Deficit discourse and framing of multilingual students and their academic potential is a persistent challenge in mathematics education research and practice. It is a challenge for teachers of all experience levels to learn how to use asset-based language when working with students who are learning mathematics in a non-dominant language. This article reports on a study that explored how prospective teachers (PTs) position multilingual students and their primary language when learning mathematics. The participants are elementary and secondary PTs who were introduced to and had the opportunity to practice asset-based discourse to describe students’ mathematical strengths. Findings illustrate that after these learning opportunities PTs’ positioning of multilingual students shifted from using deficit and uncommitted discourse to asset-based. A closer look, however, showed no explicit mention of the value of the student’s primary language for learning mathematics. Only a few PTs did so implicitly. This study shows it is possible for PTs to shift deficit language, but that more explicit support is needed to help them communicate the value of language/linguistic diversity in the learning of mathematics.

多语言学生的缺乏话语和框架以及他们的学术潜力是数学教育研究和实践中的持续挑战。对于所有经验水平的老师来说，与以非主要语言学习数学的学生一起学习如何使用基于资产的语言都是一项挑战。本文报告了一项研究，该研究探讨了准教师（PT）在学习数学时如何定位多语言学生及其主要语言。参与者是初级和中级PT，他们被引入并有机会练习基于资产的论述来描述学生的数学优势。研究结果表明，在这些学习机会之后，多语言学生的PT定位从使用赤字和不拘一格的话语转向了基于资产的学习。然而，仔细观察并没有明确提及学生的母语对于学习数学的价值。只有少数PT暗中这样做。这项研究表明，PT可能会转移缺陷语言，但是需要更明确的支持来帮助他们传达数学学习中语言/语言多样性的价值。