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

• Published in: Journal of education (Durban) Vol. 2024; no. 97; pp. 243 - 260
• Main Authors: Sibanda, Jabulani, Chikiwa, Clemence
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: University of KwaZulu-Natal 30.01.2025; University of KwaZulu-Natal on behalf of the South African Education Research Association
• Subjects: Education & Educational Research; Education, Scientific Disciplines; Education, Special; Languaging; Monolingual; Multilingual; semiotic and linguistic repertoire; monolingual; semiotic and linguistic repertoire; languaging; multilingual
• ISSN: 0259-479X; 2520-9868; 2520-9868
• DOI: 10.17159/2520-9868/i97a12

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.