37.3149, Confs: Panel at IPC20 - Unfolding Learner Discourse: How Do We Explain What Learners Say? (Finland)

Fri Oct 2 12:05:02 UTC 2026

LINGUIST List: Vol-37-3149. Fri Oct 02 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.3149, Confs: Panel at IPC20 - Unfolding Learner Discourse: How Do We Explain What Learners Say? (Finland)

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Date: 30-Sep-2026
From: Line Winkelmans [line.winkelmans at kuleuven.be]
Subject: Panel at IPC20 - Unfolding Learner Discourse: How Do We Explain What Learners Say?

Panel at IPC20 - Unfolding Learner Discourse: How Do We Explain What
Learners Say?
Short Title: Panel at IPC20

Date: 27-Jun-2027 - 02-Jul-2027
Location: Helsinki, Finland
Meeting URL: https://pragmatics.international/page/IPC20Helsinki

Linguistic Field(s): Language Acquisition; Pragmatics

Submission Deadline: 15-Oct-2026

The development of an additional language has occupied many
researchers in the field of second language acquisition (SLA). While
this field is well established, attention has primarily been given to
the acquisition of grammar and vocabulary, and less so to other
components of communicative competence, such as pragmatics.
Nevertheless, within the domain of pragmatics, a great deal of
attention has been given to the pragmatic competence of learners of a
language in comparison with native speakers.
Pragmatic marker studies, for instance, have shown that learners often
deviate from native speaker practices in their use of pragmatic
markers. It has proved difficult to explain why learners use certain
markers very frequently, but others hardly at all. The most evident
explanation for learners’ behaviour is how they use similar items in
their mother tongue. In many studies, both in SLA and in pragmatics,
negative L1 transfer is mentioned to explain divergences from native
speaker practices. Although differences between the L1 and the target
language are often hinted at (e.g. Müller 2005, Liu 2013, Haselow
2021), there are generally no comparable usage data available for the
first language of the learners being studied, making this explanation
rather tentative.
Recent publications on learners’ use of pragmatic markers by, for
instance, Han (2024), Magliacane and Sánchez-Hernández (2025), Pan
(2025) or Tilburghs and Vande Casteele (2024) have shown that the
study of learners’ pragmatic behaviour has captured abundant research
interest. This panel, therefore, invites contributions tailored to the
pragmatic study of learner discourse. In particular, we invite talks
that address the question: how do we explain learners’ pragmatic
behaviour, especially when this behaviour deviates from native-speaker
practices? The aim is to corroborate, find limitations to, and expand
previous tentative explanations of learner behaviour on the basis of
more sound evidence.
Information on abstract submission can be found on the conference
website: https://pragmatics.international/page/CfP2027
References:
Han, K. (2024). Corpus-Based Qualitative Analysis of Pragmatic Marker
Acquisition in Second Language Learners. Eurasian Journal of Applied
Linguistics (Online).
Haselow, A. (2021). The acquisition of pragmatic markers in the
foreign language classroom: An experimental study on the effects of
implicit and explicit learning. Journal of Pragmatics, 186, 73–86.
Liu, B. (2013). Effect of first language on the use of English
discourse markers by L1 Chinese speakers of English. Journal of
Pragmatics, 45(1), 149–172.
Magliacane, A., & Sánchez-Hernández, A. (2025). Development of
pragmatic awareness during study abroad: A focus on pragmatic markers.
Pragmatics.
Müller, S. (2005). Discourse Markers in Native and Non-native English
Discourse. John Benjamins Publishing Company.
Pan, Z. (2025). The Use of English Pragmatic Markers by Learners of
English from Different Linguacultural Backgrounds. Contrastive
Pragmatics, 6(2), 435–462.
Tilburghs, B., & Vande Casteele, A. N. (2024). Pues como marcador de
toma de turno en español L2. RILCE. Revista de Filologia Hispanica,
40(3), 1109-1141.

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