Who shoulders the linguistic burden? An investigation into verbal scaffolding strategies in the subject classroom

For international students participation in academic seminars can be challenging. Teachers therefore have the responsibility to create linguistic bridges, so-called ‘scaffolds’, to support student learning and encourage participation. On the basis of a small-scale practitioner enquiry, this article argues however, that in the attempt to build such verbal support structures, some subject teachers (particularly if they are not experienced in language teaching) might actually run the risk of ‘smoothing’ out conversation to such an extent that learning opportunities for both language and content are restricted.