ABSTRACT
There has been considerable research and innovation relating to pedagogies that interface world languages (L2) education with opportunities for interaction and learning that occur in settings that are primarily or fully outside of classroom contexts (or ‘learning beyond the classroom,’ LBC). This chapter begins with a review of pedagogical approaches and reported learning outcomes that emerge from projects that incorporate instructed language learning with school-exogenous social formations and environments such as (1) participation in fandom and fan fiction authoring, (2) exploration of urban spatialities and linguistic landscapes, and (3) supported participation in naturalistic everyday encounters (“learning in the wild”). Each illustrates numerous possibilities for synergistically uniting the analytic rigor of instructed L2 education with the immediacy and vibrancy of language use in non-institutional, informal, and vernacular contexts. As part of this review, we include discussion of recent LBC projects that involve the use of locative mobile media and augmented reality (AR) activities designed to engage world language learners in structured activities outside of the classroom. In conclusion, an evidence-based argument is made for continued exploration of opportunities for learning beyond the classroom, as well as the pedagogical amplification of such experiences in instructed settings, in order to increase the ecological validity and developmental power of language education.
