Several applied linguistics faculty and graduate students in our department attended the American Association of Applied Linguistics (AAAL) conference this year, which was held remotely. We thought we would share our thoughts on what we appreciated and missed during this experience.

Carla Consolini, doctoral student in Linguistics

I attended AAAL 2021 with high expectations of being able to attend more talks than I would normally be able to. Sometimes when you are there on-site, moving from one conference room to another can take longer than you think, and I often misplanned the sequences of talks I wanted to attend. This time that wasn’t a problem at all, I just switch virtual rooms from my desk at home. However, I have to admit that networking was a lot harder or even a bit awkward, but still possible. Unfortunately, I did not present this year, but I did enjoy very informative talks about technology application to second language learning, and a very thought-provoking keynote speaker (Onowa McIvor) that presented a talk titled “Is an antiracist and decolonizing applied linguistics possible?”.  Overall,  I would say the conference was a success since the technology was not an issue at all in my experience, but I really do miss the social and networking aspect of it and I am looking forward to the next conference being in-person.

Kris Kyle, faculty member in Linguistics

AAAL 2021 was my eighth AAAL conference, but it was the first time that it has been remote. I certainly missed attending presentations in person and the spontaneous conversations that occur after presentations and in the halls. Nonetheless, AAAL was still a great experience, and the downsides of the virtual experience were softened by the advantages (namely not having to travel!). I gave a presentation (along with Masaki Eguchi from University of Oregon and Ann Tai Choe from the University of Hawaii at Manoa) about a recent project that was funded by ETS that explored the similarities and differences in linguistic features across traditional and technology-mediated learning environments. I am not sure how many people watch the pre-recorded video, but we did have good conversations during the AAAL “office hours” about the project, and I also received a few emails with questions. I also was a co-author (Susanne Devore from the University of Hawaii was the lead author) on a project that explored the relationship between measures of syntactic complexity, verb argument construction use, and writing proficiency scores in Mandarin as a second language. All in all, I certainly appreciate the fact that I can participate in virtual conferences from anywhere in the world (I was actually camping with my family during AAAL and participated from our campsite), though I will be excited to participate in face to face conferences again in the future!

Keli Yerian, faculty member in Linguistics

Remote conferences are certainly VERY different from face-to-face ones. In a face-to-face conference, you make a big effort to travel to another city, you see hundreds or thousands of people who all care about similar things in large convention centers, you sleep in a hotel or are lucky to have a friend in town, and you either rush around trying to catch multiple sessions or give up and just network and catch up with friends or colleagues from other places. This remote session was completely different. Presenters had to record our presentations a month in advance, then send them into the void to be processed for online viewing. Then, on the days of the conference, we could just log in from home in our pajamas, catch the plenaries and panel sessions live, and watch whichever presentations we wanted at any time over the next six months. There is no doubt that for students and faculty on a tight budget, remote conferences are excellent for accessibility.

I certainly missed all the people that I see at conferences, and the feeling of being at a large, dedicated event in a new environment. I miss the conversations and dinners out on the town with friends. I also missed being able to present to a live audience and have a live discussion afterwards. But the upside is that in terms of actual content, I was (and still am) able to access many more presentations in this modality. As the program advisor of a wide range of student interests, I am interested in a wide range of presentation topics, and finally, this year, I have been able to view all I want at my own pace. There were also some benefits to pre-recording my presentation (my presentation was about whether workshops on embodiment improve use of spontaneous gestures in teacher candidates – they do!). I could make sure the timing was good and that I did say everything I wanted to. If you have a chance to attend or present at a remote conference, I encourage you to do it!