On March 6, 2026, Ai-Ling Lu successfully defended her doctoral dissertation, clearing the last hurdle in her journey of completing a PhD in East Asian Languages and Literatures. She is grateful to her advisor and dissertation committee for their guidance and support. 

DEALL is proud of Ai-Ling's achievements and applauds her hard work. During her time in our graduate program, she has been a student leader, an outstanding teacher, and a talented researcher. We will be excited to see what the next chapter in her life brings!

Congrats Ai-Ling!

Dissertation Title: Diversifying Third-Turn Repertoires to Co-construct Intersubjectivity in Chinese-as-a-Foreign-Language Interaction

Committee Members: Xiaobin Jian, Advisor,  Carmen Taleghani-Nikazm, Co-Advisor, and Michiko Hikida

Abstract: The third turn, the follow-up response following a question-and-answer exchange, plays a critical role in co-constructing intersubjectivity. It is within this interactional space that speakers display understanding, affirm alignment, negotiate intention, and initiate repair. Yet, in Chinese-as-a-Foreign-Language (CFL) classrooms, resources and pedagogy for navigating these turns remain under-researched. Addressing this gap, this dissertation combines Conversation Analysis (CA) with CA-informed formal coding to examine the link between third turns and intersubjectivity, ultimately validating a pedagogy that diversifies learners’ interactional repertoires (Hall, 2018).

This research unfolds through three interconnected studies, moving from diagnosis, to intervention, and finally, to innovation. First, a diagnostic analysis of CFL classrooms reveals a critical interactional imbalance: instructors dominate third-turn slots with evaluative feedback, while students remain passive. To address this, the study proposes a theoretical framework comprising five types of third turns categorized by their degree of intersubjective explicitness, identifying stance expression as a pivotal interactional resource that is currently missing from learner repertoires. Second, a four-week pedagogical intervention was implemented to guide learners in diversifying their repertoires by integrating stance-expressing third turns into role-play drills and pair-work activities. Post-intervention analysis confirms that guided participation enabled learners to move beyond minimal acknowledgments and employ dynamic strategies to co-construct joint stances. Third, the study investigates whether generative artificial intelligence (GenAI), specifically ChatGPT, can serve as a scaffolding tool for students to use outside of class to diversify their third-turn repertoires. Comparative analysis demonstrates that while GenAI successfully elicits third turns, its lack of context-sensitivity and sociocultural awareness makes it less effective than human interaction for fostering deep intersubjectivity. 

In conclusion, this dissertation advocates for an interactionally oriented curriculum within language pedagogy. By establishing an empirically grounded framework for instructional design and critically delineating the interactional affordances and constraints of GenAI, this work equips educators with actionable strategies. Ultimately, this pedagogical shift aims to transition learners from passive recipients in unidirectional exchanges to active agents who dynamically co-construct intersubjectivity in intercultural communication.