Thank you for the music

Reflections on music as a resource for expanding repertoires and possibilities for meaning making in the context of critical language education

Abstract

In this article, we problematize and reflect on the potential of using music as a resource for expanding repertoires in the process of critical language education based on the interaction between a student and her teacher during an English teaching project in a university context. Even though the empirical material was generated remotely, in a pandemic context, in this study we expanded the discussion on the use of music in the context of critical linguistic education to other modes of interaction. We relied on post-critical studies to rhizomatize the empirical material composed of the set of records of the dialogued exchanges that occurred between the two of them during the project in multimodal written activities carried out and reviewed; the individual plans of research agents; feedback, both oral and written; and transcripts of videoconferences of weekly meetings. We show how in a teaching project, developed during the Covid-19 pandemic, it was possible to maintain contact with the language and expand different repertoires: linguistic, social, affective, lexical, cultural, among others. Furthermore, working with music favors the process of reflecting on what we feel, how we project our feelings, and how we think about the things that happen in our world. We conclude by stating that it is possible to adapt the work carried out to other contexts and promote discussions that strengthen the expansion of critical language education.