Supporting teachers to scaffold students’ language for mathematical learning

Abstract

Teachers often are unaware of language issues and avoid linguistic challenges in their classrooms to focus on mathematics (e.g., Van Eerde et al., 2008). Specifically, teachers typically do not attend to the language students need for mathematical learning, and rarely know how to support the development of subject-specific language required for mathematical learning (e.g., Hajer & Norén, 2017). Yet students, especially those with low language proficiency, require support from teachers within this subject because shortcomings in subject-specific language can impede their development of mathematical understanding (Moschkovich, 2010). Despite the importance of improving language-responsive teaching, there is a profound lack of opportunity for teachers to develop the required teaching practices, especially in mathematics (Essien et al., 2016). The required teaching practices integrate language learning and mathematics in a domain-specific way (Van Eerde & Hajer, 2009). Although there are some insights into the professional development of secondary school teachers (e.g., Prediger, 2019), relatively little is known about how to support primary school teachers in realizing languageresponsive teaching. This chapter provides insights into how teachers can be supported within a professional development program (PDP), focusing on genre awareness and scaffolding students’ language for mathematical learning.