This paper sets out to describe a research project and to present and discuss some of its pre- liminary findings from an initial explorative phase. The project is conducted in collaboration with mathematics and science teachers in four mainstream compulsory schools with strong linguistic diver- sity within a geographic frame of a predominantly urban region in Sweden. The overall aim of the study is to generate knowledge about pedagogical potentials and limitations of multilingual practices in mathematics and science education. In this paper we draw on interviews with teachers, as well as workshops in which teachers and researchers collaborated, to explore the various meaning-making re- sources teachers express they draw on for teaching mathematics in multilingual settings, and their per- ceptions and experiences of teaching mathematics in multilingual settings. The preliminary findings indicate that the teachers draw on different meaning-making resources, with emphasis on resources that can be related to language responsive teaching. It seems easier for the teachers to reason about language responsive mathematics teaching than multilingual mathematics teaching. The teachers rea- son more about the value of a multilingual approach and less of concrete multilingual methods and strategies for teaching mathematics to multilingual students. They express positive views about multi- lingualism as a resource for learning mathematics at the same time as they show a hesitancy towards it, demonstrating an ambivalence.

This paper is a part of the project Spaces for multilingualism (Swedish Research Council, 2021-04155). The aim of the project is to generate knowledge about the pedagogical potentials and limitations of multilingual practices in mathematics and science education. We specifically aim to explore and problematise how multilingual approaches and activities may promote mathematics and science teaching and learning in school years 4–9. The qualitative project is conducted by an interdisciplinary research team that integrates theories from educational research in didactics, sociology and linguistics, including translanguaging theories. The project’s four-year period comprises initial exploration of existing pedagogical practices, in four culturally and linguistically diverse schools. The explorative phase is followed by a two-year period of pedagogical interventions.The presentation will focus on the exploratory phase of the study and the preliminary findings from interviews with students and teachers, workshops where teachers and researchers worked together, and classroom observations, and focus on teachers’ and students’ use of meaning-making resources in science education, and how students’ prior experiences and communicative repertoires are acknowledged as resources in multilingual classroom activities.

Although visual aids are widely considered a valuable source of scaffolding, the nature and active utilization of these aids in current science classrooms are not well understood. This qualitative study explores interaction in the teaching of concepts related to evolution, with a specific focus on a teacher's use of different visual support material. Based on a classroom study in a linguistically diverse Grade 4 classroom, we employed the perspective of discourse-bridging interaction to develop three broad categories of interactional examples, which we related to three kinds of visual support material used in the instruction: generic visual support images, naturalistic images, and disciplinary images showing examples of natural selection. The findings show that the interaction moved in and out of science discourse in a way that reflected the images' properties. A generic visual support image illustrated the concept of “adaption” as puzzle pieces fitting together, which promoted everyday and anthropomorphic examples of animals and people striving to fit in. When the teacher used naturalistic images, the discourse shifted between a range of perspectives, while visual aids and whiteboard drawings showing the classic examples of giraffes evolving (a disciplinary image) were employed to clarify the notion of natural selection. We discuss the study's implications for using visual support material in a planned way that supports disciplinary understanding.

This article focuses on how Grade 6 students interactionally make meaning out of subject-related language encountered in civics textbook material by searching for synonyms and engaging in discussions. Employing ethnographically-inspired methods, data was collected through observations and audio recordings of civics teaching in two linguistically diverse classrooms in which the students were taught in the majority language, Swedish. In the article, oral classroom interaction is perceived as a crucial part of the meaning-making social practice in which students' disciplinary literacy is developed. Key analytical concepts are discursive shifts and discursive mobility - the ability to move between and within different discourses. The results show that the use of online dictionaries promoted decontextualizing processes in which the students unsuccessfully tried to negotiate multiple abstract meanings that, in many cases, were unrelated to the disciplinary content. In other exchanges, the adults gave interactional support by contextualizing the words and expressions in content-relevant ways and pointing out recognizable parts of words. In some cases, the teacher instead drew attention to words that have different meanings, which complicated the content-relevant understanding of the words. Implications for working with subject-related vocabulary in ways which support rather than hinder disciplinary understanding are discussed.

This paper sets out to describe a research project and to present and discuss some of its preliminary findings from an initial explorative phase. The project is conducted in collaboration with mathematics and science teachers in four mainstream compulsory schools with strong linguistic diversity within a geographic frame of a predominantly urban region in Sweden. The overall aim of the study is to generate knowledge about pedagogical potentials and limitations of multilingual practices in mathematics and science education. In this paper we draw on interviews with teachers, as well as workshops in which teachers and researchers collaborated, to explore the various meaning-making resources teachers express they draw on for teaching mathematics in multilingual settings, and their perceptions and experiences of teaching mathematics in multilingual settings. The preliminary findings indicate that the teachers draw on different meaning-making resources, with an emphasize on resources that can be related to language responsive teaching. It seems easier for the teachers to reason about language responsive mathematics teaching than multilingual mathematics teaching. The teachers reason about the value of a multilingual approach and more less of concrete multilingual methods and strategies for teaching mathematics to multilingual students. They express positive views about multilingualism as a resource for learning mathematics at the same time as they show a hesitancy towards it, demonstrating an ambivalence towards it.

