The University of Hawaiʻi has strong programs in Southeast Asian languages, all of which are LCTLs in the US. Building on UH’s strengths, through direct teacher training and other support, the NFLRC has helped enhance U.S. capacity in Southeast Asian languages in many ways.
- In January, 2004, the Hawaiʻi NFLRC hosted a meeting of the Council of Teachers of Southeast Asian Languages (COTSEAL) which was aimed at helping determine future directions for the profession.
- Since March, 2004, the University of Hawaiʻi has provided web hosting for COTSEAL at no cost.
- In 2003 and 2004, the Hawaiʻi NFLRC sent workshop leaders to in-country programs for advanced American learners of Southeast Asian languages in Cambodia, Indonesia, the Philippines, and Vietnam to train local tutors in effective pedagogic techniques and materials development skills.
- Using its experience in foreign language distance education to help extend instructional resources in Southeast Asian languages beyond the walls of UH, the NFLRC hosted a 2004 Summer Institute workshop titled “Developing Web-based Learning Environments for Southeast Asian Languages.” For two weeks the NFLRC trained UH educators in Filipino, Ilokano, Indonesian, Khmer, and Thai to design and create Web-based learning environments that enable these educators either to offer freestanding distance-learning courses to students anywhere or to integrate Web-based components into distributed-learning (“hybrid”) classes.