Peer Review

Las Voces de Las Mujeres / Women's Voices

Material Detail page

Reviewed:: Mar 3, 2012 by World Languages

Bookmark

Ratings

Overall Rating:

Content Quality:

Effectiveness:

Ease of Use:

Overview:: Las Voces de Las Mujeres/Women's Voices is a material that focuses on learning Hispanic culture through interviews and stories of women from different Hispanic countries, backgrounds, social classes and occupations. The material consists of four main sections that contain video-interviews of women from four cities of different countries that are Guatemala, Mexico, the Basque Country (Pais Vasco), and the Dominican Republic. Within each section are: a brief history of the city of origin of the women, instructions on how to use the program, written interview. questions, pictures, glossaries of difficult words, credits to people who contributed to the design of this material, and assignments related to each main section. his website is centered around four cities: Xelaju, Guatemala, Morelia, Mexico, Donostia, Pais Vasco, and Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. For each city, the author, Tess Lane, interviews several women from each city. She asks the same set of questions to each woman in each city, allowing us to see how the women in each of these cities respond. The website also includes a historical description of each city, photos of the city and people that live there, instructions on how to use the site, a list of the interview questions that were asked, and activities that instructors can use with the website in their classes. The target audience are students from College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division.
Type of Material:: The material is a collection. It contains text, audio-video interviews, pictures and a set of questions for each section that could be used to practice listening comprehension of the content.
Recommended Uses:: To expose language learners to authentic examples of speech as it is used throughout the Spanish-speaking world. This material can be used to teach culture, with activities such as listening comprehension, writing and expression in Spanish.
Technical Requirements:: Adobe Flash Player, works well with Chrome
Identify Major Learning Goals:: Videos allow learners to hone their listening comprehension skills while learning about similarities and differences among Hispanic cultures, communities and language.This website would be effective for reenforcing listening comprehension in intermediate to advanced level classes. It would also be a good resource for students to learn about the history and culture of these cities. By using this material learners get a better understanding of the culture of women from four Hispanic settings. Following the example of the women interviewed, students will learn to express themselves in Spanish by responding to the set of questions.
Target Student Population:: College General Ed, College Lower Division, College Upper Division,Intermediate to advanced level language learners, high school through post secondary
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:: Students must be able to comprehend spoken Spanish without the use of subtitles. The shorter clips featured under "Introducciones", which focus on participants' basic personal information, may be used for advanced beginners. At least an intermediate level of Spanish ability needed to understand the interviews

Content Quality

Rating:
Strengths:: This site is a wonderful resource for the Spanish language instructor. Students are able to make cultural comparisons by observing modes of dress, accent, and differences in lifestyle based on the way the women interviewed answer the questions. Instructors are aided by the addition of pre-prepared activities to use with the students. Students are aided by a list of the interview questions which are posted on the site as well as helpful vocabulary that is posted with each interview. In addition, students are able to view photos of the cities and learn a little bit about the history of each city. At the very least, this site is an excellent tool for reenforcing listening comprehension skills and teaching about culture. It could also act as a jumping off point for more in-depth projects or research, depending on the abilities and interests of the class. The twenty women interviewed from each country in Latin America and the ten interviewed from Donostia, Spain, represent a wide range of personal experiences and interests and engage the viewer with their honest and open discussions. The photos, which are clear, colorful and captivating, illustrate daily life as well as special celebrations. The content of this material is reliable. It presents interviews and videos of real people pertaining the Hispanic culture. The students can listen and see the native speakers interviewed. They can have a perception of the realities of a large array of women who have different ages and socio-economic backgrounds . There is a glossary of vocabulary words that students may not familiar with in most of the sections. There are also other aspects of the culture that students can view, read from the material such as images and history of places where the women are from. For each group of women, activities and questions are available for students to test their understanding and express themselves in the target language.
Concerns:: For a Web site featuring women's voices, it would be appropriate to include more photos that feature women. In the photos of human subjects, such as fishermen, folk dancers, cowboys, domino players and others, women are overwhelmingly absent. In the site's text, there are some errors in capitalization and occasional missing diacritical marks. For example, adjectives related to nationality are incorrectly capitalized in the “historia” sections (e.g. herencia Maya [sic], los Vascos [sic], etc.). In the second sentence of the "Instrucciones" section for each country, the formal ("estudie") and informal imperative ("contesta") forms are used in the same sentence.

Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool

Rating:
Strengths:: With such a wide array of voices to hear, students are sure to find stories that will capture their interest and broaden their horizons about communities that textbooks and media often fail to acknowledge. The post-viewing activities are clear, extensive and helpful in ensuring comprehension. This material can be used to introduce students to the Hispanic culture. It can be used to reinforce students abilities to understand native speakers and speak the language themselves. The glossaries are very helpful for understanding. The images are clear, colorful and well illustrated, this can motivate students to learn more about what they can see. This site should pique student interest through the use of interviews with native speakers from various regions. Students are presented with different ways to learn about these women and the places that they are from (through photos and by listening to interviews) and are invited to reflect on the same questions that were asked to the women being interviewed. This is a rich cultural resource that can enrich students' listening comprehension and cultural awareness.
Concerns:: None

Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty

Rating:
Strengths:: The site is quite easy to use. There are four main sections identifying places of origin of the women interviewed. The students can easily navigate from one section to another. Basic information is available on the women interviewed when the mouse is cursor is pointed on their picture. The photos are extremely aesthetically pleasing. The textiles used on the home page to identify each country are colorful and, as symbols of the traditionally female interests of sewing and weaving, are well-suited for a site aimed at raising awareness of Hispanic women's experiences.
Concerns:: Although visually appealing, the home page lacks information on what “Las voces” is. A brief summary of the project would be helpful for users, whether they encounter the link from outside or within the Language Acquisition Resource Center Web site. While the index page of each country features a link to the main "Voces" home page, it would be helpful to have a way to return directly to the main home page from every screen within each country's section. instructions are mostly clear. The only part that seemed confusing was when it said, "Listen to the introduction of each woman to get to know them better. Click on each woman's face to hear their response to each question." It can be inferred that there are two separate things to listen to, an introduction and a response, however this is not the case. There is only one recorded interview for each woman. One concern is regarding the forms for activities. They cannot be accessed directly, unless you download them. The students, if not advanced have to be familiar with downloading and saving files for future use.

Other Issues and Comments:: Although other Web sites include video clips of native speakers representing a wide geographical area, "Las voces de las mujeres" distinguishes itself for two reasons. It features a wide breadth of interviewees (70 in all), while also giving voice to women's experiences that are often unheard beyond their communities. The material is very interesting and informative. The language is clear, the videos are well defined except for a few that were shot in rather not well-lit setting. It would be great if the activities of this material could be interactive, where students can watch the videos, answer the questions and have immediate feedback. This would enhance their understanding. Apart from other technical issues such as inactive links, it's a great learning material.
Creative Commons: