What is the role of language in teaching and learning?

1. In many classrooms where students and teacher do not fully share a common language for classroom instruction, a double bind can develop. For students, the language of the classrooms can seem opaque : rather than providing an accessible medium to work with new academic content, the language itself can introduce a formidable barrier. For their teacher, on the other hand, the language of instruction can seem a relatively transparent medium through which teaching is done. So the ‘double bind’ comes down to students working to learn the language as they are trying to learn the content, while teachers work to teach the content while they are actually de facto teaching the language. For students who understand and control the medium of instruction, language can be a relatively transparent window into the content, social processes, and relationships in the classroom.