Technology for Khmer Language Development: A Progress Report on Intermediate Level Khmer Course with CD-ROM

Presenter: Dr. Chhany Sak-Humphrey, Hawaiian and Indo-Pacific Languages and Literatures, University of Hawaii

Dr. Sak-Humphry was born in Phnom-Penh, Cambodia in 1973 she left her country to pursue an education in France and later in the US at Whitworth College in Spokane , Washington. She earned a Masters in Public Health, Master’s in Linguistics and a doctorate in linguistics from the East West Center in Hawaii. She has been at the University of Hawaii for the last 15 years teaching and coordinating the Khmer language program. She is currently writing 2^nd year Khmer language curriculum with CD-ROM for the University level. She is on the Board of the Friends of the EAST West Center and serves on several other local and national organizations.

This presentation is a showcase and an update on my Khmer project "Communicating in Khmer: an Interactive Intermediate Level Khmer Course with CD-ROM." This two-year project involves developing a basic second-year level course for teaching the Khmer (Cambodian) language through the use of an interactive CD-ROM. The materials are geared to advancing students from proficiency level 2 to level 3 in speaking, listening, reading, and writing, using the ACTFL (American Council for the Teaching of Foreign Languages) language skill-level guidelines.

This project will produce an invaluable teaching tool that can be used not only in any American post-secondary institution, but in any situation where there is a need to learn Khmer language (self-directed learning). This project will increase and improve the teaching and learning of Khmer for future specialists in the Khmer language, and Southeast Asian area studies. The development of this project reflects both changes in language teaching methodology and the evolution of the language spoken in Cambodia over the last 30 years.

The project aims to generate three products for intermediate level Khmer language students: 1) Teacher’s Activities Manual; 2) Students’ manual for Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing; and 3) CD-ROM adapted for both Macintosh and IBM computer formats, with audio-video elements to support all of the above.