Multilingual Interactions and Learning in High School ESL Classrooms

Bibliographic Data

ID10818232
AuthorsLiv T Dávila (0000-0002-7388-8675, University of Illinois at Urbana‐Champaign Champaign Illinois United States, corresponding author)
Year2020
Volume54
Issue1
Pages30-55
Publication date2020-03-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessYes
TypeARTICLE
VenueTESOL Quarterly (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0039-8322 • E-ISSN: 1545-7249
PublisherWiley (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1002/tesq.536
OpenAlexW2973169192
LanguageEN
Citations received11
References cited53

This article explores how peer and teacher–student interactions in linguistically diverse high school English as a Second Language (ESL) classrooms produce changes in learners’ uptake of different languages and cultures. Data presented are from a 2‐year ethnography of communication focusing on adolescent multilingual English learners’ language use in three ESL classrooms in the United States. The study participants’ primary languages were French, Lingala, and Tshiluba, and the dominant language spoken by the students in class was Spanish. The data include recordings of peer group classroom interactions, individual and focus group interviews, and field notes from classroom observations. Analyzed through an ecology of language framework (van Lier, 2004) and heteroglossic perspectives on language learning and use (Bakhtin, 1981), the findings reveal a gradual ideological and pragmatic shift among the focal students from resenting the predominant use of Spanish by their teachers and peers during Year 1 of the study to using Spanish words and phrases during Year 2 for two distinct purposes: peer socialization and learning English. The article concludes by highlighting the importance of attending to students’ language experiences to harness metacognitive thinking, critical multilingual language awareness, and linguistic creativity

Class (philosophy) · Ethnography · Language acquisition · Linguistics · Mathematics education · Pedagogy · Socialization · Sociology · Computer Science · EFL/ESL Teaching and Learning · Multilingual Education and Policy · Psychology · Second Language Learning and Teaching

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