31. Rajiv Ranjan | On Teaching and Learning Hindi

In this episode we sit down with Rajiv Ranjan to discuss all
things Hindi. We learn about Rajiv's remarkable journey from
growing up in rural north-east India to MSU university professor,
scholar, and author. We discuss the relationship between Hindi
and Urdu, as well as Sanskrit and Hindi. We hear about the making
of his textbook, Basic Hindi I, and the reasons for making it
free and open-access. Rajiv shares with us some of his favorites
from the vast world of Hindi literature, and we get a preview of
his upcoming series of online Hindi courses at Yogic Studies,
HINDI 101 | Elementary Hindi I.


Speaker Bio


Dr. Rajiv Ranjan is a professor of Hindi and Urdu language
at Michigan State University. He received his PhD in Second
Language Acquisition (SLA) from the University of Iowa in 2016.
He has been teaching Hindi and Urdu languages in the U.S. since
2010. In addition to his classroom-teaching experience, Rajiv has
also taught online at MSU and at Kean University. He taught an
immersion program for the South Asia Summer Language Institute
(SASLI) at the University of Wisconsin, Madison and he has also
taught in a study abroad context for the American Institute of
Indian Studies (AIIS) in India.


Rajiv has published an Open Educational Resource (OER) Hindi
textbook Basic Hindi I. Rajiv’s primary area of research is
generative approaches to SLA. His research interests also include
socio-cultural approaches to SLA, second language writing and
speaking, language pedagogy, and morpho-syntax.


Links


HINDI 101 | Elementary Hindi I 

Basic Hindi I