This presentation reports the goals, approach and results of developing a Vietnamese language course that could be taught without the presence of an instructor. The fifty-lesson course that was developed was given to 19 Military Assistance Training Advisor students, all officers at the Special Warfare Center. Audiolingual skills were emphasized (that is, understanding and speaking rather than reading and writing) in accordance with surveyed needs for military duty in Vietnam. The technique of programed instruction--by audiotapes--included skill-component isolation, in which the practice of the two course components, auditory comprehension and oral production, is required of the student sequentially and alternately, rather than simultaneously. Students so trained did as well or better than a traditionally trained group when both were tested on the Army P Language Proficiency Test. (Author/BB)