The Department of Spanish and Portuguese and the Multimedia Learning Center gained permission from the large Spanish language network, Televisa, to create an online course resource based on a popular telenovela â La Ursurpadora (The Usurper). First year Spanish students are immersed in a steamy soap opera, with episodes sub-divided into cognitive segments more easily understood for language beginners. The year long use of the telenovela pays off with a surprise ending, and students enjoy learning while watching a “real†professionally produced television program. Spanish department faculty such as Sheri-Ann Pfitzmann and MMLC staff Jim Ferolo and Matt Taylor created the website and broke the telenovela into segments appropriate for college students learning Spanish, incorporating the video with online comprehension exercises.
If you’d like to see the project, please contact the Multimedia Learning Center. The site is not public due to agreements with the providers of the telenovela content.
