Chen received a bachelor's degree in English from Hefei University of Technology in 2017 and a master’s degree in TESOL from the University of Pennsylvania in 2019. She is currently doing her PhD in Applied Linguistics with Professor Kim McDonough and Professor Pavel Trofimovich. Her interests include task-based interaction, L2 pragmatics, and English as a lingua franca. She enjoys taking photographs, jogging and playing table tennis, and she is a certified table tennis referee.

Projects

• Verbal and nonverbal disagreement in an ELF academic discussion task
• The effects of self-perceived task difficulty on the strategies used by L2 speakers to avoid misunderstanding
• Exploring the relationship between nonverbal alignment and interlocutor perceptions
• The relationship between nonverbal behavior and perceived fluency during L2 conversations
• Ph.D. Dissertation: The effects of task repetition on Chinese EFL (English as a Foreign Language) university students’ task accomplishment, communicative competence, and willingness to communicate 

Publications

1. McDonough, K., Liu, C., & Trofimovich, P. (in press). ELF university students’ strategies for avoiding misunderstanding. ELT Journal.
2. McDonough, K., Kim, Y.-L., Uludag, P., Liu, C., & Trofimovich, P (2022). Exploring the relationship between behavior matching and interlocutor perceptions in L2 interaction. System, 109, Article 102865. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.system.2022.102865
3. Liu, C., McDonough, K., Trofimovich, P., & Uludag, P. (2022). Verbal and nonverbal disagreement in an ELF academic discussion task. Applied Linguistics Review. Published online 13 April 2022. https://doi.org/10.1515/applirev-2021-0043

PRESENTATIONS

1. Kim, Y. L., Liu, C., Trofimovich, P., & McDonough, K. (2023, March). Do visual cues matter for perceived fluency during L2 conversations? [Presentation]. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Conference. Portland, OR, USA.
   
2. McDonough, K., Trofimovich, P., Kim, Y. L., & Liu, C. (2023, March). Visual cues of nonunderstanding: Do observers know what they are seeing? [Presentation]. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Conference. Portland, OR, USA.
   
3. Kim, Y. L., Liu, C., Uludag, P., McDonough, K., & Trofimovich, P. (2022, March). Investigating behavior matching and rapport in L2 interaction [Presentation]. American Association for Applied Linguistics (AAAL) Conference. Pittsburgh, PA, USA.
4. Liu, C., McDonough, K., & Trofimovich, P. (2020, October). Verbal and nonverbal disagreement in an ELF academic discussion task [Poster presentation]. Second Language Research Forum 2020. Nashville, TN, United States.

GRANTS, awards and scholarships

• Concordia International Tuition Award of Excellence
  
• Conference and Exposition Award (2020, 2023)
  

Lab Members