Math in Arabic and other languages: exploring the possibilities of translanguaging practices in the classroom

ABSTRACT

This article presents the findings from a study on lower secondary math teaching (year 7 and 9) in a Danish school. The study is part of a larger action research project aiming at developing new ways of teaching and learning in culturally and linguistically diverse classrooms. The math teachers hypothesised that their students would be able to benefit more from math instruction if they were able to draw on their full linguistic repertoire in class. As a response to this, a series of teaching activities addressing mathematical discourse in Danish, Arabic, and the other languages present in the classrooms were developed and delivered to the two classes. A group of Arabic-speaking students worked with math assignments and mathematical discourse using learning materials in both Danish and Arabic, but other languages present in the linguistically heterogenetic classes were also involved in the teaching and learning activities, integrating translanguaging practices in math teaching activities. Findings indicate that translanguaging practices in the math classroom have the potentials to elicit linguistic awareness about the nature of mathematical discourse in students, but also raise awareness about the role of languages in the classroom as such.

KEYWORDS:

• Math
• lower secondary
• multilingual education
• translanguaging
• multilingualism
• bilingualism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the A.P. Møller and Chastine Mc-Kinney Møller Foundation.