| In the literature on children's second language learning, research indicates that it can take on average four to eight years for second language students to reach a level of proficiency in academic English comparable to that of native speakers at the same age. Although the study of the language of school is extensive, it is only in recent years that researchers have begun to consider post-structuralist theories of language and language learning to understand this lengthy process. Through a longitudinal case study of one grade eight science classroom in a multilingual, inner city school context, I argue that Bakhtin's theory of language provides new perspectives on academic language learning. Using data collected over an eight month period in the classroom in the form of interviews, recorded classroom talk, and observations, I conceptualize the demands of academic language learning from a Bakhtinian perspective which considers questions of language and power in terms of a complex dialogue of the self and the other. By characterizing academic language in terms of three fundamental Bakhtinian concepts, dialogue, genre, and heteroglossia, I illustrate how the students and teacher in this science classroom struggled to appropriate the discourse of science. Specifically, I consider how the teacher's beliefs and practices with regard to language and science as well as the larger contextual demands and constraints on the teacher influenced the learning and teaching of scientific discourse in the classroom; I demonstrate how the demands of this mainstream science classroom can be analyzed through Bakhtin's notions of genre and internally persuasive and authoritative discourse; and through the notion of heteroglossia, I argue that learning academic language involved learning to negotiate and interact with the multiplicity of voices in the classroom, voices that often limit the students' opportunities to use and learn this discourse, and voices that have significant implications for the development of their identities. Finally, I discuss the implications of this view of academic language learning for classroom practice at the middle school level, especially with regard to the teaching of second language students in content classrooms. |
