Socialisation through teacher talk in an Australian bilingual class

Abstract

This paper analyses the language practices of a teacher in an Italian bilingual class. The children were learning Italian in Year One of elementary school. The teacher consistently spoke Italian with the children. The description of the teacher's talk shows how she used Italian for classroom management, for instructions, for teaching subject content and for personal exchanges. The analysis reveals the significance of ongoing classroom activities for language learning. Italian was spoken in contexts familiar to students and consistent with and coherent with school practices. Students heard and observed Italian as part of normal classroom activities. Italian was embedded in the social practices of classroom encounters. The paper proposes that children's experiences of classroom talk socialises them into the discourses of classroom activities and of school subjects. The children learnt Italian through observation and participation. This was a process of apprenticeship into using Italian for making meaning in social practices. From this perspective, the children were learning to mean in Italian through their participation in the social practices of the class.