Interested in hearing about how our last ViVID fellow’s cohort’s experience went? Read on here!
Our ViVID fellows are comprised of LCTL instructors from all over the United States. In this program, they had the opportunity to join a like-minded cohort of LCTL instructors to share and brainstorm language teaching strategies as well as research opportunities. So, what exactly is ViVID and the ViVID fellowship? The ViVID program is facilitated and led by our core faculty MSU’s Graduate Programs for Foreign Langauge Teaching, aided by select graduate assistants each year! This program aims to enhance LCTL instructors’ experiences and exposures to peer-mentoring and reflective teaching, by providing opportunities for LCTL teachers to form a lasting virtual community and use video-based feedback to develop skills in these areas. Each year, the ViVID Project accepts ten fellows to receive a stipend of $100/month to participate and grow their professional development.
The VIVID fellowship offers open education resources, professional development, as well as professional collaboration with other language institutes and projects. Our fellows teach a wide variety of world languages, from Hungarian to Arabic, Chinese to Turkish, and so many more! While their educational institutes are largely post-secondary education institutions, LCTL instructors of all language levels are able to apply!
Many members of the cohort shared the goal of connecting heritage learners to their culture and language. One of our fellows says: “I think we had similar ground on that, on taking the benefit and I would say honoring the identity of heritage learners and push them, motivate them to work towards the common goal”.
The fellows were onboarded via prerecorded videos on MSU’s learning management system. The fellows connected with their peers and team leaders through platforms and apps such as WhatsApp, PlayPosit, and more, to keep their communication and involvement high, since they were from all over the country with different lifestyles and schedules.
As society and technologies continue to advance, our teaching methods are also progressing—naturally, our fellows would want to include more technology in their teaching styles. The NLRC aims to continue to provide resources and support for all LCTL teachers!
The ViVID Project centers around ‘peer mentoring’, where the fellows come together with their cohort, sharing language teaching philosophies, teaching strategies and methods, as well as giving each other general teaching advice and feedback. The fellows were able to exchange new information and share different perspectives on how their language teaching philosophies shape the way that they teach. They all learned and shared new things, such as this fellow reflected: “And when I gave (her) an approach that I use in my classroom, she said, this is what I need, we had theory as not like someone should tell me to share with me how they did the differentiation instruction”.
Fellows did not have as many years of teaching experience under their belts as the others were able to share with their more established colleagues: “I think we are mentor of each other. You know, everybody has their strengths you learn from one to from here and someone’s learned to send from you. So I think, yeah, I cannot say but you know I do have more years experience. I can sometimes give more suggestions, but I do learn from others as well.”
After the fellowship, the participants shared what aspects of their teaching methods and ideologies changed or improved through observing their peers and reflecting on their own teaching. Some stated that they felt more confident while teaching class and were grateful for the chance to learn and apply new techniques and methods in their classes. One fellow stated:
“I think when I record my online classroom, it was more clear to see what I deliver or what we talk about in the class. In the in-person classroom, sometimes I found out that it’s hard to see what’s going on in the class. But it was a good way to reflect how I teach and see the area for improvement, for example, what I did well in the class and the reaction of the students”.
If you are a LCTL instructor in the United States, consider applying to be in a future cohort!
