LINK (Language Institute of Natural Khmer) opened in Phnom Penh, Cambodia on 11 June 2012 to teach the Khmer language using the Automatic Language Growth (ALG) approach of picking up a language by listening to comprehensible input without study, practice, or translation.
Unfortunately, the school closed down on 16 July 2016.
This current site is not affiliated with LINK, but endeavours to provide advice and resources for learning Khmer that are compatible with the ALG approach and similar comprehension-based approaches to language learning.
More information on LINK
LINK’s website, which was formerly at this domain (naturalkhmer.com) is available at the Internet Archive.
Pages from the former site included The Life of Rith, A Day at the Office, Real Life in Phnom Penh, and Conversation Guidance Course.
LINK’s YouTube channel, Natural Khmer, is still online with over 60 videos demonstrating teaching Khmer using the ALG approach. Watch a sample beginner lesson.
Media about LINK
Speak Easy Southeast Asia Globe, 14 October 2013 (Note: The ALG approach used by LINK is based on the natural approach with a long “silent period” of listening to the new language with limited speaking, not “the Natural Way and the Silent Way”; the article appears to misname the natural approach here, and the Silent Way is an unrelated approach that focuses on students speaking the language and the teacher being mostly silent)
How to learn Khmer the ‘natural way’: keep quiet The Phnom Penh Post, 9 January 2013
Une nouvelle école pour apprendre le Khmer… sans le parler (French, “A new school to learn Khmer … without speaking it”) Lepetitjournal.com, 14 June 2012
Learning Khmer: Natural Khmer at LINK Review at Move to Cambodia, 13 November 2014
ALG Khmer School (Parts 1 and 2) Brooklyn Monk in Asia
Information about Automatic Language Growth (ALG)
ALG World is the official site of Automatic Language Growth. The ALG approach has mainly been used in the AUA Thai Program in Bangkok, Thailand.
Introductions to ALG
Automatic Language Growth (ALG) ALG World blog
What is Automatic Language Growth? and Automatic Language Growth from Beyond Language Learning
Learning Languages Like Children A treatise on ALG by Dr. J. Marvin Brown
From The Outside In
From The Outside In is the autobiography of American linguist Dr. James Marvin Brown and tells how he came to originate the ALG approach.
It is available for download at the ALG World archives. A version is also available online as a webpage, and a partial version is on ERIC, a digital library sponsored by the Institute of Education Sciences of the U.S. Department of Education.
