This paper draws on data from a first grade multilingual mathematics classroom in Sweden. I explore how students' agency is pronounced in the classroom that actually can be a site where mathematics reform-oriented pedagogy thrives and how the emphasis on language support in such classrooms can support reform-oriented pedagogy. I argue that the emphasis on reform-oriented pedagogy can support the learning of mathematics and a second language, simultaneously. By analysing discursive practices, I show how this supportive relationship operates alongside the on-going processes of normalisation whereby students' mother tongues continue to be erased or ignored.