Dissertation Defense Announcement Ed.D. Program: Rosalyn Giallanza “Multilingual Learners and Mathematical Discourse: A Qualitative Study Examining Elementary Teacher Beliefs and Practices”
Despite the research suggesting that multilingual learners benefit from opportunities to engage in conversation about mathematics, these practices are often not implemented in early elementary classrooms. Few studies have focused on the intersection of general elementary teachers’ understanding of multilingual learners, the teaching of mathematics, and how they encourage mathematical discourse with this population. This qualitative interview study aimed to explore elementary teachers’ beliefs about multilingual learners, their approach to teaching mathematics and discourse, and how they conceptualize and respond to the linguistic features of mathematics.
To understand teachers’ beliefs and practices about multilingual learners, mathematics teaching, and discourse, 10 first to third-grade elementary school teachers were interviewed over four months. In the interviews, teachers were asked to talk about a lesson plan they used to elicit math talk, and to examine a word problem and how they would support multilingual learners in navigating the linguistic features of the task. Memos, graphics, tables, and other visuals were employed iteratively to analyze coded interviews and lesson plans for each research question.
Findings show that teachers’ facilitation of mathematical discussions with multilingual students depends on their perceptions of mathematics and the capacities of their students. Regardless of their views on multilingual learners’ abilities, teachers mainly used a limited range of conventional strategies to engage all students in mathematical discussions. These findings suggest that professional development for teachers should be centered simultaneously on understanding multilingual learners, the language utilized in mathematics, and improving teachers’ grasp and use of discourse practices.
Keywords: multilingual learners, mathematics, language, linguistics, language of mathematics, discourse, teacher beliefs, teacher practice, word problems