“Anytime, Anywhere”: Online Language Tutoring Platforms and the Rise of the (Im)Mobile Language Teacher

This article examines how online tutoring platforms (OTPs) have facilitated new forms of (im)mobility—and discourses of (im)mobility—among online English tutors. Drawing on semi‐structured interviews with online tutors, the article critically interrogates OTPs' primary selling point: that online tutors can work “anytime, anywhere.” While OTPs ostensibly render tutors' location trivial because tutors and students connect via the nternet, the findings demonstrate that tutors' experiences of mobility are contoured by a combination of (1) the materiality of tutors' experiences (e.g., time zones and tutors' circadian rhythms) and (2) the various chronotopes that mediate tutors' experiences. The findings contribute to understanding the complex relationship among language, place, and (im)mobility in the digital age.