Title: Interaction, Feedback and Task Research in Second Language Learning
Presenter: Alison Mackey, Georgetown University
Location: Zoom, Passcode: IWL

Abstract
In the field of applied linguistics, cognitive approaches to communicative interaction, corrective feedback and task-based L2 learning have developed and shifted dramatically over the last two decades. This talk begins with a brief review of the theoretical and empirical foundations of cognitively oriented interaction, feedback and task-based L2 research, including how these constructs are related. I will provide examples of how interaction, feedback and communicative tasks can drive second language learning, suggesting that the new tools and constructs that are emerging in research promise an even more productive time lies ahead.

I will highlight these important methodological developments that can further our understanding of how interaction, feedback and tasks drive L2 learning in the lab and in the classroom. These include psychology-based measures like working memory tests (in L1 and L2), the eye-tracking paradigm, and education and sociology-derived approaches like verbal introspections.

Finally, I will I turn to emergent constructs, focusing on one under-studied but promising new area: whether and how individual differences in cognitive creativity are related to interaction, feedback, tasks and L2 learning. I will consider how creativity is measured in varied fields as part of this discussion.

Bio
Alison Mackey is Professor of Linguistics at Georgetown University. Her interests include interaction-driven L2 learning, L2 research methodology and the applications of interaction and feedback through task-based language teaching, as well as L2 dialects and identities. She has published 75+ journal articles/book chapters, and 19 books in total, including the Mildenberger prize-winning Handbook of SLA (co-edited with Susan M. Gass). Mackey is Editor-in-Chief of the Annual Review of Applied Linguistics, published by CUP, #1 of 181 Linguistics Journals for 2017 Impact factor. She is co-founder of the Instruments for Research into Second Languages  (IRIS) database project (funded by ESRC and the British Academy) and co-editor of the Taylor and Francis Second Language Acquisition series. She has lived and taught applied linguistics and ESL/EFL in the U.K., Japan, Australia, and the U.S. Google scholar regular places her amongst the top scholars in the world in areas like applied linguistics, second language acquisition and research methodology.