Description

RECOMMENDATION: Discretionary grant of $40,000 to the University of Hawai’i Foundation to support participation of Southeast Asian language instructors in training and materials development workshops organized by the Southeast Asia Language Council.
In the first round of the LuceSEA competition, our directors approved an award to the University of Wisconsin Foundation for a project of the Southeast Asian Language Council (SEALC) to strengthen instruction in Southeast Asian languages through a series of workshops for training in pedagogy and assessment, materials development and the creation of national standards. In keeping with the LuceSEA emphasis on collaboration, all Title VI National Resource Centers for Southeast Asia (NRCs) pledged funding to support the participation of SEA language instructors from their respective universities. At the time the proposal was being prepared, this group of seven institutions included the University of Hawai’i at Manoa (UHM). Soon thereafter, and for reasons no one can quite fathom, UHM was not renewed for the next four-year cycle of Title VI funding for its SEA Center. As a result, it no longer has the financial ability to support its instructors’ attendance. With our Asia Program’s encouragement, the University of Hawai’i Foundation submits this proposal seeking a discretionary grant from the Luce Foundation to remedy the gap.   The proposal lists the many reasons why language instructors from UHM should be included in these field-shaping SEALC workshops. UHM is a leading institution in Southeast Asian studies, including in language instruction, offering lower- and upper-division training in six SEA languages. Enrollment levels are high. Four language faculty are tenured (Indonesian, Tagalog, Thai and Vietnamese), offering program stability that is a rarity these days, when most language instructors are hired as lecturers.
The absence of UHM representatives would be a loss to the overall SEALC enterprise. Affording them a “seat at the table” would not only enhance their abilities but also allow them to contribute materials they have already developed and join in the development of new materials, including for heritage learners and the use of new technologies such as distance learning. Their participation toward standardized protocols, including assessments in reading, writing and speaking, will help ensure that students trained anywhere in the U.S. receive the same high-quality instruction. They will be integrated into SEALC and language-specific networks in the U.S. and in SEA, thereby facilitating communication and encouraging synergies.
Our grant would cover travel to the workshops described in the proposal, enabling UHM instructors, both senior and junior, to attend SEALC events over the next four years. Not all instructors will attend each listed event. Those who do will be tasked with sharing what they learn with colleagues upon return to campus. Because the Asia Program was not in a position to recommend a grant at the time of the first SEALC workshop in December 2019, UHM’s NRC was able to secure one-time funding from the School of Pacific & Asia Studies and other UHM units to support participation of three Filipino language instructors.