37.3293, Reviews: Languaging: Sender Dovchin (2026)

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LINGUIST List: Vol-37-3293. Tue Oct 13 2026. ISSN: 1069 - 4875.

Subject: 37.3293, Reviews: Languaging: Sender Dovchin (2026)

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Date: 13-Oct-2026
From: Teresa Wai See Ong [ongtesa at gmail.com]
Subject: Sender Dovchin (2026)


Book announced at https://linguistlist.org/issues/37-1833

Title: Languaging
Subtitle: Playfulness and Precarity
Series Title: Key Topics in Applied Linguistics
Publication Year: 2026

Publisher: Cambridge University Press
           http://www.cambridge.org/linguistics
Book URL:
https://www.cambridge.org/ch/universitypress/subjects/languages-linguistics/applied-linguistics-and-second-language-acquisition/languaging-playfulness-and-precarity?format=HB&isbn=9781009526937

Author(s): Sender Dovchin

Reviewer: Teresa Wai See Ong

SUMMARY
Authored by Sender Dovchin, “Languaging: Playfulness and Precarity” is
organised around six interconnected chapters that are developed within
the languaging conceptual framework. Although each chapter addresses
the conceptual framework distinctively, they are unified by two
analytical motifs: playfulness and precarity. Dovchin advances the
framework by building on recent developments in sociolinguistics,
translanguaging, linguistic anthropology, Indigenous languages and
decolonial scholarship. She argues that language should no longer be
conceptualised as a bounded, autonomous system but as languaging—an
embodied, relational and situated practice through which individuals
negotiate meaning, identity, knowledge and power. Communication should
be creative yet constrained, allowing speakers to negotiate identities
and generate new meanings, which are subjected to racialisation,
surveillance, institutional regulation and unequal relations of power.
In this book, Dovchin seeks not merely to refine these existing
theories but to challenge the ontological assumptions that have been
underpinned by mainstream linguistics.
The main contribution of this book lies in its attempt to reposition
applied linguistics away from structuralist and monolingual paradigms
towards a practice-oriented relational understanding of communication.
Instead of treating languages as discrete entities, Dovchin
conceptualises communicative practice as an ongoing process of drawing
upon diverse semiotic, cultural, embodied and historical resources.
Such conceptualisation resonates with recent discussions that question
the ontological status of named languages while extending those
debates through engagement with Indigenous epistemologies, nomadic
knowledge systems, racialisation and recent rapid growth of artificial
intelligence (AI).
Dovchin opens the book by questioning the assumption that language
exists as a naturally bounded system. Drawing on autobiographical
experiences across Mongolian, Russian, Japanese, Korean and English,
together with critical scholarship on language ideology, she reasons
that named languages are sociohistorical and political constructs
rather than objective linguistic realities. Although similar critiques
have become increasingly familiar within sociolinguistics, the author
distinguishes her experiences by consistently linking theoretical
arguments to lived multilingual experience, thereby avoiding abstract
conceptualisation detached from everyday practice.
In Chapters Two and Three, Dovchin develops the notions of First
Knowledging and Nomadic Languaging. Drawing on her ethnographic
engagement with Tsaatan reindeer herders and Mongolian nomadic
communities, she states that communication cannot be separated from
land, ecology, spirituality, kinship and non-human relationships.
These chapters move beyond simply advocating Indigenous inclusion
within applied linguistics. Instead, they pose questions whether
dominant linguistic theories have been constrained by Western
epistemological assumptions about what language itself is. Knowledge
is presented not as information transmitted through linguistic codes
but as an embodied, relational practice emerging through interactions
with communities, landscapes and material environments. Rather than
positioning Indigenous knowledge as an additional empirical context
for existing linguistic theories, the author treats Indigenous and
nomadic epistemologies as theoretical resources capable of reshaping
the discipline. Such approach contributes meaningfully to ongoing
debates concerning epistemic justice and the decolonisation of applied
linguistics while extending recent scholarships beyond questions of
linguistic diversity and moving towards a more fundamental
reconsideration of knowledge production.
The fourth chapter turns to racialised languaging, illustrating how
language practices become entangled with broader processes of
racialisation and social categorisation. Through examples such as
media representations of Sofía Vergara, a Colombian–American actress,
Dovchin demonstrates that linguistic evaluation rarely concerns
language alone. Rather, listeners interpret speech through ideological
assumptions about race, ethnicity, nationality and legitimacy. Accents
become socially meaningful not because of inherent linguistic
properties but because they are evaluated within unequal systems of
power. This discussion effectively builds upon existing works on
raciolinguistics while reinforcing her broader argument that
communicative practices cannot be understood independently from their
social, political and historical conditions.
The penultimate chapter addresses the increasingly urgent question of
