“I must speak German, if I don’t, they cry!” Bilingualism as a cultural responsive pedagogy

Abstract

This research investigates if code switching is used in a first elementary school class, in a bilingual context and if it constitutes a cultural responsive pedagogic strategy . With that purpose, classroom activities were both video and audio taped, regularly, once a week, during the period of one semester. The classes are made up of three main moments: initial sharing time activities, activities developed at the tables and final sharing time activities. This analysis of interaction reveals the occurrence of code switching with the main function of maintaining the course of interaction (Auer, 1988) which is then interpreted as a strategy of cultural responsive pedagogy (Bortoni-Ricardo e Dettoni, 2001), giving voice and opportunity as well as welcoming the children who are from a different linguistic reality in which the use of German predominates, in contrast to the obligation of using Portuguese in the school. Key words: interaction, code switching, cultural responsive pedagogy.