The project Spaces for multilingualism is founded by the Swedish Research Council (2022-2026). The purpose of the interdisciplinary project is to generate knowledge about the pedagogical potentials and limitations of multilingual practices in mathematics and science education. We specifically aim to explore and problematise how multilingual approaches and activities may promote mathematics and science teaching and learning in school years 4–9. The qualitative project is conducted by an interdisciplinary research team that integrates theories from educational research in didactics, sociology and linguistics, including translanguaging theories. The project’s four-year period comprises initial exploration of existing pedagogical practices, mainly through workshops with teachers, classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers, in four culturally and linguistically diverse schools. This explorative phase is followed by a two-year period of pedagogical interventions, in which teachers and researchers together design, carry out and analyse classroom interventions. The interventions involve exploring the pedagogical potentials and limitations for promoting multilingual resources for teaching and learning. Further, students’ identities as engaged learners of mathematics and science are explored. Our ambition is for the project to contribute with new and multifaceted knowledge on the complexity of teaching and learning in multilingual mathematics and science classrooms in mainstream compulsory schools in which the students have a variety of language backgrounds. The presentation will focus on the explorative phase of the study and the preliminary results from interviews with students and teachers as well as workshops in which teachers and researchers collaborated. We will also present the ongoing preparations for the interventional phase of the study.

The purpose of the interdisciplinary project is to generate knowledge about the pedagogical potentials and limitations of multilingual practices in mathematics and science education. We specifically aim to explore and problematise how multilingual approaches and activities may promote mathematics and science teaching and learning in school years 4–9. The qualitative project is conducted by an interdisciplinary research team that integrates theories from educational research in didactics, sociology and linguistics, including translanguaging theories. The project’s four-year period comprises initial exploration of existing pedagogical practices, mainly through workshops with teachers, classroom observations and interviews with students and teachers, in four culturally and linguistically diverse schools. This explorative phase is followed by a two-year period of pedagogical interventions, in which teachers and researchers together design, carry out and analyse classroom interventions. The interventions involve exploring the pedagogical potentials and limitations for promoting multilingual resources for teaching and learning. Further, students’ identities as engaged learners of mathematics and science are explored. Our ambition is for the project to contribute with new and multifaceted knowledge on the complexity of teaching and learning in multilingual mathematics and science classrooms in mainstream compulsory schools in which the students have a variety of language backgrounds.

Tidigare studier har visat den muntliga interaktionens betydelse för att främja elevers språk- och kunskapsutveckling i olika ämneskontexter. Det kontextuella stöd klassrumssamtalen erbjuder är särskilt viktigt i klassrum där undervisningen bedrivs på elevers andraspråk. Trots det tilltagande intresset för ämneslitteracitet och språkliga dimensioner i ämnesundervisning finns det relativt lite forskning som anlägger språkliga perspektiv på elevers möte med skönlitterära texter. En sannolik förklaring är den traditionella uppdelning mellan språk och litteratur som har inspirerat konferenstemat, Språk och litteratur – en omöjlig eller skön förening? Den aktuella presentationen bygger på en studie av en lärares högläsning av den prisbelönta bilderboken Legenden om Sally Jones i en språkligt heterogen årskurs 4. Etnografiskt inspirerade metoder användes för att dokumentera högläsningen i två undervisningsgrupper med fokus på följande forskningsfrågor: 1) Vilka diskursiva strategier använder läraren för att främja förståelsen av skönlitterärt språkbruk under högläsningsaktiviteter, 2) Vad kännetecknar de skönlitterära ord och uttryck som läraren fokuserade på? För att besvara dessa frågor analyserades transkriberade ljudinspelningar utifrån perspektivet diskursiv rörlighet med hjälp av verktyg från systemisk-funktionell lingvistisk och legitimation code theory. Resultatet visar att läraren under högläsningen gjorde många omformuleringar som antingen utvidgade eller förenklade det skönlitterära språket. De utvidgande strategierna var särskilt framträdande och bestod av såväl klargörande omformuleringar som mer diskreta tillägg av vardagsspråklig karaktär. Det skönlitterära språk läraren fokuserade på var dels specialiserade ord och uttryck, dels formuleringar som kan kopplas till skönlitterära beskrivningar. De diskursiva strategiernas roll för att utvidga elevernas språkliga repertoarer och främja deras förståelse och engagemang vid gemensam läsning av skönlitterära texter diskuteras.

This study illuminates a teacher's discursive strategies for promoting understanding of literary language in a linguistically diverse Swedish classroom. By means of field notes and audio recordings, a Grade 4 teacher's read-aloud of the award-winning picture book The Legend of Sally Jones was documented and analyzed employing concepts from Systemic-Functional Linguistics and Legitimation Code Theory. Combining quantitative and qualitative approaches, the findings show that the teacher used a rich variety of discursive strategies to make specialized terms and literary descriptions available to the students. Apart from using question–answer strategies and commenting on the text in clarifying ways, the teacher made linguistic alterations to either expand or simplify the literary language. The expansive strategies were particularly salient, entailing clarifying paraphrases or subtly infused additions to expand literary meaning. The significance of the strategies to support students’ understanding of literary language and immersion in stories is discussed.

The purpose of the article is to contribute knowledge about how disciplinary knowledgeand literacy in linguistically diverse classrooms can be discerned and promoted. Thearticle presents analyses of how a science teacher explores methods for teaching content, language and texts in a grade 7, and how a Swedish teacher leads the reading froma textbook in the classroom. The data has mainly been collected through observationsand video and audio recordings, and has partly been developed through a collaborationbetween the science teacher and the researchers. The concept semantic waves is used toanalyse, discuss and problematize the results. The results contribute to the understanding of teachers’ pedagogical attempts to promote students’ disciplinary knowledgeand language. The paper exemplifies and discusses opportunities and limitations for anengaging and integrated knowledge-building in science teaching and in collaborationwith other teachers.

Litteracitet har traditionellt beskrivits utifrån människors läs- och skrivförmågor eller förmågan att hantera siffror och enkla problemlösningssituationer i vardagen. I den här antologin tar författarna i stället avstamp i ett vidgat perspektiv på begreppet för att undersöka hur det gestaltar sig inom olika ämnesområden.

