Close encounters of a bilingual kind: interactional practices in the primary classroom in Brunei

Abstract

Little is known about the effectiveness of the interactional systems through which meaning is constructed in classrooms in multilingual contexts. Although language can be `planned', the actual discourse of the classroom is `unplanned'. It is well-attested that the discourse of the upper primary classroom in Brunei includes the use of Malay alongside the official language of the classroom, English. This paper argues that as talk is potentially the most valuable resource in the classroom, educational planning should take into account the existing communicative practices in the classroom.