Graduate Researcher Series: an Interview with Hangyu Zhang

Chenyang Zhang

Hangyu Zhang is a second-year PhD student in the School of Languages and Linguistics at the University of Melbourne. Her PhD project investigates the development of second language interactional competence in the stay-abroad context and the application of conversation analysis in second language pragmatics, under the supervision of Prof. Carsten Roever and Dr Kellie Frost. Her research interests focus on second language pragmatics, language teaching, and second language acquisition.

Chenyang interviewed Hangyu about her PhD research and journey.

***

Hi Hangyu, thank you for taking the time to speak with me. To start us off, can you introduce yourself?

Sure! As you know, I am from China. In 2018, I completed my bachelor’s degree in English language and literature. When I was doing my undergraduate thesis, I found my deep interest in pragmatics and applied linguistics. Therefore, I immersed myself in studies and research in English language learning and pragmatics at Shanghai International Studies University and Monash University. In 2021, I obtained two master’s degrees, in Applied Linguistics and TESOL. Following my interest in pragmatics research, I embarked on my PhD study under the supervision of Prof. Carsten Roever and Dr Kellie Frost at the beginning of 2022 here at the University of Melbourne. 

Could you tell me a bit about your research project?

My research explores the development of second language interactional competence in stay-abroad contexts. For those who are not very familiar with interactional competence (IC), it can be understood as language users’ ability to coordinate social actions with each other in mutually recognizable ways. Generally, IC represents people’s ability to participate in daily interaction successfully. In my project, I put my focus on Chinese students studying in Australia and examine how they develop their second language interactional competence, in which their second language refers to English, during their stint overseas.

Sounds quite interesting! How did you get to this topic?

To be honest, my interest in the development of interactional competence amongst L2 English speakers in stay-abroad contexts was first ignited when I realised I acquired the expression “no worries” during my first year in Melbourne. As an English learner who received many years of English education in China, my home country, I was confident in my ability to communicate in English while staying abroad. Also, with both intentional and unintentional learning, I noticed my progress since I could interact with other people in a more appropriate way. On this basis, I thought the development of interactional competence can be an interesting and meaningful topic. 

Meanwhile, the trend of studying abroad in an English-speaking country among English learners has reflected the reality of combining second language learning and stay abroad context in Australia; our tertiary international students account for nearly 30% of its total tertiary students. Therefore, without similar research carried out in the Australian context, I am motivated to do such a study.

Would you like to share the significance of your research?

The findings of this research are expected to make important contributions from various perspectives. Theoretically, it may provide an opportunity to advance the understanding of developing second language interactional competence and the application of conversation analysis, which is a sociological approach that provides a way to understand people’s management of their lives in society by adopting language as the data. Professionally, this research raises English learners’ awareness of relevant factors in developing their interactional competence in their second language. And hopefully, some implications might also be applicable to other languages or different stay-abroad contexts. Lastly, this research may also offer some key insights into second language teaching and learning from a pedagogical perspective.

To address this research topic, how did you collect data?

Actually, the data collection work was quite time-consuming and tiring. I decided to recruit more than 20 participants and organise interactional activities for them to participate in at different stages, in order to track the changes in their interaction performance, which can reflect the development of their interactional competence. I first published a poster and a recruitment advertisement on Little Red Book, a Chinese social media platform. To my surprise, lots of people came to me and expressed their willingness to join the project. That’s quite good! Following the official procedures, like sending the explanatory document, answering questions, and signing the consent forms, I recruited 24 participants and divided them into groups and pairs.

To date, I have finished two stages of data collection. In every stage, there were group discussion tasks, pair discussion activities, and individual interviews. And the most difficult thing was to organise the activity for each group. Every time, I have to find an available time for each participant in the group and book the discussion room in advance. Now I am planning the activities for the third stage, but it is quite hard because participants have vacation plans, individual business, and even Winter classes. After finishing the activities, the transcribing work is also heavy. But I really appreciate current digital technologies and software that can facilitate my transcribing work.

As a second-year PhD student, what’s the biggest challenge for you so far?

First of all, I must say that pursuing a PhD at the University of Melbourne is undoubtedly a fantastic choice because I have responsible and experienced supervisors, caring colleagues, and strong support from the faculty. From deciding the research topic to the data collection phase, I haven’t encountered big problems, but some challenges are inevitable. For example, English is not my first language, and thus conducting academic work in English undoubtedly costs me more time and energy, especially in academic writing. During my research journey, I have never stopped learning English and improving my writing skills. 

Another challenge I would like to mention is pressure. In addition to focusing on my research, like data collection and data analysis, I have some pressure with respect to academic achievements. Although I am still collecting data at this moment, I need to think about attending academic conferences, publications, and other opportunities to share my research ideas and findings with other scholars in the relevant research fields.

What’s been your favourite memory from your PhD so far?

Well, personally, I really enjoyed my first semester as a PhD student. At that time, we had two courses delivered by Prof. Paul Gruba and all my classmates were PhD students who just started their journey as I did. We had discussions, shared our experiences, communicated about confusions, and developed our research thinking under Paul’s guidance. Working together with peer researchers, I could feel the positive energy and the passion deeply. 

Could you tell us how you achieve a healthy balance between your work and personal life?

I think I have been achieving a healthy balance between my work and personal life. Firstly, I am lucky because my research work does not require me to stay at the laboratories and I have the flexibility to work from home or go to the office whenever I like. Besides, I try to do all the work on weekdays and spend the weekends with my partner and friends unless sometimes my participants could only meet on weekends to do the data-collection activities. Beyond my research work, I would spend time playing video games with my partner, visiting interesting places with my friends, and going on a trip at least twice per year (as shown in the photo below). Australia is a country that values work-life balance, and I appreciate the work environment here. 

Do you have any expectations for your future PhD journey?

I am currently working on my last-stage data collection, and I will finish the job by August. So, from August, I am going to spend most of my work time on data analysis and some writing work. Next year, I desire to do more “networking”, such as attending conferences, forums, and publishing.

Do you have any advice for first-year PhD students? 

As I mentioned before, my first-year experience was fantastic and memorable. However, I know that many of us may feel confused in the first year because we are supposed to finalise our research proposal and generate a specific research plan, which could be challenging. My advice is to talk to senior researchers, your supervisors, and your colleagues. Communicating with others can sometimes provide you with an effective solution and inspire you a lot. At last, do not give yourself much pressure like “I need to settle down all the details at the first stage.” Although it’s important to have a clear picture of a feasible plan, we are still supposed to revise it according as our journey unfolds. 

Those are valuable suggestions! Thanks for talking with me today, Hangyu.

Thank you, Chenyang.