This article summarizes research on how students who are bilingual or learning English use two languages and examines how this research is relevant to mathematics classrooms. It is easy to notice that bilingual students sometimes use two languages. It is more difficult to know whether this practice might be significant to learning mathematics.…

According to Bernstein (A sociolinguistic approach to socialization; with some reference to educability, Basil Blackwell Ltd., 1972), middle-class parents transmit an elaborated code to their children that relies on verbal means, rather than paralinguistic devices or shared assumptions, to express meanings. Bernstein's ideas were used to argue…

The International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) is currently implementing a program to improve the language proficiency of pilots and air traffic controllers worldwide. In justifying the program, ICAO has cited a number of airline accidents that were at least partly caused by language factors. Two accidents cited by ICAO are analysed in this…

The ideology of monolingualism prevails throughout society, including within minority ethnic communities who are bilingual and multilingual. Some minority ethnic communities in Britain believe that the response to the dominance of English language is to replace it with other languages. Complementary schools--language and culture classes organised…

Some US researchers and practitioners are calling for the use of written codeswitching in mainstream college courses, despite a strong English-only sentiment among many teachers and the public. This paper describes the existing positions in this debate and presents findings from the author's research to shed light on the debate and make…

This article demonstrates how evidence related to performance in computer mediated communication (CMC) can be used as a vehicle for researching pupils' thinking about using and learning a foreign language. The analysis is based on a qualitative study of pupils from two contrasting schools who had taken part in a multinational CMC project involving…

Many teachers lack the linguistic training required to build on the language skills that African American students from dialectally diverse backgrounds bring to school. When students correctly use the language patterns of their communities, such teachers may diagnose language deficits and attempt to teach them the "right" grammar. Research has…

This article focuses on children's language alternation practices in two primary school settings. More specifically we explore how participants (children and teachers) in episodes of language alternation invoke linguistic and social identities, thereby "talking into being" language and educational ideologies. The present study is based…

The article discusses relationships between codeswitching and identities in classroom peer group talk among students from a variety of Asian and European backgrounds who were studying English in Australia. The article focusses on talk that, in being concealed from the teacher through codeswitching, allows expression of identities that are not…

This study explores social interaction and mathematics performance, especially regarding how bilingual Latino/a students' positioning and participation evolved as they interacted with others in mathematics problem solving. Historically, Latinas/os have faced segregation in different ways that affect the quality of their social interactions…

This paper aims to accomplish two things: first, to develop precise criteria to establish profiles for bilingual speech, following the typology of insertion, alternation and congruent lexicalisation developed in Muysken (2000); and second, to test these criteria on specific data sets. A first set involves Welsh-English bilingual data analysed by…

This paper examines the syntax of "GENDER CONCORD" in mixed utterances where bilingual children switch between a modifier in one language and a noun in another. Particular attention is paid to how children deal with potential gender mismatches between modifier and noun, i.e., if one of the languages has grammatical gender but the other does not,…

This comprehensive volume describes evidence-based strategies for supporting English language learners (ELLs) by promoting meaningful communication and language use across the curriculum. Leading experts explain how and why learning is different for ELLs and pinpoint specific best practices for the classroom, illustrated with vivid examples.…

This article presents partial results of an ethnographic study about literacy practices among adolescents living near the United States-Mexico border. The students became involved in literacy practices with their friends and family at home. These practices were related to the adolescents' interests in popular culture such as reading magazines or…

This study examines a Detroit suburb experiencing an unexpected influx of working class African American students. Dilemmas engendered a cultural mismatch between teachers and students. In a controversial climate where students cross the boundary line in search for educational parity, this study examines a seventh-grade English teacher who enacts…