Teaching and Learning Across the Curriculum in a Second Language/Dialect: Lessons From Three Classrooms

• In Event: 49.088 - Roundtable Session 17
  In Roundtable Session: 49.088-28 - Multilingual Learners in the Classroom

Abstract

This paper reports on an analysis of classroom interaction in mathematics and science to determine the ways in which the use of a second language or dialect might create challenges for student comprehension of disciplinary content. Using a qualitative, case study design and systemic-functional theory, literacy processes in three elementary classrooms in an urban community were recorded. Lesson transcripts, interviews, classroom texts and field notes were analysed. The findings suggest that challenges were mainly due to teacher conventional language use, textual features of language, and linguistic differences between students’ vernacular and the language of instruction. The conclusions are useful to educators and officials responsible for policy formulation and implementation who aim to provide inclusive education for all students.

Author

• Iris Pamela Hewitt-Bradshaw, The University of Trinidad and Tobago