My work examines the language and educational experiences of marginalized learners, with a particular emphasis on how teachers, institutions, and policies shape opportunities for multilingual students across PK–12 and higher education. I draw on sociolinguistic, critical, and pedagogical lenses to investigate teacher preparation for linguistically and culturally diverse learners, as well as processes of first and multilingual language development in classroom settings.

Current projects center on
• Linguistically responsive instruction and humanizing and critical approaches for teachers of multilingual learners
• Teachers’ beliefs, ideologies, and everyday practices in diverse learning environments
• Support for international students (MISs - multilingual international students)
• Fostering belonging for minortized students; current project on belonging of Muslim students in higher education
• Preservice teachers’ writing pedagogy

  • Laura Mahalingappa is an associate professor in the Applied Linguistics and Language Education program. Her research focuses broadly on the language and education of marginalized learners, incorporating sociolinguistic and critical linguistic and pedagogical perspectives into issues related to teacher preparation to support linguistically and culturally diverse learners and first and multilingual language acquisition. 
  • Her current work pertains to critical language acquisition and language pedagogies and linguistically responsive instruction in both PK-12 and post-secondary educational contexts, examining teachers’ beliefs, ideologies, and practices in diverse classrooms, ways to prepare teachers to meet the needs of marginalized students, and policies and practices in teacher education programs. She recently published an edited volume on An Assets-Based Approached to Serving Multilingual International Students in Higher Education (Teachers College Press). Other recent work includes articles in TESOL Quarterly, TESOL Journal, Bilingual Research Journal, and Teachers and Teaching. Her current projects include Belonging among Muslim Students in Higher Education, Writing Development of Preservice Teachers, and Humanizing and Critical Pedagogies for Teachers of Multilingual Learners. 

Before joining TLPL in 2022, she worked in language teacher education programs for 12 years and recently received the 2022 Presidential Distinction Award in Scholarly/Creative Activities at Texas State University, College of Education and previously received the 2015 Creative Teaching Award and the 2014 School of Education Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching at Duquesne University. She previously taught English in the U.S., Turkey, and the Republic of Georgia.

2022 Presidential Distinction Award in Scholarly/Creative Activities, Texas State University, College of Education

2015 Creative Teaching Award, Duquesne University

2014 School of Education Faculty Award for Excellence in Teaching, Duquesne University

Books

Mahalingappa, L., Kayi-Aydar, H., & Polat, N. (Eds.) (2026). An assets-based approach to serving multilingual international students in higher education. Teachers College Press.

Rodriguez, T.L., Mahalingappa, L., Ghassa-Khalil, O., Meagher, J., Amoud Omar, A., Ergen, L. (2024). Light through a prism: Social justice teaching for refugee and displaced students. Rowman & Littlefield.

Kayi-Aydar, H. & Mahalingappa, L. (Eds.). (2024). Contemporary perspectives on English as a Medium of Instruction. Information Age Publishing. 

Mahalingappa, L., Rodriguez, T., & Polat, N. (2017). Supporting Muslim Students: A Guide to Understanding the Diverse Issues of Today’s Classrooms. Lanham, MD: Rowman & Littlefield. ISBN: 978-1-4758-3294-5.

Polat, N., Mahalingappa, L., & Kayi-Aydar, H. (Eds.). (2021). Preparation of Teachers of English as an Additional Language (EAL) around the World: Research, Policy, Curriculum, and Practice. Multilingual Matters. ISBN: 9781788926140

 

Recent Refereed Journal Articles

Zeng, H., & Mahalingappa, L. (in press, 2026). ““Disciplinary writing is like playing with Legos”: Exploring a multilingual international student’s navigating science writing. TESOL Quarterly. 

Mahalingappa, L., Lewis, T,  Allen, L., & Chi, J. (2026). Disrupting raciolinguistic ideologies in preservice teacher education: Learning communities for teacher educators of color to support multilingual learners. TESOL Journal. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.70113

  1. Polat, N., Alexander, P., & Mahalingappa, L. (2026). Teaching fast and slow: Application of a system framework to pedagogical practice. Teachers and Teaching, 1–22. https://doi.org/10.1080/13540602.2026.2691159
  2. Mahalingappa, L., Polat, N, & Meyer, C. K. (2025). Critical language awareness in teacher education: An experiment at the intersection of language, identity, and ideologies. Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. doi: 10.1080/01434632.2022.2160727

Moore, S., #Chi, J., & Mahalingappa, L. (2024). Bilingual-Bicultural Education: Opportunity Obscured. Bilingual Research Journal, 47(4), 367-391. https://www.tandfonline.com/action/showCitFormats?doi=10.1080/15235882.2024.2412526

