We are proud to announce that UIUC MATESOL student Eda Yildirimer was selected as the recipient of the AAAL 2026 Graduate Student Award (Duolingo Award).
The American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) is a professional organization of scholars who are interested in and actively contribute to the multi-disciplinary field of applied linguistics. The AAAL Graduate Student Award is a merit-based award that supports the attendance of AAAL graduate student members at the annual conference. Award recipients are chosen based on the merits of their conference submission. This year’s AAAL conference will be held from March 21-24 in Chicago.
Eda received this award based on her submission, “Identity Construction, Tension Navigation, and Pedagogical Change among Transnational Graduate Teaching Assistants at a Midwest University in the U.S.A,” which investigates how first- and second-year transnational graduate teaching assistants construct, navigate, and negotiate their professional identities while teaching in a U.S.-based English as a Second Language (ESL) program over a 17-week academic semester.
Congratulations Eda!
