"Très bien. En français?" Multilingual Students Learning to Complete Their Thoughts in French (and English)

• In Event: 15.061 - MTCC Roundtable Session Two
  In Roundtable Session: 15.061-10 - Language Socialization and Belonging: Fostering Pedagogies That Support Multilingual Learners and Speakers of Nondominant Varieties

Abstract

This ethnographic study framed through a language socialization lens explored the routines within a second grade, French immersion classroom which guided students through the processes of thinking, listening, and speaking in French. Data collection and analysis included participant observation, video recorded classroom instruction, artefact collection, and member check-ins through video playback of classroom events. Results indicated that the teacher modeled active listening procedures and scaffolded questioning to promote students’ socialization into the expression of ideas in French. Excerpts of student classroom discourse indicate how students used common sentence stems or choral repetitive phrases to initiate expression of ideas and to hold the floor while speaking. Implications discuss the role of listening across languages in classrooms in the US in 2018.

Author

• Nicole King, The Ohio State University