Mahalingappa, L. (2024). Development of linguistic critical consciousness of multilingual preservice teachers of color. International Multilingual Research Journal, 18(3), 290-308. https://doi.org/10.1080/19313152.2024.2330817

Mahalingappa, L., Zong, J., & Polat, N. (2024). The impact of captioning and playback speed on listening comprehension of multilingual English learners at varying proficiency levels. System. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2023.103192

Polat, N., Mahalingappa, L. & Mancilla, R. (2024). IELTS and written syntactic complexity as predictors of GPA of multilingual international graduate students. AERA Open, 10(1),1–17 https://doi.org/10.1177/23328584241258729

Mahalingappa, L. (2023). Building teacher candidates’ self-efficacy beliefs about the education of multilingual learners: A linguistically responsive approach. Teaching and Teacher Education, 131, 104190. doi: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tate.2023.104190

Mahalingappa, L., Polat, N., & Wang, R. (2022). A Cross-Cultural Comparison between EFL and ESL Teacher Beliefs about Oral Corrective Feedback: The Case of China and the U.S.A. Language Awareness, 31, 21-52. DOI: 10.1080/09658416.2021.1900211

Mahalingappa, L., Kayi-Aydar, H., & Polat, N. (2021). Institutional and faculty readiness for teaching multilingual international students in university programs in the field of education. TESOL Quarterly, 55, 47-77.

 

Selected Book Chapters

Mahalingappa, L. & Opare, G. (2026). Linguistic Pluralism: Affordances and Limitations in Higher Education. In L. Mahalingappa, H. Kayi-Aydar, & N. Polat, (Eds.), An assets-based approach to serving multilingual international students in higher education (pp. 55-70). Teachers College Press.

Mahalingappa, L., Crawford, J., & Sierra Mejia, A. (2024). Linguistically responsive instruction and ideologies in preservice teacher preparation. In C. Shei & J. Schnell (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language and mind engineering. Routledge.

Mahalingappa, L., & Polat, N. (2021). Preparation of Teachers of EAL in the U.S.A.: Research, Policy, Curriculum, and Practice. In N. Polat, L. Mahalingappa, & Hayriye Kayi-Aydar (Eds.), Preparation of Teachers of English as an Additional Language (EAL) around the World. (pp. 233-241). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Meyer, C. K., Mahalingappa, L. J., & Brugar, K. A. (2018). Thinking inside the box: Using graphic novels to support ELLs in social studies classrooms.  In L. C. de Oliveira, K. Obenchain, R. Kenney, A. Oliveira (Eds.), Approaches to Teaching the Content Areas to English Language Learners in Secondary Schools: English Language Arts, Mathematics, Science, and Social Studies. Springer, Cham. 311-325.

Mahalingappa, L., Rodriguez, T.L., & Polat, N. (2021). Promoting peace through social justice pedagogies for students from immigrant Muslim communities: Using critical language awareness in second language classrooms. In R.L. Oxford, M.M. Olivero, M. Harrison, & T. Gregersen (eds.), Peacebuilding in language education: Innovations in theory and practice (pp. 162-176). Bristol, UK: Multilingual Matters.

Mahalingappa, L. (2013). The acquisition of split-ergativity in Kurmanji Kurdish. In E. Bavin & S. Stoll (Eds.), The Acquisition of Ergativity. Amsterdam: John Benjamins.  239-270.

 

Mahalingappa, L. (PI), Hankerson, S. (Co-PI), Polat, N. (Co-PI), & Turner, J.D. (Co-PI). Writing for College Essays and Beyond: Developing a college essay writing program for high school students of color.

Mahalingappa, L., & #Alkhateeb, R. Muslim student sense of belonging: identity-threatening, identity-safe, or social-identity affirming college campuses. 

Alexander, K., Mahalingappa, L., & Peterson, M. Developing Writing Teachers: A Partnership Model for Early-Career Writing Teacher Learning. 

Mahalingappa, L. Preparing preservice teachers to support English Learners in content area classes: Change in beliefs about self-competency, responsibility, and instructional support. 

Gresser, V., & Mahalingappa, L. Teachers learning the difference between expository genres in the context of a university writing methods course.

 

TLPL 788/688 Sociolinguistics

TLPL 740 Language and Education

TLPL 697 Embracing Diversity: Supporting Culturally and Linguistically Diverse Students in Secondary Classrooms  

TLPL 662 Second Language Acquisition

TLPL 440 Foundations of Educating Multilingual Learners