April 1995 "Lessons from the Tale of Kieu",
TEXTESOL V Spring Conference,
University of North Texas, Denton, Texas 76204

• Secondary and higher education Bilingual/ESL teachers will learn about this beautiful traditional Vietnamese/Chinese poem and how to use it in teaching English.
• The poem was originally written by Nguyen Du several hundred years ago. It was translated into English in 1973 by Huynh Sanh Thong and later revised in 1983. The translation of the poem is dedicated to Vietnamese refugees and their friends. This epic love poem (3254 lines) is regularly studied by 11th and 12th grade students in Vietnam and will contribute to the American teacher's better understanding of the people of Vietnam.
• This presentation will include teaching techniques that can be used with a bilingual publication (Vietnamese/English) even if the teacher is not proficient in the student's language. Included at the presentation will be sample pages from the book, lesson plans, an outline of the poem and examples of student generated projects.
• Format includes lecture, question and answers, and handouts.
• Dr. Dam Trung Phap director of World Languages for the Dallas Independent School District wrote an extensive article about this presentation for the VIETNAM Weekly News. The article (32K) included here is reproduced as closely as possible in .gif form. Text has been typed as accurately as I can make it since my understanding of Vietnamese is limited. An English translation of Dr. Dam Trung's article was made by my students and Ai Nguyen as another follow up activity.