MATERIALITY AS A SOURCE OF PERIPHERAL EFL EPISTEMOLOGY: TRANSFORMATION, EMBODIMENT, AND TRANSDUCTION

Main Article Content

Magpika Handayani
Luciana

Abstract

Shifted strategies of English language teaching (ELT) are of great importance due to multilingualism characterizing the world. This study argues for the concept of language materiality to address transformation, aesthetic, embodiment, and transduction from language use, allowing students to respond to language learning rooted in their local epistemology. It adopted the frameworks of scalar analysis and transduction to analyse the epistemology of the Dayak students’ narratives in making sense of English. The findings show that materiality affords learning by allowing students to transform and embody English in their indexicality and aesthetic creativity across different modes. This study demonstrated that the embodiment of students’ physical realities empowers students to engage in meaning-making beyond a named language, and a journey of their epistemology for language ownership. Additionally, even though the primary focus of this writing is only on the process of using materiality in student engagement in ELT classes, the outcomes of students’ activities go beyond the activity itself and demonstrate a progressive relationship with ELT classrooms by producing positive learning outcomes in practice exercises.

Downloads

Download data is not yet available.

Article Details

Section

Articles

How to Cite

Handayani, M., & Luciana. (2026). MATERIALITY AS A SOURCE OF PERIPHERAL EFL EPISTEMOLOGY: TRANSFORMATION, EMBODIMENT, AND TRANSDUCTION. LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 29(2), 626-645. https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v29i2.1012

References

Atkinson, D. (2010). Extended, embodied cognition and second language acquisition. Applied Linguistics, 31(5), 599–622. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amq009

Bucholtz, M. (2017). Why bodies matter. In J. R. Cavanaugh & S. Shankar (Eds.), Language and materiality: Ethnographic and theoretical exploration (pp. 237–248). Cambridge University Press.

Bukdahl, E. M. (2021). A new somaesthetic approach to Renaissance art in Florence. Journal of Somaesthetics, 7(2), 90–101.

Canagarajah, S. (2014). In search of a new paradigm for teaching English as an international language. TESOL Journal, 5(4), 767–785. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesj.166

Canagarajah, S. (2024). Communication for specific purposes as translingual. Ibérica, (47), 15–42. https://doi.org/10.17398/10.17398/2340-2784.47.15

Canagarajah, S., & De Costa, P. I. (2016). Introduction: Scales analysis, and its uses and prospects in educational linguistics. Linguistics and Education, 34, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.linged.2015.09.001

Carabantes, L. (2025). Context matters: A sociocultural framework for materials development. ELT Journal, 79(2), 156–171. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccae047

Cavanaugh, J. R. (2017). How the sausage gets made: Food safety and the mediality of talk, documents, and food practices. In J. R. Cavanaugh & S. Shankar (Eds.), Language materiality: Ethnography and theoretical explorations. Cambridge University Press.

Cavanaugh, J. R., & Shankar, S. (2017). Language and materiality: Ethnographic and theoretical explorations. Cambridge University Press.

Clark, A. (2008). Supersizing the mind: Embodiment, action, and cognitive extension. OUP USA.

Coupland, N., & Holmes, H. K. (2017). Making and marketing in the bilingual periphery: Materialization as metacultural transformation. In J. R. Cavanaugh & S. Shankar (Eds.), Language and materiality: Ethnographic and theoretical explorations (pp. 165-184). Cambridge University Press.

Deumert, A. (2018). The multivocality of heritage – moments, encounters and mobilities. In A. Creese & A. Blackledge (Eds.), The Routledge handbook of language and superdiversity (pp. 149–164). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781315696010-12

Eisenlohr, P. (2017). Transduction in religious discourse: Vocalization and sound reproduction in mauritian muslim devotional practices. In J. R. Cavanaugh & S. Shankar (Eds.), Language materiality: Ethnography and theoretical exploration (pp. 144-161). Cambridge University Press.

Georgekutty, M. D. (2025). Material culture and identity construction: Artifacts, clothing, and architecture as expressions of ethnicity, status, and belief systems. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/Zenodo.17659206

Germinaro, K. (2025). Our spatial orientation: Positionality, relationality, and learning through the body. Qualitative Inquiry, 5(32), 401-411. https://doi.org/10.1177/10778004251319462

Hall, J. K. (2019). Essentials of SLA for L2 teachers: A transdisciplinary framework. Routledge.

Handayani, M., Luciana, L., & Sugiharto, S. (2025). Language materiality and transmodal production in EFL classroom: The case of Dayaknese students. Jurnal Arbitrer, 12(3), 322–335. https://doi.org/10.25077/ar.12.3.322-335.2025

Hayakawa, S., Bartolotti, J., & Marian, V. (2021). Native language similarity during foreign language learning: Effects of cognitive strategies and affective states. Applied Linguistics, 42(3), 514–540. https://doi.org/10.1093/applin/amaa042

Johnson, M. (2017). Embodied mind, meaning, and reason: How our bodies give rise to understanding. The University of Chicago Press.

