We have analysed multilingual mathematics classroom discourse to understand how languages are negotiated in student-teacher conversations under the assumption that language-use is a socially embedded process. We attempt to comprehend in what different ways languages (of instruction and local) are mixed and switched to arrive at better clarity and…

This paper explores the notion that the discourse of the mathematics classroom impacts on the practices that students engage when modelling mathematics. Using excerpts of a Year 12 student's report on modelling Newton's law of cooling, this paper argues that when students engage with the discourse of their mathematics classroom in a manner that…

This article adapts the Evidence-Based Reasoning (EBR) Framework (Brown, Furtak, Timms, Nagashima, & Wilson, this issue) to create a coding system for assessing argumentation in science classroom discourse. The instrument, "Evidence-Based Reasoning in Science Classroom Discourse", is intended to provide a means for measuring the quality of EBR in…

Mathematical Mediated Language (MML) is a teaching technique designed to enhance children's learning. Teachers who use MML engage in a dialogue with children about mathematics concepts that apply to the activity in which they are engaged. This dialogue links "conceptually related linguistic and mathematical knowledge." In other words, teachers…

In this study, we examined the instructional coherence in a Chinese mathematics classroom by analyzing a sequence of four videotaped lessons on the topic of fraction division. Our analysis focused on the characteristics of instructional coherence both within and across individual lessons. A framework was developed to focus on lesson instruction in…

Classroom incivility is a major concern in higher education today. Yet little study has been done of student perceptions of behavior in the classroom. Based on a survey of 3,616 students at a Midwestern public university, the present study provides useful information to faculty members and administrators about the behaviors students find most…

This article argues for increased theoretical specificity in the active learning process. Whereas constructivist learning emphasizes construction of meaning, the process articulated here complements meaning construction with disciplinary critique. This process is an implication of how disciplinary communities generate new knowledge claims, which…

This 5-month qualitative study investigates how one high school English teacher situated students as readers and writers within daily, spontaneous classroom interactions. Specifically, the author draws on positioning theory (van Langenhove & Harre, 1999) as a lens to analyze how the teacher navigated improvised responses during three separate…

A preliminary study was conducted to investigate the communicative roles performed by teacher and pupil during Key Stage 3 (KS3) English lessons. Two classes of a special school were involved in the study. Data collection employed video capture of teacher-pupil communication during timetabled English lessons. The data were transcribed and analysed…

This dissertation is a linguistic ethnography of a high school Astronomy/Oceanography classroom in southern Arizona, where an exceptionally promising, novice, white science teacher and mostly Mexican-American students confronted issues of identity and difference through interactions both related and unrelated to science learning. Through close…

This paper reports on an experience carried out with second course students of the School of Aeronautical Engineers at the Polytechnic University of Madrid in the subject class Modern Technical Language. In the previous years the problem in that class had been the scarce participation of the students in the oral practices. They seemed to be lead…

The present study explores the ways in which peers take up a teacher-like discourse to enforce normative uses of language in a classroom, effectively socializing one another to the institutional use of English which in turn signals class membership. Such an uptake of teacher-like discourses and practices can be characterized as subteaching…

This article reports on a multiple-case study designed to investigate factors influencing willingness to communicate (WTC) in the English as a foreign language (EFL) classroom in China. Four university students participated in this study; data were collected through semi-structured interviews, learning journals recorded by the students, and…

In this article, we examine the relationship between classroom talk, teacher-student roles and paradigms for literacy and learning in two ninth-grade English Language Arts classes. Our goal was to understand how these roles and practices socialized students into norms for academic language and literacy as they read and wrote poetry in preparation…

Both faculty and students at many colleges and universities report numerous incidents of disruptive and uncivil behaviour. However, studies show that faculty are often reluctant to confront these situations, or they feel ill-equipped to intervene. If the behaviour escalates, a disproportionate amount of time and effort can be spent trying to…