Fluid Multilingualism: Classroom Talk in English and French Classes in England, France and Norway

Despite indications that creating opportunities for student talk in language classrooms is crucial for language development and educational outcomes, few studies have compared the amount of student talk in first (L1) and second or foreign (L2/L3) language classrooms. To address this gap, this article presents findings from the large‐scale European project LANGUAGES. By using a sociocultural lens on classroom talk in 48 secondary classrooms of English and French, we examined 192 video‐recorded lessons in England, France and Norway among students aged 13–15 years. We conducted descriptive and inferential statistics and identified a striking contrast. On average, student talk accounted for 20% of the total lesson time (regardless of L1 versus L2/L3 contexts), while teachers talked more than twice as much (58% in L1 contexts; 42% in L2/L3 contexts). We found significant differences between countries and languages for teacher and student talk. Students mainly talked in the L1, even in L2/L3 contexts, while using the target language (TL) sporadically. Teachers also predominantly used the L1, except in L2 English contexts. However, while we observed infrequent use of other languages, students and teachers regularly engaged in fluid language mixing of L1/TL, which we propose can increase student talk in L2/L3 classrooms.