Language ontologies and posthumanist critical pedagogy

Abstract This paper discusses critical pedagogies in relation to critical language studies. We explore how a posthumanist approach – framed through language ontologies and based on onto-epistemic analysis – may shape critical pedagogies for language education. We specifically ask, how are critical pedagogies transformed by ontology? The paper provides an overview of the core characteristics and goals of critical pedagogies in relation to epistemology-based claims and the ideological critique of language in the humanist tradition. This is followed by an introduction to language ontologies, with a focus on the worlding of language and on ontology as heuristic. This discussion expands how language – or rather, language(s)/languaging – is understood, and considers implications of language ontologies for critical pedagogies in languages education. Finally, the paper turns to praxis – the coming together of theory and practice to transform the world (Kubota, Ryuko & Elizabeth R. Miller. 2017. Re-examining and re-envisioning criticality in language studies: Theories and praxis. Critical Inquiry in Language Studies 14(2–3). 129–157. https://doi.org/10.1080/15427587.2017.1290500.) – to outline how a posthumanist critical pedagogy recalibrates critical language studies as onto-epistemic claims.