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

Abstract

This 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 on actual usage of 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 of adaptation, improvisation, and attractor states from 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.

Making materials use in language classrooms visible: Evidence from two university English teachers in China

“…It is only recently that researchers have begun exploring how materials are used inside language classrooms (Matsumoto, 2019). After extensively reviewing empirical studies of materials use in language classrooms, Tomlinson and Masuhara (2018) identified two primary research foci, namely teachers' approaches or techniques of adaptation (how) and the rationales for their adaptation (why).…”

“…To address this issue, this heuristic study has developed an analytical tool to represent and examine the ways in which teachers use materials in language classrooms, i.e., the materials use arc (MUA) model. It builds on the assumption that classroom teaching encompasses a range of adaptive activities where teachers selectively leverage materials to design and enact instruction in the classroom ecology (Guerrettaz & Johnston, 2013;Matsumoto, 2019). MUA refers to a pedagogical episode with a distinct pedagogical purpose entailing a series of interactions among teachers, learners, and materials (Li, 2020).…”

Learner Use of Photo-Editing Software in Classes

“…Whereas the abundant and insightful literature on materials development and evaluation has concentrated on the production, content, and intent of materials themselves, research in materials use focuses on relationships between participants and the materials. A fundamental aim of materials use is to better understand what occurs when participants actually use lesson materials (Matsumoto, 2019). Guerrettaz et al (2018) define materials use as "ways that participants in language learning environments actually employ and interact with materials" (p. 38).…”

“…Because materials use is such a new area of research, studies remain scarce. Existing studies have addressed diverse topics such as materials use in whole-group, teacherfronted interaction (Guerrettaz & Johnston, 2013;Thoms, 2014), teacher adaptation of materials (Shawer, 2010;Marcos Miguel, 2015), the physical handling of documents by students (Jakonen, 2015), use of video-based materials by participants (Grandon, 2018), and materials use in writing classes (Matsumoto, 2019). In addition, Garton and Graves (2014) edited one of the first book-length treatments on materials use.…”

“…In addition, Garton and Graves (2014) edited one of the first book-length treatments on materials use. Furthermore, Matsumoto (2019) suggests that research resembling the notion of materials use research may also include works done from perspectives such as classroom ethnographies (e.g., Duff, 1995) and those employing multimodal conversation analysis (e.g., Markee, 2011). Generally speaking, materials-use studies have shown materials to have a marked impact and heavy-handed influence on language development in both intended and unintended fashions.…”