Doctoral student Undarmaa Maamuujav awarded Otto W. Shaler Scholarship

​UCI Graduate Division awarded doctoral student Undarmaa Maamuujav (pictured right) the 2021 Otto W. Shaler Scholarship in support of her dissertation research.
 
Maamuujav, who is specializing in Teaching Learning and Educational Improvement (TLEI), is exploring two related research strands. The first investigates the linguistic features of text-based analytical essays written by English learners with different first language backgrounds, including Spanish, Somali, Tagalog, Hmong, and Burmese.
 
“The main goal of this research is to identify the linguistic challenges and needs of diverse English learners attending public middle and high schools in the United States,” Maamuujav said.
 
The second strand focuses on the use of infographics as a digital, multimodal tool to scaffold undergraduate student's writing development.

Maamuujav’s research foci include academic writing and rhetoric, second language writing and acquisition, critical reading, and the role of technology in writing and literacy development.

​“My research interests are intricately linked to my own experiences,” Maamuujav said. “As a student from Mongolia living and studying in the U.S., as a teacher who has worked with international students, and as a researcher whose focus is on English learners and multilingual students, many of whom came to the United States in search of better chance and opportunity, I find this award to be deeply meaningful for my personal and professional life.”
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“Undarmaa has been a stellar doctoral student whose work has far exceeded all my expectations,” said her advisor, Professor Emerita Carol Booth Olson. ”She has already published several articles and has two more under review at top-tier journals. As an international student who did not learn English until she was a college student at the University of the Humanities in Mongolia, Undarmaa is well versed in the challenge multilingual students face as academic writers.”
 
In addition to earning a B.A. in English and Education and an M.A. in Linguistics from the University of the Humanities in Mongolia, Maamuujav earned an M.A. in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages (TESOL) at California State University, Los Angeles. Prior to joining the UCI School of Education doctoral program, she taught Critical Reading & Rhetoric and Academic English at UCI, and Issues in English Language Pedagogy, Writing, and English as a Second Language at CSULA. In addition to teaching, Maamuujav served as an Academic Bridge Curriculum Coordinator and Grammar & Writing Skills Coordinator at the English Language Program at CSULA and was a 2017 Writing Project Summer Institute Fellow.
 
The Otto W. Shaler Scholarship provides resident fees and a $6,000 stipend for spring quarter for an international student who demonstrates outstanding academic achievement as well as future promise. Shaler (1881: Czechoslovakia - 1951: United States), established the scholarship through a provision in his will in appreciation of the privileges he had received in the U.S., his adopted country.