Classroom communities, language choices and accessibility to discourse: the case of a multi-ethnic/multilingual class of a private school in Cyprus

Abstract

The paper reports on the results of a case study of a Year 9 class in a multilingual urban school. The study investigates issues of negotiation, accessibility and (legitimacy of) rights in the classroom’s dominant discourse and more specifically the ways in which the Year 9 students of a Private English School in Cyprus negotiate their identity through language choices and interaction in class. Focus is placed on choices or interactions that shape their positioning within the group’s whole and the school’s social landscape. The analysis revealed that the use of different codes functioned as different forms of power and legitimacy

the use of Cypriot Greek reflected the social value of solidarity and membership in the dominant community while English reflected power in terms of academic achievement and access and power in classroom discourse. The language of instruction appeared to have two-fold functions: it was both a code of access but at the same time a code of exclusion. The linguistic practices/choices employed by Greek Cypriot and non-Greek Cypriot students were linked to images of social groups and identities that reflected the multi-layered forms of participation in the school landscape.