Categories and language choice in multilingual classrooms: the relevance of ‘teacher-hood’

Abstract

This paper introduces Membership Categorisation Analysis to the study of language choice in multilingual classrooms. Building on the argument developed in studies of bilingual talk in non-educational settings that language choice is a category-bound activity, it aims to investigate the extent to which categories are relevant to language choice and alternation acts in multilingual classrooms. The discussion is based on a case study of an induction classroom for newly arrived immigrant children in France where multiple languages are used in addition to French, the language prescribed by the school language policy. A Membership Categorisation Analysis of a corpus of interaction audio-recorded in this classroom shows that the category ‘teacher-hood’ (a term I propose to refer to ‘doing being’ the teacher) is relevant to language choice and alternation acts. More specifically, in this classroom, language choice acts are bound to the category ‘teacher-hood’ and the co-selective relationship between ‘teacher-hood’ and language choice is used by the classroom participants as a ‘practiced language policy’; that is, as a way to know what language(s) is appropriate in interaction. I further show how the classroom participants creatively play with the performance of ‘teacher-hood’ to allow multiple languages in interaction.

Keywords:

• membership categorisation analysis
• language choice
• multilingualism
• classroom talk
• language policy
• France

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank the organisers of the panel at the 8th International Symposium of Bilingualism in which this paper was first presented, Professor Marilyn Martin-Jones and Dr. Mukul Saxena. I am also indebted to the Economic and Social Science Research Council of the United Kingdom for supporting this project through a PhD full studentship and a Post-Doctoral Fellowship (PTA-026-27-2638). I am also grateful to the classroom participants who agreed to take part in this project.

Notes

1. Norm is understood here from an Ethnomethodological/Conversation Analytic perspective as “a point of reference or action template for interpretation” (Seedhouse 2004, 10).