In the present article, the interlinking between language and sexuality in a secondary language classroom is explored. The aim of the article is to examine use of performances of sexuality in conversation practices in an English classroom in a Swedish secondary school. The data production method is classroom observations, and the examples analysed are taken from field notes made during three grade eight English lectures in a Swedish secondary school. Using concepts of normativity and performativity, I analyse how sexuality is employed in classroom conversations. The results show that reproduction of heteronormativity seems intrinsic to language education in these cases. The pupils, in various ways, employ sexuality as a common bond that facilitates smooth conversations, for instance by using references to hypothetical heterosexual relationships, thereby positioning themselves as heterosexual, or by drawing on other recognizable performances of, e.g. femininity, masculinity and heterosexuality.

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This study concerns questions about sexuality in school, and especially girls' sexuality as acted out and spoken of in ordinary everyday practice. School and teaching practices are often understood as sexually 'neutral' and language teaching often emphasises linguistic proficiency over meaning making processes, overlooking the discursive aspects of language practices. The aim is to study girls' sexuality in a secondary language classroom in terms of the performative processes that bring about their subjectivity in relation to intimacy and body. This is studied in relation to what is being remarked upon and what seemingly goes unnoticed. Our results show that contingent female (homo)sexual subjectivity is covered by normative straight female homosociality through the absence of sexuality produced by homosocial presence. We also show that a lesbian subject position is created to fulfil a male straight sex fantasy rather than as a representation of lesbian liveable lives.