Navigating Authoritative Discourses in a Multilingual Classroom: Conversations with Policy and Practice
Resource type
Journal Article
Authors/contributors
- Kiramba, Lydiah Kananu (Author)
- Harris, Violet J. (Author)
Title
Navigating Authoritative Discourses in a Multilingual Classroom: Conversations with Policy and Practice
Abstract
Bakhtinian concepts of persuasive and authoritative discourse, this study reports on science and English language arts instructional practices in a multilingual, rural, fourth-grade classroom in Kenya. Situated in English as a medium of instruction (EMI) and through the use of case study, the study explores classroom discourse data to illustrate how teachers use instructional practices to reproduce, contest, or navigate prevailing institutional monolingual policies when mediating students' access to literacy and content. By analyzing classroom discourse, the authors argue that restrictive language policies that aspire for fixity disconnect multilingual learners from their daily realities. In contrast, they call for a (re)construction of multilingual pedagogy that capitalizes on the strengths of learners, teachers, and linguistic communities by embracing students' languages and language varieties in language learning and literacy development. In particular, implications are drawn for the use of EMI for emerging bilingual and multilingual learners. The authors identify the need to prepare teachers for a multilingual reality through legitimizing multilingual pedagogies such as translanguaging.
Publication
Navigating Authoritative Discourses in a Multilingual Classroom: Conversations with Policy and Practice
Volume
53
Issue
2
Pages
456-481
Date
20190601
Language
eng
DOI
ISSN
0039-8322
Extra
an: EJ1215325; source: TESOL Quarterly: A Journal for Teachers of English to Speakers of Other Languages and of Standard English as a Second Dialect; docTypes: Journal Articles ; Reports - Research; pubTypes: Academic JournalReport;
Citation
Kiramba, L. K., & Harris, V. J. (20190601). Navigating Authoritative Discourses in a Multilingual Classroom: Conversations with Policy and Practice. Navigating Authoritative Discourses in a Multilingual Classroom: Conversations with Policy and Practice, 53(2), 456–481. https://doi.org/10.1002/tesq.493
Link to this record