Cal State Fullerton Language Instructors Headed to Vietnam

Cal State Fullerton’s language instructors soon will export their expertise, campus officials said.

Ten instructors will leave Tuesday for Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, Hue and Nam Dinh to conduct workshops on teaching English. More than 400 English teachers are expected to attend, a Cal State Fullerton spokeswoman said.

“Everyone there wants to learn English,” said Prof. Curtis Swanson, chairman of the foreign languages and literatures department. “Everyone is either learning in school or after work.”

Demand for English courses in Vietnam has grown tremendously since the lifting of the U.S. trade embargo with that nation in February, 1994, Swanson said.

Harry L. Norman, dean of university extended education services, said interest in teaching in Vietnam began more than a year ago after local Vietnamese Americans encouraged an exploratory trip to the Southeast Asian nation.

“We took a look at meeting some needs that existed as our relations were normalized” with Vietnam, Norman said.

After the first trip to Vietnam by Cal State Fullerton officials, they obtained a $46,000 grant to return to the country to train English teachers.

The instructors, who will include representatives from UC Santa Barbara and Mt. San Antonio College, will introduce new methods to the teachers, Norman said. They will be in Vietnam for about four weeks.

They also will show the teachers how to use videotaped lessons, Norman said. Cal State Fullerton extended-education teachers now use video courses to teach English at sites in Santa Ana and Westminster, he said.

Norman said university officials are sensitive about worries that local Vietnamese Americans might have about their cooperation with Vietnamese officials.

“We don’t believe what we’re doing there is supporting the government,” Norman said. “What we’re doing is supporting a country in transition to a market economy.”