VASI

   
 

Vietnamese Advanced Summer Institute
Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam
June 16 - August 8, 2008

Program Description

The Vietnamese Advanced Summer Institute is an intensive eight-week course of study in advanced Vietnamese conducted in Vietnam with instruction provided by the Hanoi Vietnamese Language Center, under the auspices of the Hanoi University of Foreign Studies, and Vietnamese Language Studies Saigon, under the aegis of the Viet Nam National Ministry of Education & Training.  Funding for this program is contingent upon receipt of grant support from the U.S. Department of Education under the Fulbright-Hays Group Study Abroad program. 

VASI is equivalent to a full year's academic work and will be offered to approximately twelve individuals selected nationally. Candidates are chosen on the basis of their need for, and ability to absorb, advanced training in Vietnamese; their readiness to benefit from in-country experiences; and their commitment and potential to become the next generation of Vietnamese language and area-studies scholars in the U.S. The communicative/interactive teaching approach, using authentic materials and carried out by experienced instructors, is enhanced by field trips around Vietnam.

Objectives

The Vietnamese Advanced Summer Institute's general objectives are to provide an intensive advanced Vietnamese language program in Vietnam, to ensure that advanced students in academic year Vietnamese language instruction have the opportunity to witness the relationship between language and society, and to acquire knowledge of the language as it is used and taught in the country.

Specifically, the VASI seeks to ensure that institute participants achieve a demonstrable improvement in speaking, listening, reading, and writing Vietnamese as it is used in on-going political, economic, and social discourse by the completion of the program. Graduate students have the opportunity and resources to raise their communicative competence to a level at which they can conduct research and contribute significantly to Vietnamese studies and education in the U.S. The program also aims to significantly increase the number of students entering the field of Vietnamese studies with a high proficiency in the language.

GUAVA Member Institutions

VASI is organized by the Group of Universities for the Advancement of Vietnamese Abroad (GUAVA). The member institutions are Arizona State University, University of California at Berkeley, University of California at Los Angeles (UCLA), Cornell University, University of Hawaii, Harvard University, University of Florida, University of Michigan, Temple University, University of Washington, University of Wisconsin, and Yale University.

Contact Information

Bac Hoai Tran, VASI Project Director
Center for Southeast Asia Studies, UC Berkeley
2223 Fulton St., No. 617
Berkeley CA 94720-2318
Tel. (510) 642-3609
vasi@berkeley.edu

 




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