English for Speakers of Khmer

Book excerpt: The leading American specialist in Khmer language studies, Franklin Huffman, in collaboration with Im Proum, has since 1970 produced a distinguished series of aids to the teaching of Khmer. Now, beginning with the English-Khmer Dictionary in 1978, Huffman has turned his attention to the needs of Khmer refugees in America and Europe and in camps in Southeast Asia. English for Speakers of Khmer will be to them an essential resource for acquiring competence in English. In his introduction, Huffman includes a section addressed to the English teacher, providing background on the Khmer and describing the aims of the book and the principles of contrastive analysis; a section in English and Khmer on the format of the book and how to use it; an explanation of the Khmer and romanized phonetic transcription systems developed by Huffman; and a section on English spelling for the student. The fifteen lessons that follow are based on practical, everyday situations: a typical lesson provides model sentences in dialog form, Khmer pronunciation for the teacher, pronunciation drills, grammar notes and drills, and model conversations in both English and Khmer. An English-Khmer glossary, an index of pronunciation drills, and an index of grammar notes complete the book. Franklin E. Huffman is professor of linguistics and Asian studies at Cornell University. Im Proum is currently doing research in Southeast Asia.