Rewilding Language Education: Emergent Assemblages and Entangled Actions

Abstract

Integrating concepts and techniques from ethnomethodology and sociomaterialism, this article investigates the observable material processes involving human action and place‐based contexts of language use enabled by locative media. The focal pedagogical intervention utilized mobile augmented reality (AR) activities, the development of which was inspired by research on learning ‘in the wild.’ Applying the principle of reverse engineering, we introduce a pedagogical approach termed ‘rewilding’ for its emphasis on designing supportive conditions for goal‐directed interaction outside of classrooms. Three instances of AR materials use are presented from an out‐of‐class activity associated with university‐level language courses involving a quest‐type AR game called ChronoOps. Video data of 3‐player groups were transcribed using conventions from multimodal conversation analysis. The empirical investigation illustrates meaning making through visible embodied displays, the performance of new actions through incorporation of public semiotic resources, and the contributions of the material surround as actants in the flow of interaction. Analysis illustrates that mobile AR activities enable languaging events among assemblages of environments, mobile devices, and embodied experience. We conclude by outlining the affordances of mobile AR activities as one example of rewilding approaches to creating material conditions for language use and learning.

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

“…The metasynthesis of the contributors’ findings and frameworks also led us to the overarching lens of sociomaterialism. In this issue, technology studies (Matsumoto, 2021; Thorne, Hellermann, & Jakonen, 2021), multimodal conversation analysis (Hasegawa, 2021; Matsumoto, 2021), ethnomethodological conversation analysis (Sert & Amri, 2021; Thorne et al., 2021), pedagogical ergonomics (Guerrettaz, 2021), practitioner inquiry and new materialism (Kim & Canagarajah, 2021), and Indigenous paradigms of relationality (Engman & Hermes, 2021) arguably all fall under the purview of sociomaterialism (Fenwick et al., 2011).…”

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

“…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. Also relevant to the themes of expanding traditional conceptualizations of materials and of out‐of‐class learning are the language learning opportunities afforded by technology, as in the augmented reality (AR) game focused on in Thorne, Hellermann, & Jakonen (2021, this issue). Many learners may be minimally inclined to review the language activities presented to them in their traditional textbook materials out of class but may be far more interested in other resources in the target language, such as online games.…”

“…As Thorne et al. (2021, this issue) put it, “the use of identical learning materials (tasks, textbooks, assignments, technologies, syllabi) do not result in identical—or in many cases, even similar—processes or learning outcomes” (p. 107). This is indeed undoubtedly the case whether we look at this claim from the perspective of teachers’ use of materials or learners’ reception of them: Give the same teaching materials to 10 different teachers or to 10 different classes of learners, and teachers and learners will react to and consume the materials in different ways (see Thompson & Senk, 2014, for empirical confirmation of variations in mathematics teachers’ use of the same geometry textbook).…”

“…As Thorne et al. (2021, this issue) put it, “each ‘occasion of use’ is situated in, and potentially catalyzed by, a particular social–material context” (p. 120), and this context will inevitably affect the ways in which the materials are used by teachers.…”

“…It is also worth noting that Hasegawa (2021, this issue) and Thorne et al. (2021, this issue) make it clear that unpredictability can be designed into the materials intentionally; as Thorne et al. neatly put it, the designer can introduce “structured unpredictability” via “intentionally underspecified tasks” (p. 108).…”