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Conference Summary
17th International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning
March 26-28, 2007, University of Hawaii, Honolulu, HA
Jun Zhao
PhD Student
Second Language Acquisition and Teaching GIDP
The experience of attending the 17th International Conference on Pragmatics and Language Learning is a worthwhile one to get in touch with latest researches on the teaching, learning pragmatics issues in second language acquisition. I enjoyed the two workshops of how to design valid and reliable questionnaires for fine-tuned data collection, and the incorporation of technology in teaching pragmatics. I talked to some prominent researchers and scholars whose works impact the pragmatic research field tremendously. The talks helped me to see the direction of pragmatic studies. I particularly enjoyed Julie Beltz’s talk of how to use the Socio-cultural perspective to analyze the data
of a telecollaboration projects of American learners of German and German learners of American English, to study their pragmatic development. The plenary speech on Hawaii ESL (English as a second language) status broadens the scope of traditional pragmatic studies to language policy, language attitude and language learners to consider the complexity. I feel more and more studies on pragmatics are reaching out to other disciplines for a more comprehensive view.
I presented my study with a colleague on how highly-advanced language speakers might realize the speech act of suggestion in a different manner than the native speakers when they are in the power position. Our presentation was well delivered and well received. Through presenting our preliminary study, we hope to shed light into the issue of training International Teaching Assistants, in particular their pragmatic awareness and choices.
Attending a conference is always a good learning opportunity, where one can get a sense of the latest trend in the academic studies, gaps, problems and future directions. Presenting in conferences is also a good chance for my professional development where I can start to establish a network. Attending conferences provides me the chance to broaden my research framework and create my own visibility in the research community. As a graduate student, I really appreciate The Herbert E. Carter travel funding from GIDP to sponsor me to attend this important conference in my field of study.
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