Taking notes on rules and tricks to remember and know when to use accent marks in Spanish has really improved my writing and reading skills. By knowing where a word contains its stress, I'm more able to pronounce and enunciate words that I haven't come across before. Inclusively, I've seen myself spelling more words correctly and I've become less afraid of reading out loud texts in my Spanish class. I've definitely become more confident in terms of writing and speaking and I've seen this transformation in the practice IB Spanish Paper 2 exams we take in class. Additionally, my end of the unit exams have really improved in comparison to the grades I'd receive on them at the beginning of the semester.
Reading
I've always liked to read but before trying to expand my skills in Spanish, I've stuck to reading books in English. I very much enjoyed reading books from authors who I'd never been exposed to before. Currently, I'm reading a book from Isabel Allende called La Casa de los Espiritus. So far it's been great and I can't wait to finish it and read more of her work. Before deciding to read more in Spanish, I knew I lacked fluency and speed when reading. I'd stumble across words and I'd get frustrated with myself for not being able to read articulately. Now, I've seen an improvement when I'm reading books in Spanish; I recognize a lot more words (my vocabulary span has expanded) and I'm able to read without too much difficulty. I'm definitely not 100% fluent with reading, but compared to before, I'd say my improvement is pretty remarkable.
Movies
Seeing people communicate and express themselves using the Spanish language has helped me improve my speaking and comprehension when interacting with others in Spanish. The movies I watched were all representative of more everyday language versus a more formal one. I was exposed to a more common culture and was able to catch on to a lot of new words and truly learn the meaning of ones that I had been exposed to before, but hadn't really understand the meaning of. Watching these movies also exposed me to more conversational language and grammar and I've seen myself being able to hold a conversation longer than I use to before.
Music
Listening to music has helped me formulate and construct proper sentences. Listening to how things are sad and how things are pronounced has improved my literacy all around. Music in Spanish is very narrative and usually tells a story. Being able to hear it versus reading or seeing it has exposed me to how to properly say things. Also, being more aware that I was listening to this music to improve my Spanish made me more actively engaged with it. Being engaged with it made me actually pay attention to the lyrics and words as opposed to simple playing it. Engaging with the music and really trying to understand the meaning and what is being said improved the way I express myself and communicate with others.
New Exposure
Besides reading literature, I've also invested in reading new in Spanish. I have CNN in Spanish on my phone and check up on global news at least once a day. Doing something that I'd usually do, but with English articles, has really shown me how easy it can be to read and engage more with the Spanish language. Simply reading one news article a day is such an improvement to what I would read 2 years ago (nothing).