Abstract

Research on computer assisted language learning (CALL) and educational information/communication technology (ICT) often asks what a given technology is, what it can do, and what is it for. Answers to these questions, often following technological determinist or instrumental models of technology, center human agency in determining the function a technology has in the language classroom. Less commonly, CALL research focuses on how these questions are answered, on a daily basis, by teachers in classrooms, and how technologies themselves might influence classrooms in surprising, emergent ways. New materialist theory provides a different way of understanding the world, one that decenters human agency. This perspective allows for a different view of how ICT can impact language education. I revisit a study of language teacher understanding and implementation of ICT and re-vision it through a Deleuzoguattarian rhizomatic lens. This way of thinking provides insight into how these technologies operate within classroom assemblages to produce language instruction. I juxtapose an anthropocentric composite vignette with one seen through a rhizomatic lens, highlighting the transition from a traditional theoretical perspective to a radically different one. This theoretical perspective has implications for research and practice in the wider fields of CALL, and merits further exploration and experimentation.