Kasper, G., & Kim, Y. (2015). Conversation‐for‐learning: Institutional talk beyond the classroom. In N. Markee (Ed.), The handbook of classroom discourse and interaction (pp.390–408). Wiley. https://doi.org/10.1002/9781118531242.ch23

Kim, M. (2023). Decolonizing ELT materials: A sociomaterial orientation. ELT Journal, 77(3), 316–326. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccad013

Kress, G., & Leeuwen, T. V. (2021). Reading images: The grammar of visual design. Routledge.

Latour, B. (2005). Reassembling the social: An introduction to actor-network- theory. Oxford University Press.

Li, B. (2009). Processed-centered teaching and its implications in English teaching in china. English Language Teaching, 2(1), 24–30. https://doi.org/10.5539/elt.v2n1p24

Lim, F. V. (2023). Editorial: Transduction in evolving contexts of intermodal meaning making: Moving meaning across media, modes and multiple realities. Frontiers in Communication, 8, Article 1138753. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2023.1138753

Lodico, M. G., Spaulding, D. T., & Voegtle, K. H. (2010). Methods in educational research: From theory to practice. John Wiley & Sons.

Mondada, L. (2014). Cooking instructions and the shaping of things in the kitchen. In M. Nevile, P. Haddington, T. Heinemann, & M. Rauniomaa (Eds.), Interacting with objects (pp. 199–226). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/z.186.09mon

Nevile, M., Haddington, P., Heinemann, T., & Rauniomaa, M. (2014). On the interactional ecology of objects. In M. Nevile, P. Haddington, T. Heinemann, & M. Rauniomaa (Eds.), Interacting with objects (pp. 3–26). John Benjamins Publishing Company. https://doi.org/10.1075/z.186.01int

Newfield, D. (2014). Transformation, transduction and the transmodal moment. In C. Jewitt (Ed.), The Routledge handbook of multimodal analysis (2nd ed., pp. 100–113). Routledge.

Olohan, M. (2021). Translation and practice theory. Routledge.

Richardson, E., & Stokoe, E. (2014). The order of ordering: Objects, requests and embodied conduct in a public bar. In M. Nevile, P. Haddington, T. Heinemann, & M. Rauniomaa (Eds.), Interacting with objects: Language, materiality, and social activity (pp.31-56). John Benjamins Publishing Company.

Rodríguez-Ortega, N. (2024). Exploring the concept of transduction to interpret AI-generated images. In E. Cetinić & D. Negueruela del Castillo (Eds.), From hype to reality: Artificial intelligence in the study of art and culture (pp. 23–28). Bibliotheca Hertziana. https://doi.org/10.48431/hsah.0303

Schvarcz, B. R., & Warren, A. N. (2025). Creating multilingual schoolscapes in restrictive ELT contexts. ELT Journal, 79(3), 395–403. https://doi.org/10.1093/elt/ccaf028

Sugiharto, S. (2022). Gazing at the body as a locus of competence: Implications for language education. LLT Journal: A Journal on Language and Language Teaching, 25(1), 38–44. https://doi.org/10.24071/llt.v25i1.4466

Sund, L., Quennerstedt, M., Öhman, M., & Hoadley, U. (2019). The embodied social studies classroom – Repositioning the body in the social sciences in school. Cogent Education, 6(1), Article 1569350. https://doi.org/10.1080/2331186X.2019.1569350

Terauchi, H., Noguchi, J., & Tajino, A. (Eds.). (2019). Towards a new paradigm for English language teaching: English for specific purposes in Asia and beyond (1st ed.). Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9780429423963

Thurlow, C., & Haudenschild, N. (2022). Dishing up distinction: Language materiality and multimodal coherence in elite foodways. Frontiers in Communication, 7, Article 885010. https://doi.org/10.3389/fcomm.2022.885010

Thurlow, C., & Jaworski, A. (2017). Word-things and thing-words: The transmodal production of privilege and status. In J. R. Cavanaugh & S. Shankar (Eds.), Language and materiality: Ethnographic and theoretical explorations (pp. 185-203). Cambridge University Press.

Tupas, R., & Weninger, C. (2022). Mapping out unequal englishes in English-medium classrooms. Journal of Language, Identity & Education, 21(5), 347–361. https://doi.org/10.1080/15348458.2020.1795863

Varela, F. J., Thomson, E., & Rosch, E. (2016). The embodied mind: Cognitive science and human experience. The MIT Press.

Wilson, K. A., Bird, M., & Egan-Simon, D. (2024). Handling objects in primary and secondary educational settings: Facilitating educational processes and challenging heteronormative gender constructs: The case study of mobility of objects across boundaries 1000–1700. In C. Antenhofer & U. Leitner (Eds.), Geschlecht und materialität (pp. 33–50). Transcript Verlag. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783839461655-002

Witte, A. (2023). Bringing the body into play: The corporeal aspect in second language acquisition. The Modern Language Journal, 107(3), 693–712. https://doi.org/10.1111/modl.12861