Typically, research in speech perception and production has focused on studying individual language users under controlled, yet arguably atypical, settings of language use (the language-as-product framework). While this approach has yielded a rich account of the mechanisms and the time course of basic speech processes, how well these findings generalize to conditions of actual communication is unclear. A separate body of work that has focused on describing interactive language processes (the language-as-action framework) offers useful guidance to studying spoken language processes in true communicative interaction.

In this talk, I will echo past arguments for the need to study speech perception and production as they operate simultaneously in true interaction. Focusing on the phonetic level, I will describe how insights from the most prominent model of dialog (the interactive alignment model; Pickering and Garrod, 2013; 2004) frame our investigation of interactive phonetic processes (Gambi & Pickering, 2013). I will describe some key limitations of this approach, and argue for broadening this enterprise. I will then present data from a recent study that utilizes such an approach (Olmstead, Viswanthan, Cowan, & Yang, 2021). I will conclude by describing a phonetic synergy account (based on interpersonal dialogic synergy; Fusaroli, Rączaszek-Leonardi, & Tylén, 2014) and discuss its promise and current limitations.