Search results for "language norms"

Interpreting and managing a monolingual norm in an English-speaking class in Finland: When first and second graders contest the norm

2011

This study explores the stances that multilingual learners adopt in the face of a monolingual, “English-only” norm in a primary English medium class in Finland. I examine classroom interaction focusing on three students and the ways in which they reinterpret, reformulate, and contest this norm. This research is informed by the perspective of language socialization and draws on methods of microethnographic discourse analysis. I find that the three focal students come into opposition when they interpret and manage the institutional monolingual norm differently, indexing issues of mother tongue expertise and group membership. Aleksi employs a variety of discursive practices in resisting the En…