The curriculum in English as a second language of the Overseas Refugee Training Program, a federally sponsored program designed to prepare Southeast Asian refugees for resettlement in the United States, uses a competency-based model and the format used in the Oregon State Minimal Competencies curriculum. The specialists who developed the refugee training curriculum chose cultural orientation topics that would also develop English language competencies. A standardized regional curriculum, to be used in a number of overseas camps, was developed to address those competencies at three intermediate levels; a separate beginning-level curriculum was developed later. As in the Oregon State curriculum, the active skills of speaking and writing were separated from the receptive skills of listening and reading. After acceptance of the regional curriculum standardization guide, the new curriculum was taken to the various sites for implementation. Since the creation of the curriculum, competencies have been added, deleted, and revised to reflect the changing situation of the refugees and their changing language and cultural needs on arrival. (MSE)