Talking to learn: The hidden curriculum of a fifth-grade science class

•Study explores a recurring discourse event in a Grade 5 Science classroom.•Classroom discursive practices developed from wider cultural contexts of science discipline and local, immediate activity.•Academic challenges during discourse events often products of local culture.•English learners in science class required to learn to interpret and use multiple semiotic resources.•Findings point to the lack of transparency in presenting rules and norms of discursive practice.

Grounded in sociocultural perspectives on language and learning, this study explores a recurring discourse event—student-led presentations in a US Grade 5 Science classroom—in order to better understand how discursive practices of a classroom might shape and challenge the learning experience of ESL learners. Findings show that discursive practices are developed not only from the wider cultural contexts of the discipline of science, but also from the local, immediate activity. Accordingly, academic challenges during the discourse events are products of local culture, as well as the broader academic field. The findings of this study point to the lack of transparency in the presentation of rules and norms of practice and expose the need for teachers to constantly self-evaluate their practice to increase this transparency in rules and norms of the classroom in order to promote the socialization of English learners into the community.