Kawsay Vida is a course book and interactive multimedia program for
the teaching and learning of the Quechua language from beginner to
advanced levels. The course book is based on contemporary Bolivian
Quechua, while the multimedia program contains a section on Bolivian
Quechua (beginner to intermediate levels) and a section on southern
Peruvian Quechua (advanced level). The book provides a practical
introduction to spoken Quechua through the medium of English, while the
multimedia program offers a choice of English or Spanish as the medium
of instruction. The video clips introduce us to Quechua speakers in the
valleys of Northern Potosí (Bolivia) and Cuzco (Peru), giving a sense of
immediacy that the printed page cannot achieve, and highlighting the
social and cultural settings in which the language is spoken. The
multimedia program is available for both PC and Macintosh platforms.
The book contains twenty-two units of study. As students work through
these, cross-references take them to relevant sections of the multimedia
program. The Bolivian and Peruvian Quechua sections of the multimedia
program are divided into thematically and grammatically ordered modules,
which introduce users to different aspects of Andean life, while
progressing language learning in a structured way. Users engage with the
audio, video, and visual material contained in the program through a
range of interactive exercises, which reinforce listening and
comprehension skills. Once familiarity with the language is acquired,
the multimedia program may be used independently from the book.
