Vijay Gambhir

South Asia Studies
813 Williams Hall
University of Pennsylvania
Philadelphia, PA. 19104-6305

Email address: vgambhir@sas.upenn.edu
Office Hours: Mondays 2-4, or by appointment

South Asia Studies has moved to Market Street temporarily and my office is 3624, Room 141

Dr. Vijay Gambhir holds a PhD in Linguistics from the University of Pennsylvania. She teaches courses in language, literature and cinema studies. Currently, she is the language coordinator of the South Asian languages - Bengali, Gujarati, Hindi, Kanada, Malayalam, Panjabi, Pashto, Sanskrit, Tamil, and Urdu -offered regularly in the department of South Asia Studies. She has served as a methodologist for the Penn Language Center from 1990-1995. Her publications include "Teaching and Acquisition of South Asian Languages" (published by the University of Pennsylvania Press, 1998) and many scholarly articles in recognized international journals. Also she is the co-author and producer of a popular set of Hindi instructional materials "New Directions New People" available in text, video and web formats. Dr. Gambhir is a leader in the field of less commonly taught languages and has given many teaching and proficiency testing workshops around the nation to the teachers of less commonly taught languages including South Asian teachers. Her research on heritage language learners of South Asian languages is of special interest and brings into light a new type of hybrid acquisition environment and atypical learning route and learning strategies of heritage learners. Dr. Gambhir has integrated technology into her classroom and curriculum. Through the active use of internet resources in her classes and assignments, she is able to raise the motivation level of her students and supplement dated materials of textbooks with current content and topics. Her current research interests include language of Bollywood cinema and the development of early language of bilingual children growing up in America.