Genom exempel från olika klassrum och ämnen belyser författarna ämneslitteracitet och ger uppslag till hur lärare kan arbeta för att utveckla och förstärka elevers ämnesspråkliga kunskaper och förmågor. Utgångspunkten är att ämneslitteracitet och ämnes­kunskaper utvecklas i nära samspel, vilket återspeglas i ett specifikt agerande som tar sig olika uttryck i olika ämnen. Här diskuteras även på vilka sätt som fokus på ämneslitteracitet och ett språk- och kunskapsutvecklande arbetssätt kan medverka till en inkluderande undervisning.

Boken vänder sig främst till lärarstudenter och lärare i grundskola, gymnasieskola och vuxenutbildning.

This article contributes knowledge about disciplinary literacy practices in school history, with a particular focus on how key subject-related concepts are visually and orally represented and negotiated in teacher- student interaction. Based on a classroom study of history teaching in a linguistically diverse classroom in Grade 6, we use social-semiotic theories to analyze properties of the images themselves and how they are employed as resources in oral interaction, with particular focus on students’ potential involvement in discursive shifts between everyday and disciplinary wordings. The results show that decontextualized, generic images, particularly those of abstract concepts, can obstruct students’ participation in subject- related discourse. Students’ discursive mobility can also be limited by interaction-driven guessing games about key subject-related concepts and misleading use of everyday language. The results also show how L2 students’ creative use of linguistic resources, connections to learners’ prior knowledge, and reiteration of subject-related concepts can constitute valuable parts of discursive shifts. Implications for using images and oral interaction in ways that support disciplinary learning in history are discussed.

In recent years, the increased globalization has led to Swedish science classrooms, just as in the rest of Europe, involving a variety of languages and cultures, which places particular demands on science education. The use of the functionally scientific language is characterized by complexity, which often hinders students’ learning in science. For students whose first language is different than the language of instruction, this can be a great challenge. In this presentation, we relate to two studies – (1) a web-based vocabulary test, and (2) an ethnographic study of a translanguaging science classroom – to illustrate how multilingual students’ use of translanguaging can constitute a resource for science learning. The studies reveal that multilingual students move in loops between discursive and national languages in their conversations about the scientific content. The students commonly use their first language (Arabic) when moving toward an everyday discourse and use their second language (Swedish) when approaching the scientific discourse. Moreover, analyses show how the students often use both Swedish and Arabic to clarify semantic relationships between scientific words and concepts in translanguaging science classrooms (TSC). The students commonly express the subject-specific words in Swedish, while the descriptive, clarifying, interconnecting words and phrases describing the semantic relationships often are expressed in Arabic. In this way, both Arabic and Swedish become linguistic and cognitive tools when students learn science. With increased awareness of the complex subject-specific language and multilingual students’ use of their entire linguistic repertoires in a TSC, increased conditions for the development of significant pedagogical tool can be created that can help science educators frame learning in linguistically and culturally diverse classrooms and give students greater opportunities to participate in the science instruction contexts, to influence their learning situation and to put students in a position as co-constructors of their own learning.

The aim of this article is to contribute knowledge about how figurative language from literary texts is negotiated through oral interaction in second-language instruction. The material consists of transcriptions of recordings from a classroom study of basic adult second-language instruction involving two teachers and their two student groups. Theories of semantic waves and discursive mobility are used to explore and visualize discursive shifts between concrete and condensed abstract meanings. The results show a varied use of linguistic resources, where students’ contributions often serve as a bridge between the teachers’ concrete examples and abstract paraphrases in which lexical metaphors interplayed with grammatical metaphors. In some exchanges, characters and events in the literary texts were significantly expanded upon in the interaction as they were used as contextual resources. The study sheds light on second-language instruction as a dual disciplinary literacy practice, involving both language learning and the study of literary texts.

This chapter focuses on the complexity of learning processes in a translanguaging science classroom (TSC). We explore multilingual students’ use of their first and second languages in authentic meaning-making in translanguaging situations in a middle school in Sweden. In the analysis, we interpret these classroom situations as multilingual hybrid spaces, in which both content and languages are simultaneously negotiated in order to create meaning. The aim is to investigate how these situations may contribute to the development of students’ conceptual knowledge and language use in science. The negotiations are illustrated as movements in multilingual discursive loops, which includes immediate and dynamic movements between “national languages” (Swedish and Arabic) and different discourses (every-day and scientific) with support from multimodal resources. We describe these movements in a model and conclude that the students’ language and conceptual development is largely enabled by opening up the multilingual negotiation spaces that constitute a TSC.

De olika medierande resurser som erbjuds i undervisning har en stor betydelse för det ämneslärande som möjliggörs. Språkligt heterogena elevgrupper anses gynnas av en undervisning som erbjuder visualiseringar, rikliga möjligheter till samtal och ett strukturerat arbete med ämnesspecifika begrepp och texter. Det är viktigt inte minst för undervisning i historia som, likt andra SO-ämnen, kännetecknas av ett abstrakt språkbruk samtidigt som ämnet ställer särskilt höga krav på en kritisk textförståelse. Möjligheterna för att iscensätta en språk- och kunskapsutvecklande undervisning i historia i tidigare skolår är dock otillräckligt belyst. I vår presentation kommer vi därför rapportera från en klassrumsstudie i årskurs 6 på en språkligt heterogen skola under ett arbetsområde om Vasatiden. Regelbundna språkdidaktiska inslag i denna undervisning var helklassamtal om visualiserade ämnesrelaterade ord, textsamtal i grupper och läsloggsskrivande om ämnesrelaterade bilder som följdes upp i helklass. Analysen av klassrumsinteraktion och undervisningsmaterial grundar sig på teoretiska ramverk för ämneslitteracitet och diskursiv rörlighet. Resultatet visar hur läraren söker bygga upp elevernas förståelse för arbetsområdet genom öppna samtal kring texter och bilder där olika perspektiv på historiska händelser och nyckelfigurer intas. I samtal om ämnesrelaterade ord är kunskapsutvecklande potentialer påtagliga när den muntliga förhandlingen pendlar mellan vardagliga och mer abstrakta formuleringar och ger eleverna utrymme att formulera en förståelse genom egna innovativa språkliga uttryck. Samtidigt visar resultatet hur förenklade bilder och vardagsspråkliga formuleringar kan motverka elevernas möjligheter att använda sig av ett ämnesspecifikt språkbruk. Interaktionens kunskapsutvecklande potentialer påverkas också av hur samtalen kopplas till de texter som används i undervisningen samt av hur texterna som sådana representerar att ämnesinnehåll. Studien belyser komplexiteten i att stödja kunskapsutveckling genom interaktion och ger en grund för en mer nyanserad förståelse av hur bilder, texter och samtal kan samspela och användas på ett medvetet sätt i ämnesundervisningen.

