A posthumanist perspective on an English course at a private language school

Description

This doctoral dissertation has as its main focus the discussion of an English language education experience from a posthumanist perspective. This study was done with a group of six students at a private language school located in Goiânia, in the state of Goiás, in the Central West region of Brazil, in 2019. In addition to being the inquirer, I was also the teacher of that group. In this investigation, supported by arguments from posthumanism aligned with critical applied linguistics, I seek to promote a deconstruction of understandings of what it means to be human, along with the questioning of what language is and what it involves, and the problematization of relations between human and nonhuman entities. In this regard, materiality and discourse are conceived as intertwined. This undertaking is grounded in reflections from postqualitative inquiry and postfoundational frameworks; more specifically, it is characterized as a posthumanist study. For the generation of empirical material, which occurred from August to December (i.e., during one semester), the apparatuses that became part of the study were the following: a) an initial questionnaire; b) classroom intra-actions with the learners, which were filmed, audio recorded, and transcribed; c) students’ activities done throughout the semester; d) reflective and diffractive field notes; and e) intraviews. The discussion of the empirical material is divided into two main topics: sociomateriality of (human) bodies and material-discursive ideologies of language and language education. As posthumanist scholars have pointed out, by and large, academics involved in the humanities and social sciences have often neglected material aspects when it comes to discourse, and because of that my objective is to problematize not simply social aspects (as it has been the focus of critical applied linguistics), but rather sociomaterial ones, based on the events that occurred throughout the study. As unfoldings of this experience, the reflections on bodies, issues of identity, especially class, race and ethnicity, gender, and age presented in this work offer a post-anthropocentric viewpoint from events that the students and I experienced. Regarding language and language education, I discuss the learners’ perceptions, attitudes, and actions as well as my own as material-discursive practices, with a focus on our intra-actions with the classroomscape and technologies, the assessment and tests, and their language learning projects. As I draw on the aforementioned perspectives, I aim to show how matter mattered in this language education experience. Table of contents Glossary 16 A line of flight: multiple entryways 18 Chapter 1: The study 29 1.1 Postqualitative inquiry: a postfoundational proposal 33 1.2 A posthumanist study 39 1.3 The context 43 1.4 The students and the teacher-inquirer 47 1.5 The apparatuses 50 1.5.1 Initial questionnaire 53 1.5.2 Classroom intra-actions and activities 54 1.5.3 Reflective and diffractive field notes 57 1.5.4 Intraview 58 1.6 The discussion of the empirical material 60 Chapter 2: Sociomateriality of (human) bodies 67 Problematizing and deconstructing humanism 67 Thinking otherwise from posthumanism 72 2.1 Setting the tone for critical language classes 75 2.2 Bodies and social identities: first impressions 86 2.3 “What is identity?”: conceptual reflections 104 2.4 Race and ethnicity: some reflections from the students’ speeches on identity 126 2.5 Gender: sexism and hegemonic masculinity 138 2.6 Be(com)ing an older student 152 Chapter 3: Material-discursive ideologies of language and language education 164 3.1 Language and language learning ideologies: some reflections 165 3.2 Language in intra-action: cognition in the wild and mutual misunderstanding 181 3.3 Classroomscape and technologies 199 3.4 Assessment and the language learning project 219 In-between considerations: a line of flight 239 References 244 Appendices 278 Appendix A – Research commitment form 279 Appendix B – Model of school consent form 280 Appendix C – Informed consent form 281 Appendix D – Informed assent form 284 Appendix E – Initial questionnaire 287 Appendix F – Language Learning Project 288 Appendix G – Intraview 289 Annexes 290 Annex A – Scientific review issued by the Institutional Review Board of the Federal University of Goiás 291