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In the past years a new youth language has appeared on multi-ethnic secondary schools in the Netherlands. In this language words, pronunciation and grammar derived from the languages of immigrant groups are mixed with Dutch. Until now, research on this 'street language' has mainly focussed on describing this new linguistic phenomenon. In the present article two questions are posed. How prevalent is street language? And what is its social meaning? To answer these questions a large scale survey was conducted among the pupils of 86 school classes.

Realistic math education values active pupil participation in classroom interaction. This participation is also seen as crucial within second language acquisition theory and forms the basis of the content-based approach to language teaching. In this article the question was raised whether a symbiosis of these two approaches could be observed in math education in a multilingual classroom. Analyses showed a variety of teacher strategies, promoting student participation and thus creating opportunities for language production in whole group activities, one important prerequisite for language learning in content classes. However, two conditions for simultaneous language acquisition in math classes were not found: first, negotiation of meaning to make written texts and assignments accessible and comprehensible and second, feedback on the linguistic form of student utterances. The assumptions of the teacher about the value of active student participation would thus need refinement in order to turn his lessons into a learning environment that would be beneficial for both math and language learning.