2026/04/23 by Anne Marie Guerrettaz, Darren K. LaScotte, Jihee Im +2
Social Sciences · Arts and Humanities · #Multilingual Education and Policy #EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning #Second Language Learning and Teaching
paper · doi:10.1111/modl.70050
Abstract Language pedagogy activity (LPA) is central to the functioning of language classrooms worldwide, and this article (re)defines LPA. While prevailing applied linguistics conceptualizations of “activity” are often theoretical and anthropocentric, our definition of LPA is empirically supported and foregrounds material agency. This new definition of LPA is needed to investigate how varied language teaching materials (e.g., textbooks and teacher resources) affect language classroom interaction, often unpredictably. To achieve such an understanding of language pedagogy activity and materials, we deployed a multi‐method research design, including multimodal analysis of classroom interactions from a national study of U.S. Spanish language classes. This article's main disciplinary contribution is defining LPA as: a sociomaterial assemblage of language teaching happening(s), which is semi‐bounded and involves one or more language learners . Close analyses of LPA examples illustrate this. Example 1 elucidates activity‐as‐ assemblage , with example assemblages of task, pedagogical materials, and classroomscape. Example 2 deconstructs activity‐as‐ happening —meaning, occurrences and language pedagogy events shaped by material, distributed, and human forms of agency. Example 3 explores the complex boundaries of an LPA. We draw on constructs from our new definition of LPA to examine how the language teaching materials shaped these example activities and classroom interactions in unpredictable ways.