Research

Dr. Xiaoting Li's research interest is language in social interaction, multimodal interaction and Chinese linguistics. She uses the methodology of Conversation Analysis and Interactional Linguistics in the study of everyday Mandarin talk-in-interaction. Her research explores how multimodal resources such as lexico-syntax, prosody and embodied actions are used by interactants in organizing turns, sequences and courses of actions in Mandarin conversation.

Current research projects

Signature Area on Language, Communication, and Culture (LCC), Faculty of Arts, University of Alberta

Proposer of the LCC Signature Area which supports interdisciplinary scholarship on the processes by which individuals, groups, and organizations from different linguistic and cultural backgrounds exchange information, and create and share meaning. The LCC is composed of three interrelated thematic areas: interpersonal communication, intercultural communication, and organizational communication. 2019-2023

OKAY across languages: Comparative studies of its use in talk-in-interaction in 13 languages

Collaborator of the project on the use of Okay in Mandarin Chinese interaction from a cross-linguistic perspective.

Interpersonal and Intercultural Communication

Principle Investigator of the project on intercultural communication in interpersonal interaction: a study of international students at a Canadian university. Funded by the Kule Institute of Advanced Studies (KIAS), University of Alberta

Cross-linguistic study of prosodic and embodied matching in German, English and Mandarin conversation

Szczepek Reed, Beatrice & Li, Xiaoting. 2014. Prosodic and embodied matching in English, Mandarin and German: Practices for sequential alignment and (dis)affiliation. Paper presented at the ICCA-14, UCLA, June 2014

Interpersonal touch in everyday Mandarin interaction

Meyer, Christian & Li, Xiaoting. 2014. Touch in everyday interaction: a comparative perspective. Paper presented at the ICCA-14, UCLA, June 2014

Completed research projects

Unfinished Utterances in Mandarin conversation

Solo project on the multimodal construction and interactional uses of syntactically incomplete utterances in Mandarin conversation. Funded by SSHRC IDG (Social Sciences and Humanities Council of Canada, Insight Development Grant). (2017-2019)

Multimodality and turn-taking in Mandarin conversation

Li, Xiaoting. 2014. Multimodality, Interaction, and Turn-taking in Mandarin Conversation. Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins.

Units in Mandarin interaction

Li, Xiaoting. 2013. Language and the Body in the Construction of Units in Mandarin Face-to-Face Interaction. In Beatrice Szczepek Reed & Geoffrey Raymond (Eds.) Units of Talk―Units of Action, 343-375. John Benjamins: Amsterdam/Philadelphia.

Co-organized a panel on units in interaction with Leelo Keevallik at the IPrA, 2013

Leaning in Mandarin conversation

Leaning and Recipient Intervening Questions in Mandarin Conversation. Journal of Pragmatics, 67: 34-60.