By the end of this year, Hawaii’s written driver’s license test will again be available in foreign languages, the state Transportation Department said.

Hawaii stopped offering foreign-language tests in 2008, when the Legislature passed a law that added a question on the exam about the dangers of leaving unattended children in vehicles.

Since then, lawmakers have added additional questions to the test.

Caroline Sluyter, DOT spokeswoman, said the state is working to translate all the new questions and come up with translated versions of the test.

She could not immediately explain why it took so long to translate the additional test questions.

Before 2008, Hawaii had driver’s exams in nine languages, advocates said.

By late 2013, the test will be offered in eight foreign languages — Tagalog, Japa­nese, Mandarin, Korean, Vietnamese, Samoan, Tongan and Spanish.

Laotian, which was previously offered, apparently will not be available.

Advocates for immigrants in Hawaii have increasingly raised concerns about the absence of tests in foreign languages, saying the driver’s license exam evaluates driving skills, not English skills.

Earlier this month, a group of Chuukese and Marshallese residents on Maui delivered a petition with more than 300 signatures to the DOT asking for a translated test.

Kim Harman, policy director for Faith Action for Community Equity Hawaii, said while she’s happy to hear that the DOT is moving forward to offer translated tests again, it’s vital that Chuukese and Marshallese translations also be available.

"On Maui, the Marshallese population is one of the fastest-growing populations," Harman said, adding that the group will offer to help the DOT with free translation services.

Veronica Teico, 37, of Maui, said she always hears complaints from people in the Marshallese community who failed the written test because they didn’t understand certain words.

Teico, who moved to Hawaii 11 years ago from the Marshall Islands, said even people with strong conversational English skills may struggle reading English. "They use big words" on the test, she said. "Everybody can drive. The problem is the written test."

According to a FACE report, Hawaii is one of five states that offers the written driver’s test in English only.