Past Event

Interactive alignment: What’s in it for language researchers and teachers?

Dr. Pavel Trofimovich
Concordia University, Montreal

In recent years, psycholinguists have shifted their focus away from decontextualized language use of individual speakers to study interactive language use in authentic settings. In their Interactive Alignment Model, Pickering and Garrod proposed that interlocutors achieve understanding by aligning their linguistic representations at various levels (lexical, syntactic, phonological). This alignment becomes evident during conversation when interlocutors adopt and repeatedly use each other’s language patterns, with this convergence in language use promoting successful communication. Drawing on empirical evidence from research on interactive alignment from both social and psychological perspectives, I will discuss possible implications of interactive alignment for second language learning and teaching.

About the Presenter

Dr. Pavel Trofimovich is an associate professor of applied linguistics in the Department of Education at Concordia University, Montreal, Canada. His research focuses on cognitive aspects of second language processing, second language phonology, sociolinguistic aspects of second language acquisition, and the teaching of second language pronunciation. In 2012-2014 he served as Associate Editor of Language Learning, and began his appointment as Language Learning’s Editor in January 2015.