Hmong Primer
Thousands of Hmong have learned to read from the simple Hmong primer developed by Yves Bertrais in the 1960s and copied over and over again. With the generous support of the Central Valley Foundation, a nonprofit organization that promotes issues of free speech and immigrant access to the American dream, we have developed this new primer. It is similar to the original in many ways and is also based on the White Hmong dialect. However, it is organized to reveal the regular patterns of the Hmong orthography, to promote the formation of linguistic generalizations.
This primer is for older children, teens, and adults who have learned to read English or another roman-based alphabetic language. It can also be used by nonnative Hmong, as long as the instructor is a native speaker. It is based on the most frequently used 425 Hmong words.

This primer provides the raw materials for learning to decode Hmong and for developing vocabulary in Hmong. There are 25 practice readers that accompany this primer. The stories are based on Aesop's fables or authentic Hmong stories and each one uses only the phonemes learned up to that point in the primer. In the primer, the actual words are black, and the high frequency words are red;
nonsense words are grey. The power of the primer and the practice readers is in the ability of the
instructor to engage the learners in the adventure of learning Hmong. Although the development of comprehensive teaching guides was not part of this project, there is a teacher's kit. The kit contains teaching suggestions, blending cards, and high frequency word cards that can be used on an overhead, in games, or in a pocket chart. The Summer Institute of Linguistics (www.sil.org) has resources for organizing literacy development programs. The instructor’s guide contains accounts of SIL literacy programs in Africa and Latin America.

If you prefer, master sets to copy or printed matereials are available at cost from the Southeast Asia Community Resource Center, 10836 Gadsten Way, Cordova Lane, Rancho Cordova CA 95670, phone (916) 635-6815. All we ask in exchange for free use is that you provide credit and contact information on the distributed materials, that you provide us with information to make future editions better, and that your students contribute to a reservoir of written Hmong.

These are made available on a cost-recovery basis. You won't need these if you print directly from these pages. However, the primer is much better looking than current color print technology will allow (color, glossy paper).The little readers are similar to what you would print out if you used slightly heavier paper. There is a little more fuzziness to the drawings in pdf format. The headline font looks scrunched. The teacher's kit materials are the same as if you printed directly.

Hmong
High-frequency words (425)
Leveled readers sequence chart
Primer(1.1 mb) revised 6/6/99
Part 1 (p. 1-25) Part 2 (p. 26-50) Part 3 (p. 51-80)
Leveled readers (1-25) list
Blending cards 425 words for teaching blending. Rev 6/6/99.
Word cards 425 words for games, flash cards, etc.
Instructor's GuideRev. 6/6/99
Glossary (pdf).Use this to print out glossary.
Field test feedback form
Materials order form

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Learn To Read Hmong: Kawm Nyeem Ntawv Hmoob:
Levels: 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25

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