On the matter of matter in second language education: A “mixed” review of current research

Abstract With the increasing attention provided to sociomaterial and new materialist perspectives in second language (L2) education, this article pursues the question of what these approaches have co‐produced in the existing research. This “mixed” review combines elements of qualitative metasynthesis and diffractive literature review, drawing on traditional and new materialist methods in order to provide varied insights into the results. The data highlight new territories and insights produced by new materialist research in L2 education as well challenges, issues, and opportunities with consistency, ontoepistemological coherence, representation, terminology conventions, and the production and dissemination of new materialist scholarship in L2 education. Moreover, this article provides opportunities to engage the analysis of published scholarship, conducting new materialist research, and the diffractive review process. We offer points of departure to engage with the productive potential of pedagogies and research that sit in between conventional humanist and disruptive new materialist conceptualizations and practices.