In this article, we assume that discursive language aspects of science education are highly intertwined with students’ knowledge-building and meaning-making in science. In an empirical case study, we investigate secondary students’ (ages 15 to 16) discursive language use during group interactions. The focus is on how students define and explain the content within everyday or scientific discourses and how their negotiations may influence discussion outcomes. The results suggest that students who can move between everyday and scientific languages benefit from this exchange, while students who only use colloquial language or relate the content to everyday experiences become disadvantaged. Furthermore, important general success factors are students’ abilities to establish solid relationships between words, expressions, and scientific terms to discuss, explain, and evaluate the scientific content. The results show important differences in discursive use of language within various school environments.

This article aims to explore and clarify how students’ use of first and second languages in a translanguaging science classroom (TSC) may affect the continuity of learning in science. In a TSC, participants can use all available language resources, in all meaning-making situations. An ethnographic data collection and research design is used to capture the authentic language use in this practice. The study followed monthly science lessons at a primary school for 3 years (2012–2015) and was documented by four video cameras and four audio recorders. The data material also consists of recorded conversations with four students, newly arrived in Sweden at the time of the data collection. In addition, field notes, students’ texts and different teaching materials were collected. To analyze how the use of both first and second languages may affect the continuity of science learning in multilingual classroom activities, practical epistemology analysis is used. The analysis shows that a TSC is an asset in appropriating a new social practice for students with limited ability to understand and express themselves in the language of instruction. However, the analysis also reveals some situations within this practice, in which all available resources are not utilized. These situations seem to be consequences of low expectations of students with limited access to the language of instruction expressed in simplified language usage; contextualizing the subject matter to everyday experiences students may not share; and the complexity of translating and transforming scientific content from one national language into another (Arabic and Swedish) and between everyday and academic discourse. The study contributes to the field by illustrating the importance of supporting each student’s access to the language tools that constitutes the scientific subject matter, as well as promoting the use of all resources to relate this to prior experience for a continuity of learning in a multilingual science classroom.

The 2019 GEM Report (Migration, displacement and education: building bridges, not walls) underscores the opportunities of ensuring that migrants have access to quality education in inclusive societies. By law, the Swedish educational system quite strongly supports immigrant education. On the other hand, problems with implementation and processes of social and discursive exclusion are major challenges that may lead to segregation and counteract educational inclusion and social cohesion. Various intercultural and linguistic approaches are developed in order to support and empower immigrant students (Cummins, 2000). The theories of Translanguaging (García, 2009) has come to dominate academic discussions, since it emphasizes social justice, inclusive teaching and the pedagogical value of engaging students' multilingual repertoires in all school subjects. In this paper, we emphasize that content area teachers have a crucial task in promoting students’ building of identity, knowledge and language. We perceive content area learning as a complex interplay between knowledge, language and identity formations. A key issue is, how to avoid processes of exclusion, and a simplified pedagogy that, despite good intentions, contribute to social injustice (Karlsson et al 2018; Nygård Larsson, 2018; Svensson Källberg, 2018). We explore the integrated building of identities, knowledges, languages and academic discourses, mainly through concepts derived from Translanguaging theories, and Karl Maton’s sociological framework Legitimation Code Theory (Maton, 2014) that underscores the complexity of knowledge-building within various school subjects. In combining these theories in un-explored ways, we attempt to find new methodologies for understanding the diversity and complexity of contemporary pedagogy in a sustainable society.

Students’ discussions about a PISA task – science education in different school environments. In this article, we assume that discursive language aspects are highly intertwined with students’ knowledge building and learning in science. The article analyses students’ collaborative discussions about a PISA assignment in sci¬ence. We investigate the relation between students’ use of everyday and scientific discourses and analyse the extent to which the students’ use of these discourses have an impact on how they explain the scientific content and solve the tasks. The results indicate that students who are able to move between an everyday discourse and a scientific discourse seem to benefit from this, while students who entirely use a colloquial language or relate the content to everyday experiences become disadvantaged. Further, important general success factors seem to be the students’ abil¬ity to successfully discuss, explain and evaluate the science content with respect to subject-specific words, definitions and relations

