This study employed a qualitative interpretative case study methodology, involving two teachers and one class of learners from two selected schools. The researcher used observation to address a critical question: How does the application of the Tshivenda scientific language register shape meaningful learning? The findings reveal that the…

Multilingual youth, from nondominant communities, are often denied critical opportunities for engagement in robust sensemaking due to deficit-based perspectives and linguistic hierarchies. To advance equity, it is important to recognize all youth as epistemic agents and facilitate opportunities to take on intellectual positions. Drawing on…

The purpose of this study was to explore translanguaging space as a transformative third space, where alternative and competing discourses are celebrated and where science learning and the development of science's discourse and epistemic practices expand across overlapping boundaries (e.g., home, school, and community). The study focused on Syrian…

Equity-focused calls for elementary education reform recognize the importance of student and teacher translanguaging, yet nuances of how this process unfolds in early childhood science is an underexplored area. This study examines young plurilingual children's participation in science investigations, with a view toward understanding how open-ended…

To address the challenges of teaching and learning among multilingual elementary students, the Philippines, a multilingual country with over 180 languages, implemented the Mother Tongue-Based Multilingual Education (MTB-MLE). Studies on the use of mother tongue have reported positive results among students who share a common language. However, in…

Background: South Africa's "Language-in-Education Policy" (LiEP) provides for bi/multilingual education, but schools are only supported to choose monolingual English language policies from Grade 4 and ignore the learners' home language or languages as resources for learning. Many teachers translanguage orally, using the learners' home…

Among inequities faced by multilingual learners, engagement in science education is one of the most persistent. Research suggests leveraging students' full multilingual repertoires in science education can help address this gap. However, pervasive monolingual norms in schooling may impede multilingual engagement, impacting students' multilingual…

This article drew on the recent dynamic, distributed view of "translanguaging and flows" and the New Materiality view of meaning making to explore content and language integrated learning (CLIL) activities in an English-Medium-Instruction (EMI) secondary Science classroom. Fine-grained analysis of the multilingual and multimodal…

For years, the teaching of content-based academic language to multilingual learners has focused on formulas, vocabulary lists, and sentence patterns--often sidelining students' linguistic and cultural strengths. Gisela Ernst-Slavit and Margo Gottlieb address these challenges by embracing academic "languaging," an active, collaborative…

All learners bring ideas about science phenomena to classroom learning, including formative assessment tasks. Educators and scholars have long been interested in making school science, including assessment, more equitable and culturally meaningful for (bi)multilingual learners. Translanguaging is increasingly seen as an important assessment design…

In spite of the fact that increased transnational flows of people have altered the social, cultural, and linguistic landscape, education in Zimbabwe still follows a monolingual trajectory. The use of a language of instruction different from the students' home language has been identified as the major factor in students' academic underachievement.…

This paper examines how the nature of language is represented in science lessons taught through English, and is part of a project investigating the challenges of bilingual education in Hong Kong's junior secondary classes. Educational linguistics, particularly work drawing on systemic functional linguistics, sees language as text and as dialectic.…

Research suggests that translanguaging can be transformative for teaching and learning by making students' diverse linguistic resources a meaningful part of classroom discourse. Building on this study, researchers have explored how translanguaging practices can support learning in STEM (science, technology, engineering, and mathematics), primarily…

As the de facto language of science, English proficiency often serves as a gatekeeper for aspiring medical students in Puerto Rico because they encounter English-language instruction, textbooks, and high-stakes standardized tests throughout their studies. Employing ethnographic research methods, this case study documents the language practices in…

This article draws from an exploratory study of science teachers' experiences when utilising learners' home languages in teaching grade 9 learners in three South African high schools. This research investigated teacher use of learners' home languages in science instruction, with a particular focus on the affordances and challenges of using…