In this timely work, leading theorist Alastair Pennycook turns his attention to the concept of posthumanism in applied linguistics. With an increased focus on the planet and the environment, and a reconsideration of what it means to be human, this book locates itself in compelling contemporary debates: Where do humans end and the outside world begin? How are language and thought distributed in the world? Drawing on a range of contexts and data sources, from urban multilingualism to ecolinguistic studies of animal communication, Pennycook's engaging argument for a shift in our conception of language and communication isessential reading for all in applied linguistics and sociolinguistics.

Chapter 1 Introduction: Posthumanism and applied linguistics

Chapter 2 Posthumanism: Cyborgs and the Anthropocene

Chapter 3 Distributed language and cognition

Chapter 4 Language and the senses

Chapter 5 Discourse and reality

Chapter 6 Mutual misunderstanding

Chapter 7 What's the point? Sharks, dogs and humans

Chapter 8 Posthumanist linguistics: new horizons

Alastair Pennycook is Professor of Language in Education, in the Faculty of Arts and Social Sciences, University of Technology, Sydney, Australia. He is the author of The Cultural Politics of English as an International Language (Routledge, 2017).