Bilingual life in a multilingual high school classroom: Teaching and learning in Cantonese and English

This paper explores the ways in which a group of Cantonese- speaking math students and their Cantonese-speaking teacher use different languages to achieve academic and social success in their multilingual classroom. It also discusses the inter-ethnic/interracial tensions that are related to the use of languages other than English in the multilingual classroom and raises questions around the advantages and disadvantages of multilingual teaching practices in terms of issues of accommodation and equity in multilingual, multicultural educational settings. In conclusion, ii seems that action and teacher research projects on negotiating language practices in multilingual classrooms are very much needed.