From intra-action to intratwining?

Language learning as an embodied activity in and through music education

Abstract

In this article, we argue that transdisciplinary research and pedagogical practice on music and language learning should find new conceptual and practical approaches to examine the different ways of integrating music and language education. We aim to strengthen transdisciplinary research and practice related to language learning as an embodied activity in and through music education by focusing on the notion of intra-action, which is seen as a central notion of new materialist theories related to the rapidly growing field of embodied language learning. Conceptually, we contest the ways music and language learning have been understood in pertinent research, which often stems from mere multidisciplinary thinking instead of a deeply transdisciplinary ethos. Dismantling the boundaries between the disciplines of music education and applied linguistics in an embodied language learning context towards transdisciplinary thinking, we introduce intratwining as an example of transdisciplinary theorisation (coordinating the notions of intra-action and intertwining). In addition, we call attention to the use of music-integrated language learning, which could also be approached from the perspective of language-integrated music learning, on which this study grounds its transdisciplinary lens.