Alla elever, oavsett val av skola och egen bakgrund, har rätt till goda möjligheter att utveckla såväl sina kunskaper som sina språkliga resurser i skolans alla ämnen. Skriftliga texter i skolan, inte minst inom det naturvetenskapliga ämnesområdet, kännetecknas ofta av en hög grad av informationstäthet, abstraktion och teknikalitet. Skolans ämneslärare har en central uppgift i att utmana och stödja elevernas förståelse av och utveckling mot ett kunskapsrelaterat skolspråk, vilket kan förstås som ett komplext samspel mellan kunskapsutveckling och språkutveckling (Macnaught m.fl. 2013; Nygård Larsson, 2011). I den här presentationen utgår jag teoretiskt från framför allt systemisk funktionell lingvistik och Matons Legitimation Code Theory (LCT) (t.ex. Macnaught m.fl. 2013), vilket relateras till ett andraspråksperspektiv på lärande (se t.ex. Cummins, 2014). Resultat från ett designbaserat forskningsprojekt redovisas (Science and Literacy Teaching, SALT, Vetenskapsrådet). I synnerhet fokuseras inspelade och transkriberade helklassamtal mellan lärare och elever i naturvetenskaplig undervisning (årskurs 7) (Nygård Larsson, 2018). Läraren arbetar med att öka elevernas engagemang och medvetenhet om naturvetenskapliga uttryckssätt och synsätt. Resultaten från analyser av helklassamtal visar på en dynamisk språkanvändning där språket i vågliknande rörelser gradvis rör sig mot mer ämnesspecifika och skriftspråksliknande uttryckssätt, framförallt en mer nominaliserad naturvetenskaplig diskurs. Resultaten fördjupar förståelsen av ämneslärares diskursiva strategier för att stödja elevers kunskaps- och språkutveckling.

This study describes multilingual students’ authentic use of their first and second languages in a translanguaging science classroom, from a sociocultural perspective. The study is ethnographic, and has followed some lessons each month in a translanguaging science classroom at a primary school for three years. The observed lessons were documented by four video cameras and four audio recorders, while field notes and different types of students’ texts and other teaching materials were also collected. In order investigate how language operates, and to realise the meaning semantically, we analysed the students’ use of both first and second language to tie paradigmatic relations, and how they move in linguistic loops between languages and discourses. The results illustrate the ways in which a translanguaging science classroom constitutes a resource in joint negotiations of the scientific content and its related language for multilingual students, and benefits the students’ ability to relate and contextualise the science content to prior experience. The creation of translanguaging science classrooms, in which students’ experiences and diverse cultural and linguistic resources interweave with school science, and in which multilingual students are enabled and encouraged to use all available language resources, has important implications for science education.

Ofta betonar man skillnaderna mellan dels vardagsspråk och skolspråk, dels muntlig och skriftlig kommunikation. Man brukar då framhäva hur utmanande ämnesspråk och skriftliga ämnestexter är för många elever. Denna artikel betonar att det handlar om gradskillnader snarare än motsatsförhållanden, och artikeln visar hur muntlig kommunikation kan användas som en didaktisk resurs, för elevers ämneslärande och språkutveckling. Artikeln har fokus på helklassamtal och gruppsamtal och ger fördjupande exempel från undervisning. Innehållet rör alla lärare och elever eftersom utvecklingen av ett kunskapsrelaterat språk är en generell utmaning i skolan. Arbetssätten som beskrivs i artikeln är till stor del generella och exemplen som ges är möjliga att modifiera inom ramen för olika skolämnen. Artikeln är inte minst relevant för lärare som undervisar elever som ännu inte har kommit så långt i sin skolspråksutveckling på svenska språket, och därför kan behöva särskild stöttning. Detta innefattar bland annat många nyanlända elever. 

En av artikelns utgångspunkter är att språk- och kunskapsutveckling sker i progression genom skolåren, samtidigt som språkanvändning handlar om att i olika situationer och för olika ändamål ständigt röra sig fram och tillbaka mellan olika uttryckssätt och synsätt (Nygård Larsson, 2018). I artikeln presenteras först kortfattat några teoretiska modeller och därefter ges konkreta exempel på hur utforskande elevaktiviteter och gruppsamtal kan följas av helklassamtal, som sedan i sin tur fördjupas genom elevers läsning och skrivande av ämnesrelaterade skriftliga texter och uppgifter. I artikeln beskrivs också hur denna progression vävs samman med en ständig växling mellan innehållsliga dimensioner och uttryckssätt. Denna ständiga växling kan liknas vid vågrörelser, och artikeln illustrerar och exemplifierar hur detta kan användas som en didaktisk resurs och strategi.

Alla elever, oavsett val av skola och egen bakgrund, har rätt till goda möjligheter att utveckla såväl sina kunskaper som sina språkliga resurser inom ramen för våra svenskämnen – men också i skolans alla andra ämnen. Ytterst är det en central demokratisk fråga. Skriftliga texter i skolan, inte minst inom det naturvetenskapliga ämnesområdet, kännetecknas ofta av en hög grad av informationstäthet, abstraktion och teknikalitet (t.ex. af Geijerstam, 2006). En språk- och textmedveten ämnesundervisning är därför en viktig förutsättning för elevers lärande och språkutveckling (Nygård Larsson, 2011). Skolans ämneslärare har en central uppgift i att utmana och stödja elevernas utveckling av ett kunskapsrelaterat skolspråk, vilket kan förstås som ett komplext samspel mellan kunskapsutveckling och språkutveckling (t.ex. Macnaught, Maton, Martin & Matruglio, 2013). I den här presentationen utforskar jag, ur olika perspektiv, kunskapsrelaterat språkbruk. Därefter redovisas resultat från ett större designbaserat forskningsprojekt (Science and Literacy Teaching, SALT, Vetenskapsrådet). I synnerhet fokuseras helklassamtal mellan lärare och elever i naturvetenskaplig undervisning (årskurs 7). Läraren i projektet arbetar med att öka elevernas engagemang liksom deras medvetenhet om naturvetenskapliga uttryckssätt och synsätt. Resultaten från analyser av helklassamtal visar på en dynamisk språkanvändning där språket i vågliknande rörelser gradvis rör sig mot mer ämnesspecifika och skriftspråksliknande uttryckssätt, framförallt i form av en mer nominaliserad naturvetenskaplig diskurs. Referenser: af Geijerstam, Å. (2006). Att skriva i naturorienterande ämnen i skolan. Uppsala Universitet. Macnaught, L., Maton, K., Martin, R. J. & Matruglio, E. (2013). Jointly Constructing Semantic Waves: Implica­tions for Teacher Training. Linguistics and Education, 24 (1). Nygård Larsson, P. (2011). Biologiämnets texter. Text, språk och lärande i en språkligt heterogen gymnasiek­lass. Malmö högskola/Lunds universitet.

