”Brug dine egne ord!”: hvordan gør man sig legitim som DSA-elev i historieundervisningen?

This article takes its point of departure in findings from a study in which one case of Danish as a Second Language was studied when embedded in a fifth grade History unit taught in a school with 85% bilingual students (Meidell Sigsgaard, 2013). Using Legitimation Code Theory (Maton, 2014) and systemic functional linguistics (Martin & Rose, 2007) as an analytical framework, conclusions from the study raise questions as to how the pedagogic practices support or impede students’ learning. Building on these findings, the article explores what is expected of students to be seen as ‘legitimate’ in situations where they are asked to ‘use your own words’ to demonstrate understanding. Observations from the classroom show that students must demonstrate mastery of four mental steps which are, however, both implicit and un-scaffolded, leaving students floundering from both a History and a second-language perspective.