methodology
Results
Conclusion
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Introduction
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Acknowledgements
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English Portfolio 2:
Language and Cultural Learning Record
Yashaswin G .Macherla
SCLA 111 Minsun Kim
Introduction
Language Learning – Presentation Skills
Cultural Learning
Cultural learning
In this poster, I will provide demonstrate how I became a
better person through acquiring skills I learnt from SCLA 110
and 111. This poster will show how I grew in language and
intercultural competency development. I will show how my
communications skills grew, and my language learning skills
grew through different presentations, field trips and such. Not
only this, but I also believe that I grew as an individual from
acquiring these skills and I also believe that I developed a
sense of culture after attending SCLA 110 and 111. The poster
will explore this more in-depth.
In my SCLA classes, I had to complete more than 5
presentations in front of my whole class. I am a socially
anxious person. I get extremely fidgety and anxious if I must
talk in front of many people, but because I had to complete
these presentations, I had to face my fears.
We were given multiple resources to research and our
professor helped us with how we present.
After coming to the USA, I understood one important aspect
of the American culture, Unity in Diversity. America celebrates
many different cultures without forcing any of them to
assimilate to the American culture. I found this very inspiring
as they are trying to preserve each and everyone’s culture.
Through my SCLA 110 and 111 coursework, I developed a
deeper understanding of intercultural competency and
realized it requires self-awareness, adaptability, and curiosity
about hidden cultural layers. The Iceberg Model really helped
me and changed how I understand and navigate cultural
differences. At first, I only noticed surface-level aspects of
culture, like food, clothing, or holidays, but through this
model, I learned to explore the deeper, invisible layers that
shape behavior: values, beliefs, and unspoken rules. This
program taught me that intercultural growth isn’t about
perfection, but it is really about embracing discomfort, asking
questions, and recognizing that every misunderstanding is a
chance to build bridges between visible and invisible cultural
influences.
Language Learning – Communication Context
One of the most important topic that I have learnt in SCLA
was about communication context. I did not know about
what this was before, and I truly believe this helped me
understand people better. In some cultures, communication
is like an iceberg; 10% is actual words and 90% is hidden
communication. This is a high-context culture, and this what
my country is classified under. A low-context culture
focusses on direct meaning of what they say. This can be a
problem for people like me, because I come from a different
culture. To overcome this, in SCLA 111, we had several
activities on how to help with this, but the one that stuck out
to me the most was definitely the video blogs. We got to
research on our own countries and see how they differed in
context with America. Through this and other in-class
activities, like group discussions, I slowly started to
understand how a low-context community understands each
other. This defiently helped my language skills.
In one of our group presentations about the economics of
food and how it relates to American culture, I had to speak up
and present in front of the whole class. At first, I started to
stutter, but later as I spoke more, my nervousness started to
fade away. I remembered what I had learnt from the previous
classes on how to be a better presenter, and I implemented
these ideas. I spoke louder, stopped moving around, and
remained focused on the task at hand. Not only did I make
new friends from this, but I also think that after completing all
these presentations, I really gained confidence to speak up in
public settings.
An example of a time I experienced this first hand was in one
of my SCLA 110 field trips. Where we went to the American
Indian cultural center on campus. When I went there, I got to
see how different their culture was and an important thing I
learnt from this was that Americans want to understand and
know other cultures. They do not want to destroy them. Due
to this experience, I really think that I can come from
wherever on Earth, and I will still be respected in the USA.
Conclusion
This is the end of the second portfolio. This poster reflects my growth as
a language learner and intercultural communicator. Through vlogs,
group projects, and various field trips, I have applied concepts like the
Iceberg Model to better understand cultural differences. These
experiences taught me to communicate with greater awareness and
adaptability. I now approach cultural interactions with more curiosity
and confidence, seeing them as opportunities to learn and connect.
English Portfolio 3:
My Capstone Reflection
Yashaswin G .Macherla
SCLA 111 Minsun Kim
Introduction
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Methodology
Results
Conclusion
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Introduction
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Acknowledgements
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