Empirically Defining Language Learning and Teaching Materials in Use Through Sociomaterial Perspectives

Abstract

Language learning and teaching (LLT) materials—like teacher‐created handouts, textbooks, and overhead transparencies—are central elements of language classrooms worldwide. Nonetheless, how language students and teachers actually engage with and deploy LLT materials has rarely been the focus of research. In response, this issue offers the first compilation of classroom‐based studies of ‘materials use’ in language education and includes research on Ojibwe, Japanese, French, and English language pedagogy. In this introductory article to the special issue, we set the stage for the 7 empirical articles by offering much‐needed definitions for the concepts of ‘LLT materials’ and ‘materials use.’ These definitions are based on a metasynthesis (i.e., an integrative qualitative analysis) of all of the materials used throughout the 7 empirical articles. Additionally, we explore sociomaterialism as a compelling and well‐suited framework for the study of materials in use. Sociomaterialism is not a unified theory but rather a research orientation that seeks to examine connections between the social and the material world. In addition to substantively and theoretically advancing the field, all the articles of this special issue also have practical implications for language pedagogy.

Coda: An Expanding Research Agenda for the Use of Instructional Materials

“…Both the Kim & Canagarajah (2021, this issue) and the Alhajimohammed (2020) studies also remind us of how materials use is mediated by the wider context, in line with the emphasis by Guerrettaz et al. (2021, this issue) on the importance of studying the wider environment in research on materials use. Relevant contextual factors when researching materials use can include technology and people available for learners to consult in class (e.g., the internet, the teacher, other learners) but also the extra‐classroom environment.…”

“…I have emphasized throughout my discussion that, as Guerrettaz (2021, this issue) and Guerrettaz et al. (2021, this issue) claim, there is clearly a need for more research on materials use. Teaching materials printed on the textbook page, on the teacher‐produced handout, or that are part of the wider environment (like Engman & Hermes's [2021, this issue] ‘materials’ found in the woods) only truly become pedagogic artifacts and affordances when in use; without enactment by teacher and learners, their potential strengths and weaknesses lie dormant, unrealized.…”

“…Guerrettaz et al. (2021, this issue) revisit and expand traditional definitions of materials, arguing that our understanding of materials should cover “(a) physical entities, (b) texts, (c) environments, (d) signs, and (e) technologies used with the ultimate intention of facilitating language learning and teaching in some sort of principled way” (p. 11). Referencing the wider environment, Guerrettaz et al.’s broader definition encompasses the study of out‐of‐class settings and the role these settings play in impacting teaching materials in general and language learning in particular, perhaps most vividly conveyed in this issue by Engman & Hermes's (2021) work on Ojibwe learners, in which elders utilize the land and the wider environment as ‘materials’ for Indigeneous language learning resources on forest walks.…”

“…However, Guerrettaz et al. (2021, this issue) and the other contributors to this special issue would not see materials consumption and materials use as synonymous terms; rather, they would see research into what I call materials consumption as merely one subcategory of research into materials use, given the diversity of materials they study (e.g., objects found in nature) and in light of the important role that the lens of sociomaterialism plays in their work. Regardless of these differences, though, there is much common ground between my own concept of consumption and the concept of materials use as understood by the contributors in this issue, in that both concepts are concerned with studying materials in action rather than merely on the textbook page or handout.…”

“…Of the three categories of content, consumption, and production, the research in this special issue is closest to the category of materials consumption. Guerrettaz, Engman, & Matsumoto (2021, this issue) call the contributions examples of research on ‘materials use.’ In my own work (e.g., Harwood, 2014a, 2017, 2021), I see research on materials consumption and on materials use as the same thing—research that focuses on how teachers and learners interact with and respond to materials inside or outside the class. However, Guerrettaz et al.…”