Let the Voice Be Heard: SoLL Researchers present at the 18th International Pragmatics Conference in Belgium 

Rena Gao

The International Pragmatics Association (IPrA) is the largest organization of pragmatics studies,and in every two or three years, the IPrA holds a conference that provides a platform for likeminded researchers interested in the field of pragmatics to present their latest research. This year, the conference was held in Brussels, Belgium, from the 9th to the 14th of July. This conference attracted over 2,000 researchers globally to attend. Three SoLL researchers, Dr. Jingxuan Wu, Rena Gao, and Xingcheng Wang, presented their work at the conference related to L2 pragmatics, including L2 Chinese, L2 English online text-chat interaction and L2 pragmatics assessment.   

On the second day of the conference, Dr.Jingxuan Wu gave a talk on L2 Chinese interactional competence during the session on L2 Pragmatics, ‘What role play and elicited conversation can tell about L2 interactional competence?’. He introduced methodologies in L2 interactional competence studies and showed the comparison results related to L2 role-play and L2 elicited conversation. The findings from the study echoed previous studies that L2 proficiency do influence that L2 interactional competence. This innovative research received much positive feedback from the audience. 

Xingcheng Wang shared his work related to the L2 interaction competence in online text-chat interactions. He presented how L2 learners form their openings/ closings during virtual interactions, and how this contributed to the assessment of L2 interactional competence. This study indicated interactional competence holds a positive effects on L2 speakers’ online interactions.  

On the third day of the conference, Rena Gao brought her work: ‘Listenership always matters: Listener responses in L2 paired speaking assessment’ in the poster session. She showed the effects of listener responses in rubric design and scoring process for L2 pragmatics assessments.  This study shows that active listening impacts the results of paired speaking scoring from both qualitative and quanalitive aspects.During the poster session, Rena received many suggestions and attention from researchers in L2 pragmatics and natural language processing based on the design of the study. 

This conference is the first in-person pragmatics conference after the three-year pandemic. Three SoLL researchers shared their latest work and progress with the larger audience. This conference helped the researchers in pragmatics to strengthen their networks and facilitated conversations among researchers worldwide.