generative AI within language education. Rather than adopting either
technological optimism or pessimism, Dovchin conceptualises
AI-mediated languaging through the same dual framework of playfulness
and precarity that structures the book. Generative AI is recognised as
offering significant pedagogical possibilities through personalised
learning, multilingual support and creative interaction, while
simultaneously reproducing linguistic hierarchies, cultural biases and
inequalities embedded within training data and educational
infrastructures. More importantly, AI is situated within wider debates
concerning coloniality, linguistic justice and critical language
awareness rather than being treated as an isolated technological
development. This integration ensures that the discussion remains
theoretically coherent with the book’s central concerns instead of
appearing as an appended contemporary topic.
The concluding chapter synthesises all the discussions by arguing for
a future applied linguistics grounded in relationality, ethical
engagement and epistemic plurality. The author maintains that language
education should move beyond monolingual norms and simplistic
celebrations of multilingualism towards pedagogies that acknowledge
communication as embodied, dynamic and socially situated. The
conclusion successfully reinforces the coherence of the book by
demonstrating how the diverse empirical cases collectively support a
broader theoretical reorientation of the discipline.
EVALUATION
Sender Dovchin is to be congratulated for her notable contributions to
combine autobiographical reflection, ethnography, discourse analysis,
media commentary and conceptual synthesis without privileging a single
methodological tradition. While this eclecticism reflects the author’s
commitment to relational approaches to knowledge, it also constitutes
one of its principal challenges. Readers seeking sustained
methodological discussion or systematic empirical analysis may
occasionally find the transitions between theoretical reflection and
illustrative case studies somewhat uneven. Several chapters privilege
conceptual argument over detailed empirical interrogation, suggesting
that the book is intended primarily as a theoretical intervention
rather than an empirical monograph.
This book invites further discussion. Although the critique of bounded
languages is persuasive, the engagement with alternative linguistic
traditions could have been more sustained. Readers from formal
linguistics or cognitive approaches may find that competing
perspectives are briefly acknowledged before being set aside in favour
of relational paradigms. Similarly, while the ethnographic focus on
Mongolia and Indigenous Australian contexts provides rich empirical
grounding, broader comparative engagement with multilingual
communities elsewhere would have strengthened the generalisability of
some theoretical claims.
The concept of languaging itself, while analytically productive, also
raises important questions regarding conceptual boundaries. Throughout
the book, languaging encompasses linguistic practice, embodiment,
affect, ecology, identity, knowledge production and technological
mediation. Such conceptual breadth is intellectually generative but
occasionally risks reducing analytical specificity. Future work may
benefit from more explicit discussion of how languaging differs from,
intersects with or extends related constructs, such as
translanguaging, semiotic repertoires, communicative practice and
distributed cognition.
These observations should not detract from the significance of the
book’s overall contribution. “Languaging” represents a substantial
intervention in contemporary applied linguistics. By bringing together
decolonial theory, Indigenous epistemologies, raciolinguistics,
multilingualism and AI-mediated communication within a coherent
conceptual framework, Dovchin demonstrates how applied linguistics
might move beyond inherited assumptions about language towards a more
relational, socially accountable and ethically engaged understanding
of communication.
A further strength lies in the accessibility of the writing. Despite
engaging sophisticated theoretical debates across multiple
disciplines, the author consistently presents complex concepts through
concrete examples drawn from multilingual lived experience. The prose
avoids unnecessary abstraction while maintaining scholarly precision,
making the book suitable not only for specialists in sociolinguistics
but also for readers in education, anthropology, communication studies
and migration research.
All in all, the book will be of considerable interest to researchers
working in applied linguistics, sociolinguistics, linguistic
anthropology, multilingual education and critical language studies.
More importantly, it challenges readers to reconsider not only how
language should be studied, but why linguistic scholarship matters in
an increasingly multilingual, technologically mediated, and socially
unequal world. As such, the book is likely to stimulate productive
debate across multiple areas of language scholarship and deserves
close attention from scholars interested in the future directions of
applied linguistics.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
Teresa W. S. Ong is a research fellow at the Early Mental Potential &
Wellbeing Research (EMPOWER) Centre, Nanyang Technological University,
Singapore. Her role focuses on managing and providing assistance for
projects that aim to translate findings to support at-risk children
for early cognitive development while guiding parents in real time.



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