Fluid Interplay of Affect and Sensation: Transforming Plurilingual Pedagogies in English Language Classrooms

Dr Nashid Nigar & Prof Alex Kostogriz, Monash University

Reimagining EAL/D Education: From Standard Norms to Sensory Pedagogies

As shown in new research, the terrain of English as an Additional Language/Dialect (EAL/D) education is no longer still—it stirs. Once confined by the rigid lines of Standard Australian English, it now hums with plurilingual voices, vibrant memories, and untold dreams. A shift is unfolding: from the indicative certainty of fixed norms to the subjunctive longing for what could be—where imagination, feeling, and language entwine.

At its heart, this is not just pedagogical reform—it is an affective awakening. Language is no longer seen merely as structure, but as sensation, as story, as becoming. It flows through the rhythms of a child’s first poem in a new tongue; it shimmers in a teacher’s tremor of recognition when a student dares to say “I belong”.

Natalie captures this spirit:

Teaching is not just a transfer of knowledge—

it is a shared journey of becoming.

When we honour our stories and live our identities fully,

we don’t just teach;

we weave a living tapestry of meaning,

connection, and transformation.

This is a space where imperative hope emerges: Let learning be felt. Let classrooms breathe. Let stories hold us.

In the grammar of affect and hybridity, EAL/D becomes not a subject but a sensory and soulful practice—where teachers and students are co-authors of worlds, not just words

This affective turn in EAL/D education is not merely poetic—it is pedagogically profound. Affect shapes how students learn, feel, and imagine themselves into language, flowing through classrooms as mood, sensation, and connection. Grammatical moods—indicative, subjunctive, imperative—do more than structure speech; they evoke affirmation, dreaming, and invitation. Within this affective ecology, relational and aesthetic pedagogies awaken basic emotions (joy, desire), mood states (hope, ambivalence), aesthetic arousal (awe in storytelling), cognitive-social resonance (empathy), and somatic-cultural pride (sharing a lullaby or family memory). Attending to these subtle registers creates classrooms where language, identity, and feeling are not just taught—but lived, embodied, and celebrated.

We explore how a deeper understanding of affect and sensation can invigorate pedagogical practices in EAL/D classrooms. Drawing on the lived experiences of 16 English teachers who migrated to Australia and learned English as an additional language, this study reveals how affective attunement, aesthetic engagement, and creative strategies—such as storytelling, music, game and embodied expression—ignite student motivation and deepen identity formation. These affective and sensory processes do not merely support learning; they transform classrooms into dynamic, relational spaces where multilingual students and teachers co-construct meaning, belonging, and agency.

The Need for Creativity and Aesthetic Engagement in EAL/D Classrooms

Creativity is central to impactful EAL/D education. By integrating imaginative practices—such as bilingual storytelling, queer coming-out poems, migrant memoirs, or culturally embedded music—teachers foster deep affective and aesthetic engagement. These sensory-rich strategies allow students to feel language as lived experience, evoking empathy and reflection. For instance, Mahati, an Indian teacher, uses music, narrative, and Urdu shayari—“چلے چلو کہ وہ منزل ابھی نہیں آئی” (“Keep moving, for the destination has not yet arrived.”)—to create a joyful, interculturally rooted classroom. Through translanguaging, she encourages students to express themselves in both English and their home languages, cultivating connection, identity, and inclusion.

Carlos, a Brazilian teacher, illustrates how aesthetic attunement transforms language classrooms by mixing emotion, culture, and pedagogy. Through music, he evokes joy and delight (aesthetic affect), while film fosters empathy and curiosity (social-cognitive affect). Poetry activates cultural and bodily pride (somatic-cultural affect), and storytelling invites speculative, subjunctive moods that encourage imagination. These modes of engagement work together to validate students’ identities, deepen emotional connection, and create hybrid, inclusive spaces where language learning becomes a site of cosmopolitan becoming.

Lived experience, as conceptualised in the Hybrid Professional Becoming (HPB) framework, plays a powerful role in transforming colonial legacies of linguistic hierarchies. Laura, a Filipino non-native English-speaking teacher (NNEST), explains:

After receiving feedback from my students—most of the time they are positive—I gain my confidence back and become comfortable teaching with less pressure.  

Her experience reflects the enduring impact of native-speakerism rooted in colonial histories. As a Filipina teacher in Australia, Laura draws on her multilingualism and student relationships to reclaim professional legitimacy and enact a decolonial pedagogy that affirms linguistic and cultural diversity.

