ABSTRACT
This chapter theorizes the implications of anomalous embodiment for language competence. It unveils the ableist ideologies informing the construct of competence as used in language and communication studies. The dominant structuralist-cognitive model treats the verbal resources in communication as forming a self-defined or autonomous object which is housed in the mind. Grammatical competence is innate, internalized, and intuitive to all native speakers of a language. Grammar and mind are removed from social and physical situatedness and, therefore, their inherent diversity. Embracing anomalous embodiment opens us to inquire into the processes and practices involved in actively negotiating meanings. Without looking for easy answers from an abstract, neutral, or transparent grammatical system, a static and autonomous linguistic structure, or a powerful and all-encompassing mind, we must adopt a relational approach and ask how human, nonhuman, semiotic, social, and material networks work together to generate meaning. Anomalous embodiment makes us responsive, collaborative, and attuned to the bodies around us to facilitate our thinking and communicating. The metaphors of arbor and rhizome are borrowed from Deleuze and Guattari (1987) to visualize the differences between both approaches towards competence. The author illustrates these differences from the policies informing English teaching and assessment for nonnative students and scholars in American universities. Their embodied and situated communicative practices are successful because they adopt principles from anomalous embodiment.
