"Functional Multilingual Learning" ("FML") aims to leverage pupils' full language repertoire in a strategic and transversal way across the curriculum in order to enhance access to conceptual understanding and improve skills in the language of schooling. This linguistic-ethnographic study explores the pedagogical decisions of…

Communicative competence often remains the aim rather than the product of language instruction. One cause may be the fact that language learners tend to need "knowledge of second language use" more than "knowledge of a second language" in their oral communication situations outside the classroom. This results in low transferability of…

The roles of first and second languages were studied, using ethnographic methods, in a middle school two-way bilingual education program that served Mexican-background students. The primary stated program goal was to develop bilingualism and biliteracy in both minority and majority language students. Classes were taught using English and Spanish…