AN INVITATION TO PARTICIPATE: VoiceThread Exchange on the Drug Traffic between US and Mexico

[Jason Cummings]

Hi, Everybody,

As I say in my profile page, I am a Spanish Teacher in Connecticut looking to have my high school students interact with Mexican students of English as much as possible.

Recently I did a speaking evaluation in my basic/intermediate Spanish class in which the students had to watch a short video (that I pulled from youtube) about el narcotráfico in Juarez. Students then had to respond to one of the following two questions.

OPCIÓN A: Recientemente la secretaria del estado Clinton ha viajado a México y ha declarado que nosotros, los estadounidenses, son hasta cierto punto culpables por la violencia que están sufriendo los mexicanos como consequencia del narcotráfico. ¿Estás de acuerdo? ¿Por qué?

OPCIÓN B: Últimamente el ex-presidente mexicano Vicente Fox ha declarado que nosotros, los estadounidenses, debemos tener un debate abierto sobre la legalización de algunas drogas para ayudar a controlar la violencia y el crimen organizado. ¿Qué opinas tú? ¿Por qué?


In short, you can hear some of my students´ comments here. I would invite you to have your own students weigh in, leaving their opinions (in Spanish or in English) on these very same questions. It would even be great if they were to give reactions directly to some of my students´ opinions.


VoiceThread is an excellent avenue for international exchange!