Rajiv Ranjan
rranjan@msu.edu
(517) 884-4336
B380 Wells Hall
619 Red Cedar Rd
East Lansing, MI 48824
FacultyLinguistics, Languages, and CulturesSecond Language Studies
Associate Professor
Indian and South Asian Studies
Biography
Ph.D. in Second Language Acquisition, the University of Iowa
Rajiv Ranjan is an Associate Professor in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University (MSU). At MSU, Rajiv is associated with the Asian Studies Program and Master of Arts in Foreign Language Teaching (MAFLT) Program. He is also the mentor for the Fulbright Language Teaching Assistants (FLTAs). Before joining MSU, Rajiv Ranjan taught as a graduate teaching assistant at The University of Iowa, Iowa City (2010-2015) where he received his PhD in Second Language Acquisition in 2015.
In addition to his classroom-teaching experience, Rajiv taught the online graduate courses “FLT 860 Foreign/Second Language Acquisition” at MSU, and “Hindi and Urdu Language Structure for Teaching” at Kean University. He taught an immersion program for the South Asia Summer Language Institute (SASLI) during Summer 2016 at University of Wisconsin, Madison and he taught in a study abroad context during the Summers 2015, 2017, and 2018 for the American Institute of Indian Studies (AIIS) in India.
Rajiv’s primary area of research is generative approach to second language acquisition (SLA). His research interests also include socio-cultural approach to SLA, second language writing and speaking, language pedagogy, and morpho-syntax. . He is also an author of two OER textbooks, Basic Hindi, and Basic Urdu. He also co-authored OER books, Hindi-Urdu, Basic Persian, and Basic Tamil.
Projects
2024: Basic Tamil. Open Educational Resources, Michigan State University Library. (co-authored with Vidya Mohan)
2024: L2 Hindi: Talk-in-Interaction. In G. Sharma and S. Bhatt (Ed.), Hindi Language Teaching. Munich, Germany: LINCOM–EUROPA. ISBN 978 3 96939 199 0.
2023: Basic Persian. Open Educational Resources, Michigan State University Library. (co-authored with Nahid Shiran)
2022: Basic Urdu. Open Educational Resources, Michigan State University Library.
2022: Book Review. Brajesh Samarth. Easy Hindi. Tuttle Publication, 2022. Bulletin of South Asian Language Teachers Association (SALTA) 1.1, (page 9).
2021: हिन्दी शिक्षण में साहित्य का योगदान. वार्षिकी, हिन्दी शिक्षण: चुनौतियाँ और समाधान (pp. 13-16). हिन्दी संगम फ़ाउंडेशन, नई दिल्ली, भारत.
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2021: Basic Hindi. Open Educational Resources, Michigan State University Library.
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2018: Challenges in Writing and Dynamic Corrective Feedback for Hindi Learners. Advances in Hindi Language Teaching and Applied Linguistics (edited by Ghanshyam Sharma), LINCOM-EUROPA, Munich, Germany. ISBN 9783862889020
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2017: Hindi-Urdu. University of Minnesota.
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2016: Business Hindi Resource Guide. Center for International Business Education and Research Broad College of Business, Michigan State University.
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2015: Book Review. JOSHUA H. PIEN, & FAUZIYA FAROOQUIF. Beginning Hindi: A Complete Course. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press, 2014. Pp. 696. Modern Language Journal, 99. 3, 621–623.
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2013: Teaching Strategies of Grammatical Gender in L2 Hindi/Urdu. Arizona Working Papers in SLA & Teaching, 20, 1-19.
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Awards and Honors
Fulbright-Hays Group Project Abroad (GPA) Program. Curriculum Development Project. In collaboration with Yuva Hindi Sansthan, INC. (US Department of Education, 2023)
International Research and Studies (IRS) grant from The International and Foreign Language Education (IFLE) office, Department of Education, USA. Project Title: “LCTs OER Collaborative: Enhancing Language Teaching through OER Language Textbook Development
Open Educational Resources (OER) Leadership Award. Associated Students of Michigan State University. https://lib.msu.edu/OER/LeadershipAwards/ (Michigan State University, 2021 and 2022).
Adams Academy Fellowship, Academic Advancement Network, (Michigan State University, 2020)
Transformative Language Pedagogies Grant, College of Arts and Letters (Michigan State University, 2018).
Delia Koo Global Scholarship (Michigan State University, 2017-2018).
Affiliate member of W. Mellon Foundation to the Big Ten Academic Alliance for LCTLs (Michigan State University, 2016).
Business Hindi, CIBER (Michigan State University, 2016).
Enhancing the Midwest Knowledge Ecosystem (EMKE) Grants to develop Hindi language textbook and course (2015).
Graduate College Summer Fellowship (The University of Iowa, 2015).
Ballard and Seashore Dissertation Fellowship (The University of Iowa, 2015).
Stanley Language Scholarship for summer Urdu program in Lucknow, India (The University of Iowa, 2013).
Outstanding Teaching Assistant Award (The University of Iowa, 2011–2012).
Fulbright scholarship, FLTA (The University of Iowa, 2010-2011).
University News
MSU Assistant Professor Shares How Learning a Language Can Help Students Experience Diverse Perspectives
In this Faculty Voice, Rajiv Ranjan, an Assistant Professor of Hindi-Urdu in the Department of Linguistics, Languages, and Cultures at Michigan State University, talks about some of the…Read now »
Faculty Receive Funding to Develop Open Educational Resources
In an effort to promote equal access to information and spaces for all, MSU Libraries have awarded nine MSU faculty members funding assistance for the creation and adaption of open education…Read now »