Scaffolding Discourse Moves in Multilingual Classrooms within Mathematics Language Routines (MLRs) Enactments

• In Event: AERA Research in Progress Roundtable Session Five
  In Invited Roundtable: Research-in-Progress RT053 (Sunday)

Abstract

This study investigates the role of teacher discourse moves in supporting multilingual learner students’ participation during Mathematical Language Routines (MLRs) in linguistically diverse 6th-grade mathematics classrooms. Grounded in sociocultural theory and scholarship using classroom discourse, this research applies systematic coding to identify patterns in teacher discourse moves during the enactments of MLRs. The research question was: What discourse moves did teachers use during their enactments of MLRs, and how did these teachers’ discourse moves support student mathematical reasoning and participation? Based on the analysis completed yet, this work-in-progress study has found that teachers used a range of discourse moves, such as prompting, revoicing, and eliciting, to scaffold all students, including multilingual learners’ participation and reasoning during their use of MLRs.

Authors

• Nurgul Isik, University of California - Santa Barbara

• Sarah Ann Roberts, University of California - Santa Barbara