Mediation and Mode Continuum in Primary Bilingual (English and Italian) Education

This article takes its cue from the conceptual framework of mediation (sociocultural theory) and mode continuum (systemic functional linguistics) to investigate the stu dent-teacher interaction and how this interaction serves the learner’s language and the co-constructing of knowledge. Through an analysis of observations, transcriptions, and materials, the study also examines the features of multimodality (e.g., student-written language, student-spoken language, and the teacher’s language and visuals) in the fea tured lessons.