Language alternation in the multilingual classroom

Abstract

The aim of this paper is twofold: First, we show that language alternation is an important resource for the accomplishment of actions allowing for participation in classroom activities, and that it can only be understood through careful sequential and multimodal analysis – as proven in IL studies. IL research is thus expanded to the multilingual classroom. The study is based on video-recordings of a classroom setting in which the students make use of Arabic – not the language of instruction, which is German. In addition to the communicative functions of actions realized through language alternation, our study shows the teacher’s strategies of how to deal with the students’ use of Arabic. These observations on “orderly” going-ons are intended to encourage teachers to allow for multiple language use in the classroom.