Material Moments: Teacher and Student Use of Materials in Multilingual Writing Classroom Interactions

Abstract

AbstractThis qualitative study examines moments in the multilingual classroom when materials become prominent in whole‐class interactions. Despite the critical impact that materials can have on classroom discourse and learning/teaching, research onactual usageof materials in second language (L2) classroom interactions has been scarce compared with the effort devoted to the development and assessment of L2 materials (Guerrettaz & Johnston, 2013). This study examines students’ and instructors’ use of materials in a multilingual writing classroom, focusing on the roles of textbooks, teacher‐prepared worksheets, and a projection screen. The study illustrates the relationship between materials and miscommunication—specifically, how materials can contribute both to resolving miscommunication among students and their instructor and to creating miscommunication when students employ materials differently than intended by the instructor. This study employs the concepts ofadaptation, improvisation, andattractor statesfrom complexity theory (e.g., Larsen–Freeman, 2017) to analyze L2 classroom interactions. A sequential, multimodal analysis demonstrates that students and their instructor seem to be aware of materials as interactional resources and actively coordinate them with speech and nonverbal, embodied resources for meaning making. The findings improve our understanding of how L2 teachers and students can attend to materials and adapt such interactional resources for their own purposes.