Rémi Adam van Compernolle

About

Rémi A. van Compernolle joined the Department of Languages, Cultures & Applied Linguistics at Carnegie Mellon University as an associate professor in 2012 after completing his Ph.D. in Applied Linguistics at the Pennsylvania State University. His work focuses on the intersections between cognition, affect, and identity in second, foreign, and additional language development. Drawing on Vygotskian cultural-historical psychology, Dr. van Compernolle examines how opportunities for development are co-constructed between people, such as teachers and students, and how cultural artifacts like linguistic forms and semantic and pragmatic concepts are internalized and mediate cognition, affect, and identity performance. Most of his research is conducted within formal educational settings, including classroom discourse, interaction, concept-based instruction, and dynamic assessment. He teaches and advises graduate students in areas such as second language acquisition theory, qualitative research methods, interaction analysis, and Vygotskian theory. Additionally, he teaches undergraduate French courses at all levels and courses for the applied multilingual studies program, including topics like language diversity and cultural identity.

Research topics

• Computer Science
• Sociology
• Psychology
• Natural Language Processing
• Linguistics
• Philosophy
• Programming language
• Management
• Knowledge management
• Social psychology

Selected publications

• Computerized dynamic assessment of implicature comprehension in L2 Chinese

  Language learning & technology · 2021 · 47 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding

  The focus of this article is on the design and administration of an online computerized dynamic assessment of an important area of pragmatics: implicature comprehension (i.e., indirect meaning). The assessment centered on indirect acceptances, refusals, and opinions. Drawing on Vygotskian psychology, this assessment had a dual aim: (a) to evaluate test-takers’ current capacities as evidenced by independent performance and (b) to evaluate test-takers’ emerging capacities as evidenced by their res…

  PublisherOA PDF

• Topic management and student initiation in an advanced Chinese-as-a-foreign-language classroom

  Classroom Discourse · 2019-03-07 · 25 citations

  articleSenior author

  The focus of this article is on topic management and student initiation in the context of an advanced university-level Chinese-as-a-foreign-language class. Drawing on a corpus of 17.5 h of video-recorded classroom interactions, we focus on the ways in which students initiate topic expansions, thereby disrupting the IRF structure of discourse and enhancing learning opportunities. We identified three types of student-initiated topic expansions: genuine questions, topic elaborations and challenges…

  PublisherDOI

• Constructing a Second Language Sociolinguistic Repertoire: A Sociocultural Usage-based Perspective

  Applied Linguistics · 2018-08-17 · 24 citations

  article1st authorCorresponding

  Abstract This article discusses a sociocultural usage-based perspective on the development of sociolinguistic competence. Previous research has focused on learners’ acquisition and use of alternative ways of ‘saying the same thing’ (i.e. native-like variation) in relation to study abroad, contact with native speakers, and pedagogy. Missing from the literature are studies examining the developmental trajectories of individual learners from a qualitative perspective. This article takes a first ste…

  PublisherDOI

• A Vygotskian Developmental Approach to Second Language Education

  Journal of Cognitive Education and Psychology · 2018-10-01 · 14 citations

  article
  PublisherDOI

• Reconsidering Time and Process in L2 Dynamic Assessment

  Educational linguistics · 2020 · 10 citations

  Senior authorCorresponding
  PublisherDOI

Frequent coauthors

• Lawrence Williams

  University of North Texas

  17 shared

• Matthew E. Poehner

  6 shared

• Celeste Kinginger

  Pennsylvania State University

  4 shared

• Janice McGregor

  University of Arizona

  3 shared

• Ashlie Henery

  California University of Pennsylvania

  3 shared

• Daniel Walter

  Emory University

  2 shared

• Haomin Zhang

  2 shared

• James P. Lantolf

  2 shared

Education

• Ph.D., Applied Linguistics

  The Pennsylvania State University

• M.A., French Studies

  University of North Texas

• B.A., French Studies

  University of North Texas

Similar researchers at Carnegie Mellon University

• Sanghee Kangh-71
• Cheng Lih-44
• Seth Wienerh-14