In this text I map a Deleuzian-inspired journey through language, de/territorializations, and processes of becoming. Following several rhizomatic lines of flight, I encounter languages lost and found again; returning transformed into monstrosities, beasts of generation and destruction that inscribe both mind and body. I attempt to lure an elusive colonial monster, the English language, from the closet. In doing so, I experience the de/territorializing effects of exploring my own culpability in linguistic terrorism as an English language teacher. I then reflect on iterations of language in hybrid spaces and how these may offer ways to live with the ambiguous tensions of teaching English in pedagogical third spaces, in-between languages.

 

 

 

 

About the Author

 

Monica Waterhouse is a doctoral candidate in the Society, Culture, and Literacies concentration at the University of Ottawa’s Faculty of Education. As an English language educator for over ten years, her research interests are found at the intersection of critical language pedagogies, multiple literacies, peace education, and Deleuzean philosophy. Her current dissertation work focuses on experiences of multiple literacies in connection with the life experiences of adult learners enrolled in the federal government’s Language Instruction for Newcomers to Canada (LINC) program.