Research indicates that encouraging translanguaging can enhance learning in a range of contexts. However, there are few studies examining translanguaging for learning among newcomers in science education. This case study fills this research gap by examining in what ways a newcomer to the school uses translanguaging practices with his classmate to participate more fully in a linguistically diverse physics classroom, where neither the teacher nor a majority of the students share the same home language. The data comprises transcriptions of video and audio recordings and photographs from nine physics lessons (students aged 14–15 years). Translanguaging practices Footnote¹ were identified and analyzed from a sociocultural perspective. Benito, the newcomer, spontaneously used English, Swedish, Spanish and Portuguese and prior knowledge in creative ways in interactions with his classmate during pair work, something that was not possible in whole class instruction. Multilingual peer dialogue, multilingual private speech and the use of multilingual artifacts increased learning opportunities. Moreover, Benito and his classmate Edin engaged in exploratory talk and demonstrated metalinguistic awareness. This study indicates that teachers who actively facilitate the use of students' multiple linguistic resources for sensemaking can contribute to a more egalitarian education and increase opportunities for learning in linguistically diverse classrooms.

Students’ and teachers’ meaning making in science classrooms is dependent on language in a broad, multimodal, sense, comprising specialized lexicogrammar and ways of using semiotic resources such as models, diagrams, and subject specific symbols. Altogether, the multimodal demands of science can be challenging, in particular for students learning the language of instruction in parallel with the subject content. Yet, multimodal perspectives are scarce in research concerning science learning in linguistically diverse classrooms, where several students are educated in their second language. Drawing on designs for learning theory, the interaction in a linguistically diverse physics classroom was analyzed through the Learning Design Sequence model to investigate the teacher’s design for learning for students’ meaning-making about ‘sound’. Thereto, students’ ‘signs of learning’ regarding subject content and how to communicate content in line with the discourse of science was analyzed. The teacher’s design for learning gave the students opportunities to interact about content by use of different semiotic modes, with gradually higher demands regarding both content and how to express the content which appeared to support students’ development of content knowledge and competency to express this knowledge in line with the discourse of science. However, some of the teacher’s choices appeared to be a hindrance for the students.

I denna studie undersöks hur två mellanstadielärare i intervjuer talar om flerspråkande i skolarbetet före och efter en intervention. Materialet är insamlat inom ett samverkansprojekt mellan Linnéuniversitetet och två olika F–6-skolor på initiativ av en kommuns utbildningsförvaltning. Själva interventionen pågick i två språkligt heterogena klasser under 14 veckor i syfte att ge stöd till respektive lärare att i större utsträckning tillvarata flerspråkiga resurser i skolarbetet. Intervjuerna analyseras med hjälp av kvalitativ innehållsanalys, som i sin tur tolkas och diskuteras med hjälp av Ruíz (1984) tre olika förhållningssätt till språk och språkanvändning som problem, rättighet eller resurs. Studiens resultat diskuteras också utifrån begreppen epistemisk rättvisa (Fricker, 2007, 2017) och inkluderande undervisning (Ainscow & Messiou, 2018; Kugelmass, 2006). Resultatet visar att lärarna efter interventionen uttrycker att de i högre grad erbjuder flerspråkande i skolarbetet, vilket kan tolkas som ett exempel på inkluderande undervisning som ökar den epistemiska rättvisan för såväl elever som vårdnadshavare med migrationsbakgrund. Emellertid ger båda lärarna fortsatt uttryck för flerspråkigheten som en villkorad resurs, något som tillfälligt kan användas av de elever som ännu inte lärt sig tillräckligt med svenska.