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Khmer Teaching Materials Used at SEASSI
For samples of the Khmer Heritage Textbook used at SEASSI, and for details on how to purchase it over the internet, visit studykhmer.com
From Weeks Five through Eight at SEASSI, upper level Khmer students read the first novel written in Khmer (1940), Sophat, in its entirety. Sophat is socially and culturally interesting and important for a number of reasons, some of which are illustrated in the excerpt included in the PDF file linked to below. In the first page in the excerpt, you can see a passage from the novel as it appears in the student book, including footnotes explaining important vocabulary terms and their cultural significance. A more detailed explanation of various beliefs related to Khmer notions of health and illness follow, in the second page of the excerpt. The discussion on this page refers back to, among other things, the novel passage included on the first page. We do a wide range of classroom activities based on Sophat at SEASSI, including role plays and speakng practice, as well as explanations of the Khmer educational system and a wide range of social norms and beliefs, using the novel as a jumping-off point. We also create a theatrical play version of Sophat in the style of the Khmer performance genre lkhaon bassak, which students design, rehearse and perform in Week Seven of SEASSI. Go back to the "Curriculum" page for a link to a video of this process. Sophat will be available for sale at the University of Wisconsin-Madison Humanities Copy Center when you arrive at SEASSI.
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