Mother Tongue Education (MTE), despite being the most reliable method of learning, is a challenge for the African countries that fail to implement MTE policies due to lack of resources, stakeholders' attitudes towards mother tongues, and lack of political will. Keeping in view the plight of the primary implementers of such policies, hence, this…

In this position paper we highlight language as a perennial factor contributing to compromised meaning-making in multilingual primary school mathematics classrooms. We note use of the term 'translanguaging' in discussions around mitigating this meaning-making challenge. The paper argues that, while much work remains to be done towards clarifying…

While teachers value cultural and linguistic diversity, they see the benefits of speaking different languages "in the future tense," feeling it hard to specify how language differences positively impact students' learning in the present. This study explores teachers' temporal perceptions of language differences, specifically focusing on…

A compulsory foreign language in Finland starts now in Grade 1 instead of Grade 3. The change has forced teachers to adopt new teaching methods. As young learners are not yet literate, teaching should focus on oral skills and awareness of diversity. Video data from 19 early foreign language lessons of five English, German, or French teachers in…

This paper explores the efficacy of implementing bilingual education in the Foundation Phase in South Africa. Doctrinal analysis was used as a data collection tool wherein English and Xitsonga were both used as mediums of instruction in the Foundation Phase. To acquire empirical evidence used to add doctrinal data, eight contact sessions were…

Many educators in immersion contexts support a policy of strict separation of languages in the classroom as the ideal model for second language acquisition and are reluctant to make connections between the dominant language, the target language and pupils' home languages. This can result in missed opportunities for drawing on pupils' entire…

To address the challenges of teaching and learning among multilingual elementary students, the Philippines, a multilingual country with over 180 languages, implemented the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE). Studies on the use of mother tongue have reported positive results among students who share a common language. However, in…

Classrooms across the world are becoming more diverse, forcing mainstream teachers to accept responsibility for teaching second language (L2) learners. As a result, pedagogical translanguaging has come to the fore as a potential practice to help L2 learners perform academically. In South Africa pedagogical translanguaging had not previously been…

This case study examines the second language socialization of migrant-background (MB) students (n = 8) enrolled in a Greater Montréal public primary school, where the language of instruction is French. This examination includes MB students' experiences learning French and learning through French, and the impact of their knowledge of other…

Drawing on the concepts of translanguaging and transnational funds of knowledge, this qualitative study explored the multilingual and mobile life and pedagogical approaches of Ms. Tao, an Asian migrant teacher working in a New York City public school. The findings reveal that Ms. Tao's vast linguistic, cultural, and migratory experiences have…

Emergent bilingual students in the U.S. often attend English-medium schools where their bilingual language resources are ignored and dismissed. Research suggests this is harmful for students, but little empirical work has examined how teachers in English-dominant schools can support students' biliteracy. To address this problem, this qualitative…

This article discusses the implementation of translanguaging in two superdiverse school classes and their teachers' understanding of translanguaging. Translanguaging as a theory and a transformative pedagogy has recently captured scholars' interest from all over the globe, but also earned critique for its transformative claims and ongoing…

The aim of this article is to generate knowledge about an MTT classroom in a Swedish elementary school and how MTT is positioned as a safe space for translanguaging. By studying a school context as a potential translanguaging space, our focus is mainly on two dimensions of space: the physical, including the material space of MTT, and the social,…

'High-quality talk' is a fundamental principle of many approaches to teaching grammar. However, relatively few studies have attempted to characterize this talk with attention to the ways in which classroom dialogue might engender metalinguistic thinking. This paper explores how the concepts of procedural and declarative metalinguistic knowledge…

This article presents data from a videographic study that aims to explore the possibilities and limits of multilingual teaching approaches currently integrated in the curriculum and foreign language textbooks in German-speaking Switzerland. The focus of this paper is on sequences in which primary school children aged 11-12 deal with typical…