Content area teachers have a crucial task in promoting students’ building of disciplinary knowledge and language. This paper explores, on an elaborated theoretical foundation, how subject-specific knowledge and discourse in educational contexts may be discerned and promoted. The study draws on data from an interdisciplinary design-based three-year research project. Teacher–student interaction in a lower secondary science classroom is examined, and findings from analyzed video-recorded data reveal the complex use of semiotic resources. The teacher seeks to promote student participation and raise awareness about scientific discourse. In this paper, the verbal teacher–student interaction is visualized and described, and the results display a dynamic language use, revealing how the discourse, in wavelike patterns, gradually moves towards dense nominalized expressions, aligned with the features of disciplinary discourse. The results contribute to the understanding of content area teachers’ discourse strategies when they seek to facilitate the development of disciplinary knowledge and language.

Around the world, programs have been developed for science teachers’ work on literacy in multilingual settings with the assumption that science teachers need an understanding and a repertoire to move between daily and scientific discourses. This poster presentation reports from a project which aims to gain a better understanding of the development of literacy in science teaching through the study of meaning construction in multilingual secondary classrooms in which teacher, students and texts interact. To that end, leading experts in the field of text analyses, science pedagogy, second language learning and educational linguistics, join their forces in a double case study. These different perspectives on scientific literacy are starting point for small-scale interventions that analyses the interaction of teacher, student and task characteristics. Data is generated through mixed-method approach and include video recording of teachers planning meetings and classroom practice (whole class and student group work) along with questionnaires. Furthermore is students’ written work collected and interviews with teachers and focus group interviews with students. The quantitative data comprises of multiple-choice tests where three types of words chosen from students’ textbooks are probed: science concepts, homonyms and general academic words. The preliminary results indicate that time spent in the Swedish school system is decisive; it is almost a linear correlation between results on word tests and the time the students have learned Swedish. Furthermore, it seems that the general academic words raise the greatest challenges. The analysis of the teachers’ professional development make use of the interconnected model for professional growth (Clarke & Hollingsworth, 2002) and the results indicate that although the teachers had extensive experience in teaching multilingual students they broaden their competence with new insights an teaching strategies.

In order to use and understand a scientific language students need the ability to move between everyday and scientific discourses. This article analyses exploratory talks, and use of language when students collaboratively discuss a science assignment. The aim is to develop an analytical tool that can facilitate understanding and visualization of students' language use. The concepts of discursive mobility (Nygård Larsson, 2011) and semantic waves (Martin, 2013; Maton, 2013) constitute the starting point in the analysis and the students’ discussions are explored by using the concepts of semantic gravity and semantic density. The results display that all of the students’ conversations contain a certain degree of discursive mobility. However, there exists differences in how the conversations move between everyday and scientific languages and in terms of how successful the students are to formulate a specific subject language. In some conversations, everyday expressions become a productive resource and a bridge to a more scientific language.

Multilingualism as a resource in the science classroom This study has two main aims. The first is to study and analyze authentic student conversations in a natural science teaching context in which second language learners are able to use both their first and second languages. The second is to examine whether switching between languages could be a resource for the students’ learning in the subject and, if so, in what ways. An underlying aim concerns how code-switching can help students to bridge the differences between everyday modes of language and more scientific modes. The analysis focused on 28 typical and representative code-switching situations between Swedish and Arabic, which arose in authentic science instruction situations. Transcription was performed together with an Arabic-speaking language teacher. The functions of the selected code-switching situations were analyzed based on a study of Appel and Muysken (2005). However, quantifying and categorizing code-switching situations based on their functions proved problematic. The analysis revealed the functional complexity of code-switching, whereby one code-switch often serves several different functions simultaneously; this is also consistent with previous research (Cromdal, 2000; Gumperz, 1982; Rampton, 2014). Instead, our analysis focused on the students’ linguistic movement between and within different discourses in the natural science learning. We used two main discourses: the students’ everyday practical experience of the world, and the natural science subject-specific discourse that students encounter in the school science instruction context. We also used discourses related to students’ social and cultural backgrounds. To describe students’ ability to move between discourses, we use the term discursive mobility (Nygård Larsson, 2011). The study was conducted with students at a multicultural school, where all of the students are multilingual, located on the outskirts of a large Swedish town. During data collection, the natural science subject was “photosynthesis, combustion, and ecological relationships.” In an attempt to create a language development instruction, the teacher used a genre pedagogical approach (Rose & Martin, 2012). The study followed 11 science education lessons using three video cameras and two voice recorders, and the collected material comprises to a total of 28.5 hours of student conferences and teaching sequences. Student texts and instructional materials were also collected. The analysis showed that most of the 28 different code-switching situations were used in order to increase the understanding of the natural science subject matters. The analysis also indicates that concretizing and relating the subject matters to everyday events helps the students understand abstract concepts, and is therefore a resource in the learning process. This is usually done by using both languages and often in code-switching between languages. In other words, the switching between first- and second language facilitates the use of the available languages, and helps increase students’ communicative spectrum which is supported in previous research (Creese & Blackledge, 2010; Wigerfelt & Morgan, 2011). Code-switching occurs within linguistic loops between discourses, which are an important condition to describe and develop new knowledge in the field. The students’ everyday experiences are often expressed using their first language, which means that the linguistic loops constitute a movement both between national languages and different discourses or use of language (modes of expression). On a more general level, it appears as though the students’ ability to use all their linguistic resources expands their discursive mobility (Nygård Larsson, 2011). Linking the natural science subject content with the students’ own experience enables code-switching, which, in turn, enables the students to contextualize subject matter as a precondition for deeper understanding. We can see important implications in relation to the results of the study. For example, the fact that some newly arrived students had started their schooling, and developed a basic knowledge of science, in their home country offered the opportunity to continue the development of knowledge in a language that makes this possible. We will therefor assert a flexible and multilingual education, where multilingualism and code-switching is perceived as a resource to support such development. Creating an expanded continuity between previous education, language development in both languages, and subject-specific teaching, leads to improved achievement for these students. Our study suggests that teaching situations that allow and encourage switching between languages and different modes of expressions can be an important tool in this development.

