This paper reports on a study concerning the social nature of young students' informal inferential reasoning. Employing inferentialism as a background theory, we examine cognitive and sociocultural aspects of reasoning that arose during group discussions as well as trace relations between those aspects. Following a design experiment approach, we…

The subject of psychological and sociocultural factors influencing English language learning has attracted a great deal of pedagogy researchers' attention. The purpose of this experimental research was to investigate Thai EFL students' silence in the classroom during the pre-and-post implementation of the communicative language teaching approach…

A question that confronts teachers of mathematics is how best to establish in their classrooms a space where students can participate more fully in the curriculum. This article explores the development of agency in the school mathematics classroom. Using data from a variety of classroom contexts, this article employs sociocultural constructs of…

This study aims at drawing a conclusion about the use of the first language (L1) in language classes on which there is still no consensus among researchers. In line with this aim, the qualitative studies involving participants' views or practices obtained through interviews or observations were analyzed and then synthesized. Firstly, two basic…

Drawing upon a theoretical framework that acknowledges the bidirectional relationship between local discursive acts and institutional structures, this paper analyzes classroom observations with student interviews to understand how fifth-grade multilingual learners are making sense of dialogic literacy instruction to support their reading…

There has been much attention given to the use of technology in education; mostly concentrating on physical artifacts of technology to facilitate teaching delivery but little mentioning technology as a cultural resource to organize the learning environment promoting social interaction among students and between teacher and students. This paper…

From a sociocultural perspective, I discuss data from a Swedish science classroom presented in María Gómez's article "Student Explanations of their Science Teachers' Assessments, Grading Practices, and How they learn Science". In this discussion, I focus on the need to change existing conceptions of assessment in the teaching and…

The work presented here is a qualitative study of socio-cultural approaches to literary texts in a selection of upper secondary English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classrooms in Norway. The article explores opportunities and challenges related to the fostering of competent "intercultural readers" in foreign language (FL) educational…

Translanguaging offers a new perspective on language learning by affirming and leveraging the diverse language practices that make up learners' unitary language repertoire as resources for their learning. Despite the potential pedagogical benefits of translanguaging, English-only policies are still prevalent in many language classrooms. Even when…

Conceptualization of foreign language teaching as a cross-cultural interaction means engaging learners in various cultural mediations. Language use becomes a form of interpretative architecture of a target language. Understanding language use from a discursive perspective develops meta-pragmatic awareness and interpretative capacities of learners.…

Many US K-12 teachers in ethnolinguistically homogenous, rural areas are not adequately prepared to meet the needs of their English language learner (ELL) students. Such educators often lack conceptual understanding of language pedagogy and affective investment in ELLs. The field of language teacher education (LTE) needs research on how to better…

Drawing upon sociocultural theories of learning and social constructivist theories of identity development, this article defines learning and identity as outcomes of participation in order to investigate how an emergent bilingual in elementary school, Roselyn, has opportunities to participate in school-based activities and how these structured…

In prior studies, we examined Collective Classroom Efficacy (CCE) through the role of teacher and through the voices of students in a diverse classroom developing CCE. One participant exhibited an element of hope that added to her learning experience. Through Lara's telling case, we illustrate how she accomplished her goals through interactions…

This study investigates the functions served by learners' first language (L1) in classroom interaction among Iranian learners of English (L2). The study aims to determine how learners' L1 serves them in their L2 learning. It adopts a qualitative approach. The study involved the participation of eleven Grade 9 learners in one Iranian high school in…

This collected papers dissertation explores students' academic interactions in an active learning, introductory physics settings as they relate to the development of physics self-efficacy and interest. The motivation for this work extends from the national call to increase participation of students in the pursuit of science, technology,…