Negotiating Classroom Language Policy for English Teaching Across Three Instructional Settings

• In Event: Marriott Roundtable Session 6
  In Roundtable Session: Policies and Assessment Mechanisms Affecting Bi- and Multilingual Learners

Abstract

Language teachers act as policy agents who appropriate official policies, but how teachers and students together negotiate classroom language policy is not sufficiently understood. This study examines the construction of a multilingual language policy across three English classrooms in Norway that vary in linguistic composition and previous subject achievement. The study uses linguistic ethnographic methods, including participant observation, video-, audio-, and screen recording, and stimulated recall interviews. Primary participants include one teacher and 53 students. Findings include three linguistic categories—marked bilingual practices, unmarked bilingual practices, and minoritized multilingual practices—whose policy treatment varied by language status and instructional setting. The study contributes to understanding classroom language policy as contextually contingent and locally negotiated by students as well as teachers.

Author

• Ingrid Rodrick Beiler, University of Oslo