In a newcomer high school for Latino students that has a bilingual curriculum (Bartlett and García, 2011), the Science teacher uses a book written in English, as well as English-language material on earthquakes available online, as she teaches in ‘Spanish’. An example of the classroom discourse follows.
Teacher:
Student1:
Teacher: Student 2:
Teacher: Student:
Hit the bar. Vamos con el foco. ¿Quién me puede leer lo que dice el foco, en inglés?
[Let’s go to the focus. Who can read to me what the focus is in English?].
(Reads in English) Earthquakes are usually caused when rock underground suddenly breaks along a fault. The spot underground where the rock breaks is called the focus of the earthquake.
What does it say?
Focus is