Language Practices of Trilingual Undergraduate Students: Engaging One Task in Three Languages

Abstract

This paper explores how and why some trilingual undergraduate students of mathematics use their languages to make sense of mathematics. The paper draws from a wider study focusing on language practices of undergraduate students of mathematics in Kenya. The notion of Discourse analysis is used as an analytic tool to describe and explain the language practices of two students. In a country like Kenya where majority students acquire trilingualism through schooling, a practice is advanced where home languages are dominant languages of thinking and understanding tasks, the national language supports communication; while English, the language of learning and teaching, is a language of external communication. Further research on language practices in trilingual context is recommended.