Evolution of classroom languaging over the years: Prospects for teaching mathematics differently

Abstract

In this theoretical paper, we trace diverse language practices representative of equally diverse conceptions of
language. To be dynamic with languaging, one should appreciate nuanced languaging practices, their
challenges, and prospects. Here, we present what we envision as three major conceptions of language that give
impetus to diverse language practices. We examine theoretical models of the bilingual mental lexicon and how
they inform languaging practices that have been promulgated and experimented with over the years. We proceed
on the premise that interactive and dynamic languaging depends on one’s nuanced beliefs, assumptions, and
understandings of the concept of language, how languaging has evolved over the years, and the diverse learner
profiles and the linguistic resources they bring. Because languaging is an evolving phenomenon, it is disruptive
and fluid since it responds to the complexities of human experience and socio-cultural, technological, and
environmental shifts characterising those experiences. Languaging offers prospects for creativity and
innovation, as well as linguistic flexibility. Using mathematics as a proxy for languaging, we advocate for the
deployment of multisensory semiotic systems to complement linguistic classroom communication and an
acknowledgment of the validity of learners’ linguistic and semiotic resources in the learning enterprise. We
demonstrate how many different linguistic, semiotic, and symbolic resources converge in classroom languaging,
and how dynamic languaging has a constant and dialogic shift between and among known languages, and
between formal and informal language in a fluid nature. We recommend the enactment of specific multimodal
languaging clauses in education policies and curriculum documents that empower classroom interactants to
exercise discretion in languaging practices.