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Informed by an increasing amount of research in understanding spatiality in language learning, this ethnographic case study investigates two ethnic minority university students’ English language learning in urban, virtual, and classroom spaces as they relocated to an interior city for higher education in southeastern China. Data consisted of the students’ informal online interactions, drawing journals, photos, and interviews. This study examines the participants’ capacity in appropriating and transforming both human and non-human objects in facilitating their English language learning and the contestations embedded in their meaning-making processes as they assembled their linguistic repertoires and materiality. This study finds that the virtual spaces are more enabling for the Uyghur student’s English language learning than his learning in urban and classroom spaces, whereas the urban space is more empowering for that of the Tibetan student. Instead of the traditional layout of classroom space, the two students became legitimate participants in the urban and virtual spaces where they actively engaged in utilizing resources for English language learning. This study indicates that spatiality needs to be seen as more central in shaping the participants’ English language learning outcomes. Implications for future research and pedagogy are provided.
