Pooling Semiotic Resources: Examining Opportunities for Learning During Peer Interaction Among Recently Arrived Immigrant Students

• In Event: Linguistic Mediation, Language Attitudes, and Learning in Bilingual Classrooms

Abstract

This study examined how recently arrived immigrant students interacted with one another and the material resources in their classrooms in order to negotiate instructional activities at two high schools in California. Rooted in sociocultural and ecological perspectives, analysis of fieldnotes, interview transcripts, video recordings, and artifacts revealed that students collectively perceived and acted upon affordances including features of multiple languages, gestures, mutual engagement with material resources, and shared cultural understandings. In this practice, which I refer to as pooling semiotic resources, students assess their own linguistic, cultural, and content expertise and that of their classmates in conjunction with other available resources to both negotiate the task at hand and to extend opportunities for their peers to participate meaningfully.

Author

• Nora W Lang, San Jose State University