This special issue emerges from the productive entanglements of many elements, including the increasing presence of scholarship informed by new materialist perspectives in applied linguistics and language education. As examples, the 2019 Canadian Association of Applied Linguistics Conference included a keynote entitled Penser autrement la linguistique appliquée : lignes de fuite sociomatérielles [Thinking applied linguistics differently: Sociomaterial lines of flight], and more recently, the International Association of Applied Linguistics 19th World Congress offered a symposium entitled Ways of “Becoming”: Exploring New Materialist Perspectives in Educational Research.