The study shows how native-speakerism, rooted in colonial hierarchies, shapes multilingual educators’ identities. Laura admitted, “I still sometimes have the mentality that I am not as good as native speakers”, reflecting internalised hierarchies. Yet through reflective practice and ambivalent growth, she reclaims agency, showing how hybrid professional becoming turns marginalisation into legitimacy.

Navigating Affect: The Catalyst for Learning

Affect lies at the heart of EAL/D education, as revealed in the lived narratives of multilingual teachers. Beyond cognition, affect shapes the classroom through desire, mood, and aesthetic energy. Language becomes a medium of becoming, not just learning. Quang’s affirmation—“Your English is beautiful—don’t worry about your accent”—embodies this, generating belonging and self-worth through aesthetic affect. These subtle emotional currents—joy, awe, reassurance—are central to hybrid professional becoming (evolving professional identity). When educators create affect-rich, inclusive spaces, language learning becomes a transformative act of identity and relational formation.

Aesthetic experience and affect coalesce powerfully in Hybrid Professional Becoming. Becca, a Slovak NNEST, harnesses her multilingual identity to infuse her teaching with music, movement, and joy. “The moment I realised I can make grammar interesting for them with a song or movement, I got hooked”, she reflected. Her playful, affective-aesthetic pedagogy creates emotional safety and belonging, inviting students to see English as accessible and meaningful. Through these multimodal acts, Becca reclaims classroom space as relational and political—disrupting native-speakerist norms and affirming a cosmopolitan vision of language education.

Affect is central to EAL/D education, as Jigna shared: “I have made feedback and audio-visual setup an integral part of my teaching practice… students feel more fulfilled and empowered”. Her use of visuals, tech, and cultural storytelling fosters emotionally resonant learning that affirms students’ identities, embodying HPB’s inclusive and relational pedagogy.

Hein, a Vietnamese teacher, embodies affective-aesthetic pedagogy through cultural sensitivity and multilingual empathy. “English opened the door to a whole new world… shaped my personality as someone open to different points of view”, she reflected. Drawing on her own experiences of marginalisation, Hein blends storytelling, music, and gentle reassurance—“The most important thing in English is intelligibility”—to ease student anxiety and affirm belonging. Her practice disrupts native-speaker hierarchies and reframes teaching as a cosmopolitan, inclusive act shaped by affect and connection.

Towards an Inclusive EAL/D Education

The narratives of the 16 plurilingual teachers in this study reveal that affect, mood, and aesthetic engagement are not peripheral but central to effective EAL/D pedagogy. Shaped by migration, multilingualism, and minoritisation, their lived experiences resist monolingual norms and cultivate culturally sustaining classrooms. Natalie captures this ethos:

 Teaching is not just a transfer of knowledge—it is a shared journey of becoming… we weave a living tapestry of meaning, connection, and transformation.

This tapestry embodies Hybrid Professional Becoming—threading affect, creativity, and relational care into inclusive pedagogies.

From Mahati’s Urdu shayari and translanguaging, to Carlos’s use of film and music, and Jigna’s visual storytelling, these educators engage affective aesthetics to animate the classroom. Their practices move across indicative calm, subjunctive longing, and imperative hope—grammatical moods that mirror emotional atmospheres. Through solidarity and ambivalence, they transform marginalisation into cosmopolitan imagination. They don’t just teach English—they reimagine who the English teacher can be.

By centring affect, mood, and aesthetic practice, this study affirms that transformative EAL/D education is not achieved through metrics, but through affective labour, creativity, and the courageous remaking of language teaching as a humanising and intercultural endeavour.

Original Article: Nigar, N., & Kostogriz, A. Navigating affective and sensory fluidity in plurilingual and intercultural pedagogies in English language and literacy classrooms. AJLL 47, 379–401 (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s44020-024-00068-4

Dr Nashid Nigar teaches at the Faculty of Education, University of Melbourne, and has diverse experience in English language and literacy teaching, academic writing, and teacher education. Her recently completed Ph.D. thesis, focusing on language teacher professional identity at Monash University, was graded as Exceptional—Of the highest merit, placing within the top 0.1% to fewer than 5% of international doctorates. Her ongoing research interests include language teacher professional identity and language/literacy learning and teaching.

Alex Kostogriz is a Professor of Languages and TESOL Education in the Faculty of Education at Monash University, where he currently holds the role of Associate Dean (International). His research and publications focus on teacher capabilities for providing responsive and inclusive education, the professional practice and ethics of language teachers, as well as initial teacher education and the experiences of early career teachers.