Students’ use of their languages and registers: An example of the socio-cultural role of language in multilingual classrooms

Abstract

In multilingual classrooms, use of different languages is an important, although often neglected or not appreciated, resource (Clarkson, 2007; Moschkovich, 2002). Multilingual classrooms based in multilingual and multicultural societies present potentially rich instances of language and cultural resources that can inform language sensitive teaching strategies for developing conceptual understanding among students (see, Cummins, 2000; Duval, 2006).