Den studie (Nygård Larsson & Jakobsson, under arbete) som presenteras ingår i ett större tvärvetenskapligt projekt som fokuserar språkliga perspektiv på elevers lärande i naturvetenskapliga ämnen. Fokus i studien är några elevgruppers utforskande samtal kring ett naturvetenskapligt ämnesinnehåll. Syftet med studien är att pröva och utveckla ett analytiskt verktyg för analys och beskrivning av elevers språkanvändning när de gruppvis resonerar muntligt kring en naturvetenskaplig skoluppgift. I fokus är alltså hur eleverna resonerar kring innehållet och vilka språkliga resurser man använder i resonemanget. Begreppen diskursiv rörlighet (Nygård Larsson, 2011) och semantiska vågor (Martin, 2013; Maton, 2013) utgör därför utgångspunkt. Båda begreppen är grundade i systemiskfunktionell lingvistik (Halliday & Matthiessen, 2004) och rör elevers rörelser mellan vardagliga och mer vetenskapliga diskurser. Semantiska vågor beskriver transformationen av kunskap som en vågliknande rörelse mellan mer vardaglig, konkret och kontextnära betydelse samt mer förtätad och abstrakt betydelse. Semantiska vågor avser styrkan hos två faktorer: semantisk gravitation och semantisk densitet. I studien undersöks elevsamtalen med avseende på grad av semantisk gravitation och semantisk densitet. Resultaten visar att alla elevsamtal uppvisar viss rörlighet. Det finns dock skillnader i hur samtalen rör sig fram och tillbaka, och i hur framgångsrik man är i att formulera en mer ämnesspecifik utsaga. I vissa fall blir vardagligt språk tydligt en resurs och en brygga. I andra fall gynnar det inte rörligheten på samma sätt.

Eleverna utvecklar kunskaper i NO med hjälp av språk och text. Eleverna lyssnar, talar, läser och skriver. Varje skolämne har sina typiska texter som är funktionella i just det ämnet. Denna del behandlar texter i NO-ämnena. Vi diskuterar frågorna: Vilka texter ska eleverna förstå och producera i NO-ämnena? Vilka syften har NO-texterna? Vilka texttyper förekommer? Vilka särdrag har texterna? Vilka olika bilder och andra resurser samspelar med texttyperna?

Eleverna utvecklar kunskaper i SO med hjälp av språk och text. Eleverna lyssnar, talar, läser och skriver. Varje skolämne har sina typiska texter som är funktionella i just det ämnet. Denna del behandlar texter i SO-ämnena.

Vi som har skrivit denna artikel är alla verksamma inom forskningsmiljön Svenska med didaktisk inriktning (SMDI) vid Malmö högskola. Frågor om språkutveckling i bred bemärkelse står här i centrum. För närvarande är vi engagerade i projektet ”SMDI och lärande i medielandskapet 2.0”. Vår teoretiska plattform kan beskrivas som medieekologisk, vilket kortfattat uttryckt innebär att vi är intresserade av de mångfaldiga och komplexa relationerna mellan medier och kommunikativa kompetenser (Elmfeldt & Erixon 2007; Erixon 2012; Hayles 2002). Dessa relationer förstås därför inte, som så ofta annars i skolsammanhang, i termer av enkelriktad påverkan eller effekter (exempelvis datorns och internets negativa inverkan på skriftspråket). Vår huvudpoäng i denna artikel är att medie- och informationskunnighet, MIK, handlar om, borde handla om, framför allt två saker: språkutveckling och demokrati.

I mitt föredrag vill jag diskutera flerspråkiga elevers utveckling av ämnesspråk i skolans ämnesundervisning. Jag tar här utgångspunkt i synen på språket som ett centralt lärandeverktyg och kommunikativt redskap. I diskussionen utgår jag framförallt från resultaten i min avhandling Biologiämnets texter – text, språk och lärande i en språkligt heterogen gymnasieklass (2011), som bland annat visar på att eleverna behöver ett funktionellt och ämnesrelevant språk för att nå framgång inom biologiämnet. Resultaten från studien visar även på att högre betygsnivåer kräver ett relativt självständigt och avancerat skrivande och läsande inom ramen för mer förklarande och argumenterande textaktiviteter (ang. textaktiviteter, se t.ex. Holmberg 2006, jfr genrepedagogikens genrebegrepp, t.ex. Veel 1997). Jag vill därför bland annat diskutera textaktiviteter såsom ett sätt att förstå ett skolämnes funktionella sätt att hantera sitt kunskapsområde, samt även relatera detta till flerspråkiga elevers studieframgång och behov av en språkmedveten ämnesundervisning. Referenser Holmberg, P. (2006). Funktionell grammatik för textarbete i skolan. I: I. Lindberg & K. Sandwall (red.), Språket och kunskapen – att lära på sitt andraspråk i skola och högskola. (Rapporter om svenska som andraspråk, ROSA nr 7.) Göteborg: Institutet för svenska som andraspråk. Göteborgs universitet. Nygård Larsson, P. (2011). Biologiämnets texter. Text, språk och lärande i en språkligt heterogen gymnasieklass. Doktorsavhandling i svenska med didaktisk inriktning. Malmö: Malmö högskola/Lunds universitet. Veel, R. (1997). Learning how to mean – scientifically speaking: apprenticeship into scientific discourse in the secondary school. I: F. Christie & J. R. Martin (eds.), Genre and Institutions. Social Processes in the Workplace and School. London: Continuum.

