Home > Research > Quechua Teaching and Research

Research

Quechua Teaching and Research

A UCLA research team has developed multimedia courseware for a first-year Quechua course. The package includes four laserdiscs, a textbook titled Quechua Live and in Color, and supporting computer software that allows the student to interact with the language from a computer workstation. A CD-ROM version is being developed, using high-quality MPEG digital video and audio.

A series of twenty scenes of daily life in the village of Ucuchi, in the Cochabamba region of Bolivia have been captured on laserdisc so that students can hear the way people normally speak and can see the physical gestures and other visual aspects of communication by native speakers of the language, enabling study of all aspects within a social and cultural context.

The primary purpose of the project is to develop a prototype that can be applied to learning any language from recorded natural spoken discourse, including the sociocultural practices that are part of language use by native speakers in their natural environment.

UCLA is one of ten universities in the United States that teach Quechua. Quechua courses are offered during the summer and academic year. The instructor is Emilia Chuquin.