Conceptualizing translanguaging as sociomaterial intra-actions: materialization of language norms in a virtual EFL classroom in rural China

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, translanguaging is understood as a sociomaterial process that unfolds as human-nonhuman intra-actions instead of human interactions. Using ethnographic approaches, I document some sociomaterial intra-actions in a virtual EFL classroom in rural China, which adhered to native-speakerism, monolingual ideologies, and traditional literacy pedagogy. I pay particular attention to how English language norms were materialized in this learning environment and how the materialization shaped my participant's translanguaging and learning process. I conclude the article by discussing how norm-resisting, sociomaterial-oriented translanguaging pedagogies might be situated in this context and beyond.