ACMS began its eight-week Online Intensive Mongolian Language (OIML) program on June 7, 2021 with nine students in four cohorts. This is the second year implementation of this program, derived from the Summer Intensive Language Program, which had been canceled since the 2020 pandemic-caused travel restrictions.
This year, we have six U.S. citizen students, four of whom received fellowships from ACMS, and three students from Europe who are attending with third-party fellowships. The OIML students attend virtual face-to-face sessions with instructors on weekdays followed by supplemental e-learning exercises designed to improve reading, writing, listening, grammar, and vocabulary skills.
This year’s implementation was special in that it expanded on the core content derived from the three-level textbooks of ACMS Mongolian Language Program Manager, Dr. Tsermaa Tomorbaatar, and included all-new interactive exercises developed in H5P.
Each week’s sessions are enriched with immersive and simulated content developed in-house by the ACMS staff to provide a virtual immersion into the Mongolian culture, including “virtual visits” to Mongolian homes, guided consumption of social and cultural events, tours at organizations, and conducting of research interviews.
Furthermore, the learning platform is equipped with xAPI/SCORM system to track learners’ experience and provide insight and facilitate the grading process. The program will finish on August 6, 2021. Upon completing the course, the students will have the necessary vocabulary and grammatical structures of their designated levels.