Chapter 17: Doing Mathematics Across Languages: Exploring Possibilities for Supporting Emergent Bilinguals’ Mathematical Communication and Engagement

Given the growing number of students learning English as an additional language in public schools across the United States (National Center for Education Statistics, 2012), all teachers must be well equipped for the complex task of teaching emergent bilinguals (see García, Kleifgen, & Falchi, 2008, for a discussion of using emergent bilinguals versus English Language Learners). Teachers often look at their subject through language but rarely at the language required to interact with the content (Lucas, Villegas, & Freedson-Gonzalez, 2008). Language is the primary mode by which teachers make sense of content and students’ interactions with content, yet they rarely explicitly examine the essential role language plays in teaching and learning. Planning effective lessons for emergent bilinguals necessitates focusing on language, and teacher educators play an important role in guiding prospective teachers (PTs) to explore how language and other modes of communication mediate academic learning (Lucas et al., 2008). In this chapter, we, three mathematics teacher educators (MTEs), describe one of our efforts to look at language in our secondary mathematics methods courses.