Vardit Ringvald
Research Professor, Director of the Institute for the Advancement of Hebrew
Member since Oct. 21, 2014
Dr. Vardit Ringvald is a scholar of Hebrew pedagogy. She was appointed director of the Institute for the Advancement of Hebrew in the summer of 2013. Dr. Ringvald has served as the senior academic adviser for Hebrew at the Center for the past seven years and now directs its operations as part of the newly formed institute. She is also a research professor at Middlebury College. Dr. Ringvald recently concluded three decades at Brandeis University, where she was the director of the Hebrew and Arabic Languages Program, teaching Hebrew language, culture, and pedagogy. She founded the Hebrew Summer Language Institute at Brandeis in 1996. During her career at Brandeis, in addition to directing the Hebrew language programs, she also directed the Spanish, French, Italian, Japanese, Chinese, and Arabic language programs.
A TEACHER’S TEACHER A pioneer in teacher education, Dr. Ringvald created the Master of Arts in Teaching Hebrew in 1998. One of the developers of the Oral Proficiency Interview for Hebrew, she is the primary author of Brandeis Modern Hebrew, Volumes I and II, the first textbooks to be based on the proficiency approach . In 2008, Dr. Ringvald became the first director of the School of Hebrew in the Middlebury Language Schools, a position she still holds. She serves as an adviser to the National Middle Eastern Language Resource Center based at Brigham Young University, and she previously served as chair of the SAT II, and other national committees for Hebrew and foreign language pedagogy. Current projects include independent research on language teaching and language identity and, in collaboration with the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, an investigation into “Gender and the Teaching of Hebrew.”
As a consultant to many schools and organizations, she specializes in curriculum development, teacher preparation, and assessment— with the goal to professionalize teachers and school-based Hebrew programs.
A TEACHER’S TEACHER A pioneer in teacher education, Dr. Ringvald created the Master of Arts in Teaching Hebrew in 1998. One of the developers of the Oral Proficiency Interview for Hebrew, she is the primary author of Brandeis Modern Hebrew, Volumes I and II, the first textbooks to be based on the proficiency approach . In 2008, Dr. Ringvald became the first director of the School of Hebrew in the Middlebury Language Schools, a position she still holds. She serves as an adviser to the National Middle Eastern Language Resource Center based at Brigham Young University, and she previously served as chair of the SAT II, and other national committees for Hebrew and foreign language pedagogy. Current projects include independent research on language teaching and language identity and, in collaboration with the Hadassah-Brandeis Institute, an investigation into “Gender and the Teaching of Hebrew.”
As a consultant to many schools and organizations, she specializes in curriculum development, teacher preparation, and assessment— with the goal to professionalize teachers and school-based Hebrew programs.
