• Language use in social interaction
• Interactional competence in second language
• Sociolinguistics
• Video-mediated interaction
• L2 teaching
• TA development and language program direction

My research centers on linguistic and embodied practices that speakers use to make sense of each other and to “get things done” together in social and cultural settings. I do this by employing methods from Conversation Analysis, Interactional Linguistics, Sociolinguistics, and Pragmatics demonstrating the interplay between linguistic structure (e.g., an imperative versus a declarative), prosodic realization (e.g., stress, pitch), social setting, context, and embodied resources (e.g., gaze, gesture), as well as their relative and temporal position within a conversation.

Currently, I am involved in several collaborative research projects with my own PhD students and colleagues here at OSU, as well as with research colleagues at other institutions in the US, Canada, Germany, and Ireland. One project revolves around the question of what motivates L2 speakers to select one linguistic form over another to accomplish a particular interactional function in real time. I examine the linguistic and embodied elements that German L2 speakers use to manage conversations (e.g., asking questions, demonstrating understanding, repair) with German L1 speakers in a video-mediated environment. 

The other research project is an analysis of linguistic objects, for example, moment, moment mal (just a moment+particle), warte (wait), and warte mal (wait+particle), that German speakers use to manage cooperative and divergent action. This study is part of a larger research project investigating (un)-cooperative behavior in social interaction, with a focus on the German language. 

Whenever possible, I apply research from spoken interaction to second language pedagogy (interactional competence), instructional materials development, and graduate teacher training. I am also a member of the Graduate Interdisciplinary Specialization (GIS) in Second Language Studies.

Selected recent publications:

Afshari Saleh R, Taleghani-Nikazm, C, Monfaredi, E; Rezaee, P (2025)  “Achieving Multi-unit Turns: The Versatile Token Khob in Persian Extended Tellings.” Interactional Linguistics. 

Betz, E., Golato, A., Drake, V., and Taleghani-Nikazm, C. (2024). “Verbal and bodily practices for addressing trouble associated with embodied moves in game play”. In Margaret Selting and Dagmar Barth-Weingarten (eds.) “New Perspectives in Interactional Linguistic”.  

Schirm, S., Uskokovic, B. and Taleghani-Nikazm, C. (2023). “The competence in little words: Response patterns in German L2 interaction.” Applied Pragmatics. Special Issue: Assessing Interactional Competence: Between Description and Grading.

Uskokovic, B. and Taleghani-Nikazm, C. (2022). “Talk and Embodied Conduct in Word Searches in Video-Mediated Interactions”. Social Interaction - Video based studies of human sociality. Special Issue: Bodily Practices in Action Formation and Ascription in Multilingual Interaction.

Taleghani-Nikazm, C., Betz, E., & Golato, P. (2020). “Mobilizing Others: Grammar and lexis within larger activities.” Edited volume with John Benjamins Publishing Company, Studies in Language and Social Interaction Series. (Series editors: Sandra Thompson and Elizabeth Couper-Kuhlen).

Recent seminars taught in Linguistics and Applied Linguistic:

• Video-Mediated Interaction in L2 Learning Research (SP25)
• Teaching World Languages at the College Level (AU24)
• Multilingualism in a Changing Global World (SP24)
• Grammar at work: The intersection of German language and interactional contexts (SP23)
• Interactional Competence in L2 (SP22)

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