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

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.