We are delighted to welcome three distinguished keynote speakers to ICOP-L2, each contributing cutting-edge research in interactional competences and second language practices. Silvia Kunitz (Linköping University), Paul Seedhouse (Newcastle University) and Daniel MK Lam (University of Glasgow) bring unique insights from conversation analysis into language learning, teaching, and assessment. Their work continues to shape the field and inspire new directions in second language interaction research.

Silvia Kunitz (Linköping University)

Title: Task-based interactions: A research-informed and practice-oriented exploration

Ethnomethodological conversation analysis has greatly contributed to research on task-based language teaching. Specifically, task-based interactions have been explored to analyze, for example, the sense-making procedures accomplished by participants to implement the task, the participants’ observable (dis)engagement with the task, their interactional skills, their semiotic resources, and their use of pedagogical materials (e.g., task instructions, pictures, etc). In other words, analytical attention has been brought to the task-in-process, which represents one side of the “split personality” (Seedhouse, 2005) of tasks. While providing an overview of CA findings in task-based research, this talk also discusses whether and how the existing empirical evidence about tasks-in-process may offer relevant implications for the design of tasks-as-workplans and for L2 teaching in general. It is suggested that the key to this issue lies in engaging in the research-practice dialogue at varying degrees: from discussing empirical findings with teachers to conducting collaborative, practice-based research with and for teachers.

Silvia Kunitz is a Senior Lecturer at Linköping University (Sweden) and a coordinator at Stockholm Teaching and Learning Studies. Silvia's research focuses on interaction in formal (e.g., classroom settings) and informal (e.g., language cafes) language learning environments and explores how participants do learning and teaching as socially situated activities in various material ecologies. More recently, Silvia has focused on the relevance of the construct of interactional competence to describe L2 students' interactional skills and inform the design of teaching materials that promote such skills. 


Paul Seedhouse (Newcastle University)

Title: Human talk emerges from the interplay of two separate complex systems: Language and the interaction engine

This paper revisits Sacks’s (1992) aim of uncovering the ‘machinery’ which ‘spews out’ interactions. Using Complexity Theory (CT) and Information Theory (IT) lenses, I suggest that talk emerges from the interplay of two separate complex systems:  the universal ‘interaction engine’ (Levinson, 2006; 2025) and language(s). This two-systems solution for talk evolved for three reasons: a) it provides a balance between heterogeneity and homogeneity, enabling cultural evolution via thousands of languages whilst retaining whole population resilience so all humans can still communicate; b) the action of two opposing forces enabled talk to occupy an optimal evolutionary niche; c) this helped circumvent the ‘verbal bottleneck’ for language transmission by adding non-verbal resources with no informational cost and added benefits.
 
I argue that: a) the two systems have different roles as language deals primarily with information processing, whereas the interaction engine deals primarily with social networking and intersubjectivity; b) they operate in different ways as language works in a statistical way, unlike the interaction engine; c) the interaction engine evolved well before language and is acquired before language; d) both systems can function independently of each other.
 
The paper outlines the relationship between talk, language and the interaction engine and their fundamental similarities with all other life-related systems. We consider the implications of the two-systems model for interactional competence and CA.

Paul Seedhouse is Emeritus Professor of Human Spoken Interaction. 

Daniel MK Lam (University of Glasgow)

Title: Conversation analysis and language assessment: Celebrating the road less travelled and exploring new avenues

Conversation Analysis has paved new ways to investigate crucial questions in the development and validation of language tests behind the scores – from test constructs, test and task conditions to rubric development. Meanwhile, epistemological and methodological differences meant that making CA-based contributions to language testing and assessment has been a bumpy road. This talk celebrates researchers who took the road less travelled, and ponders new avenues where CA may continue to contribute to language assessment research and practice.

Daniel MK Lam is Lecturer in TESOL at the School of Education, University of Glasgow, and Deputy Lead for the Cultures, Literacies, Inclusion and Pedagogy Research and Teaching Group. Daniel’s research is concerned with assessing interactional competence, and developing IC-related resources for teaching, feedback, and teacher/examiner training. His work also explores “interactive listening” as a way of bringing IC into teaching and assessment of L2 listening. Daniel is a member of the editorial board for the journals Language Assessment Quarterly and Language Testing. He has published works on assessing IC in these journals and in Applied Linguistics and Applied Pragmatics.