Swathi M Vanniarajan

Dr. Swathi Vanniarajan is Professor and Department Chair of Linguistics and Language Development at San José State University, specializing in psycholinguistics, second language acquisition, and language testing. His research explores neurobiological models of language processing and heritage language maintenance.

Teaching spans graduate courses in second language acquisition and TESOL assessment, undergraduate psycholinguistics, and writing instruction. Research examines:

• Cognitive processes in second language reading
• Cross-cultural communication pedagogy
• Neurobiological foundations of language learning
• Vocabulary acquisition models

Publications investigate cognitive dimensions of L2 reading, academic writing motivation, and cultural awareness development. He has taught applied linguistics internationally in India, Canada, Singapore, and the United States.