This study concerns text, language, and learning in a linguistically heterogeneous upper secondary class in Sweden where students aged 16 to 17 are studying biology. One starting point for the dissertation is the importance of language in all school subjects. Another premise is that language as a resource for learning and communication is a high challenge for students who are studying through their second language. The perspectives adopted in the dissertation are those of language and second-language didactics, and of multimodality. The dissertation is based on field notes, audio recordings, collected texts, and interviews. A major question is the extent to which the students are given the potential for coherent meaning making. Another crucial question is how different student groups succeed in the subject of biology, and their potential to move towards the use of more academic language. In the foreground of the study are text analyses in which the notions of intertextuality and recontextualization are an important foundation for understanding, and where textbook, teaching, and student texts are related to each other. The study shows, among other things, the importance of visualization of taxonomic relations, through which connections within a subject can be made explicit. The results also hint at the potential of different visual representations to bridge the gap between everyday and more scientific modes of expression. Mobility between and within discourses can thus be viewed as multimodal. The dissertation also uses the notion of text activities, which can be compared to the Sydney School`s concept of genre. The findings reveal relatively large differences between different chapters in the biology textbook, with regard to text activities, linguistic features, and the degree of multimodality. Differences thus arise in the degree to which these texts are a challenge to the reader. The findings show, moreover, that different images can be regarded as visual text activities and can thus be analysed on the level of text structure. The discrepancy between different student groups in the class is relatively large. The second-language students rarely achieve high grade levels. Lower grades, in turn, mean that standards are set relatively low for written work, and there is also strong teacher mediation at this level. Higher grade levels, on the other hand, require more advanced text activities and more independent reflexive writing and reading. The latter indicates a need for explicit metadiscursive discussions in the classroom. The results also suggest a need for broader language and text production, especially for second-language students.

Presentationen utgår från ett pågående etnografiskt inriktat avhandlingsarbete, där det övergripande syftet är att undersöka flerspråkiga gymnasieelevers textmöten och textskapande i framförallt skolämnet biologi. Projektets teoretiska inramning är främst sociokulturell och socialsemiotisk. Utifrån ett vidgat textbegrepp ses texter som situerade och multimodala, vilket bland annat innebär att såväl klassrumsinteraktionen som bilder är av betydelse för undersökningen. I föreliggande presentation fokuseras de intertextuella relationerna i biologiklassrummet, vilket betyder att jag kommer att resonera kring de transformationer som sker i mötet mellan lärobok och övriga klassrumstexter i de aktuella lärandekontexterna. De frågor jag söker svar på i den här presentationen är följande: vilka texter och textrelationer skapas i det interaktionella mötet i biologiklassrummet och hur kan detta påverka förutsättningarna för meningsskapande?

Denna artikel har sin utgångspunkt i ett pågående avhandlingsprojekt, där det övergripande syftet är att ur ett andraspråksperspektiv samt utifrån en vidgad textsyn undersöka gymnasieelevers textmöten och textskapande i ämnet biologi. Artikeln har inspirerats av socialsemiotiska och multimodala teorier, och inledningsvis redogörs kort för begreppen tematiska mönster och semiotiska resurser, vars tillämplighet sedan prövas analytiskt. Syftet är att utröna några semiotiska resursers betydelse för skapandet av explicita tematiska mönster i lärartext och lärobok. Analysen visar på att de visuella resurserna spelar en betydande roll i de undersökta klassrumssekvenserna. Genom bland annat två grafiska overheadbilder uttrycks taxonomiska relationer av läraren på ett mer explicit sätt än vad som är fallet i läroboken. Dessa overheadbilder utgör därmed centrala multimodala resurser i det de får en strukturerande funktion i undervisningen, samtidigt som de konkretiserar och kontextualiserar innehållet. Analysen av en enskild lektionssekvens visar därutöver på en viss spänning mellan olika semiotiska resurser. Med ett multimodalt lärobokuppslag som startpunkt, samt utifrån delvis olika syften, vävs skrift, bild och konkreta föremål samman i klassrumsgenomgången på ett dynamiskt sätt. De visuella resurserna i form av bilder och föremål har här delvis en utvidgande och fördjupande funktion som till viss del riskerar att skymma de semantiska relationerna, vilket kan sägas vara en del av det multimodala klassrummets utmaningar.

Många har uppmärksammat det naturvetenskapliga klassrummets multimodalitet, och det framgår även i mitt avhandlingsmaterial att många olika semiotiska resurser bidrar till att realisera biologiämnet. Samtidigt är det uppenbart att det talade och skrivna språket har stor betydelse i klassrummet. Min konferenspresentation utgår från ett pågående avhandlingsarbete med etnografisk ansats, där det övergripande syftet är att undersöka en- och flerspråkiga gymnasieelevers textmöten och textskapande i framförallt biologi. Projektets teoretiska inramning är främst sociokulturell och socialsemiotisk. Utifrån ett vidgat textbegrepp ses texter som situerade och multimodala, vilket föranleder frågor kring hur ett ”biologispråk” ska beskrivas. I tidigare presentationer har jag framför allt fokuserat det visuellas betydelse i undervisningstexterna. Denna presentation rör elevtexter samt teoretiska ingångar i språkliga textanalyser.