Linguistic stratification in a multilingual mathematics classroom

Overview & Synopsis

There has been a good deal of research on interaction in multilingual mathematics classrooms, with an increasing emphasis on the socio-political dimension of language in shaping students’ and teachers’ language choices. I argue that this approach remains under-theorised and offers a limited perspective on the politics of language in mathematics classroom interaction, largely focused on language choice. To deal with this problem, I draw on ideas from the contemporary sociolinguistics of multilingualism, including the notions of heteroglossia and orders of indexicality. To illustrate these ideas and their utility, I present an analysis of an episode observed in a sheltered elementary school second language mathematics classroom in Canada. My analysis shows how the two students are marginalised by the interaction.