My study is about a preparation class in a selected municipality. It is based on the child¹s perspective, and it tries to highlight the school situation of new arrivals in a school where the majority of the pupils are of Swedish origin. The purpose of my study is to visualize how the education for newly arrived children is organized in the municipality, and to get an understanding of a range of student’s view of the schooling in the preparation class as an introduction to a regular class. To reach my goal, I have used qualitative methods, based on qualitative interviews. The interviews were made with six newly arrived pupils, and one interview was made with the deputy head of the school, which is in charge of immigrant education in the municipality. The results show that the four primary schools in the municipality have two preparation classes located in a school for year 1-5 and 6-9. The interviewed pupils are between 13 and 15 years old. The interview reveals deficiencies in different areas, concerning the newly arrived children. The pupils are relatively segregated in school and they have no opportunities to form relationships with other pupils, which can lead to stigma. The education is characterized by lower expectations, and it is not ideal for the children’s cognitive development. The pupils also receive mother tongue education, and a few of them get student consolation. Most of them prefer student consolation, where the education is in Swedish simultaneously with their native language. The mother tongue education is not yet suited to the pupils’ abilities and needs, and the teachers in mother tongue language have a lack of qualifications.

This paper aims to examine the mother tongue subject and it´s existence and condition in a school located in the south of Stockholm. I have performed interviews with four teachers about their opinions and attitudes regarding the mother tongue subject in the school were they work. Two of the teachers are teachers in social studies and two of them are teachers in the mother tongue subject. My aim is also to examine whether an interest exists among the teachers to collaborate in between the subjects and what possibilities and conditions such collaboration would have in effect. I have applied a qualitative method based on personal interviews with semi-structured questions as my data acquisition method. I have also performed document studies to strengthen and support the qualitative interviews. The result, based on the interviews, shows that there was no existing collaboration between the teachers at the time of the interviews. All of the teachers said that they are willing to collaborate and that they believe that such collaboration would be profitable

Bilingualism and multilingualism have always existed in Sweden. Preschool teachers must provide a stimulating pedagogical environment adapted to bilingual children. The purpose of this examination is to study the perspective of the preschool teachers and their knowledge regarding bilingual and multilingual children. Their knowledge will be examined related to their language experiences. I hope to find similarities and dissimilarities in the preschool teachers’ opinions concerning teaching and learning what they actually do when they are teaching. My study is based on qualitative method, based on interviews and repeated observations. My study is based on interviews with four preschool teachers from different preschools. The information given in the interviews has been analyzed using socio-cultural and social constructivist theories and previous research. My conclusion is that the preschool teacher’s attitude towards children’s bilingualism and multilingualism is based on a positive perspective rather than a negative perspective regarding the importance of mother tongue and identity as well as ethics. Preschool teachers with foreign background and with Swedish background had similar thoughts. At the same time, they seem to have a critical perspective concerning bilingual children’s learning process in Swedish. In many cases these preschool teachers consider bilingual and multilingual children’s cultural and social habits a hindrance in learning the Swedish language. But at the same time, as preschool teachers, they are aware of the importance in learning at least a few words in the bilingual children’s language.

XXI a. iššūkiai - gilėjanti globalizacija, kultūrinė integracija bei ekonominė emigracija. Šie reiškiniai stipriai veikia ir Lietuvos gyvenimą, kurį pradėta sieti su ryšių Vakaruose stiprinimu, net tapatumo siekimu. Tai skatina domėtis kosmopolitizmu, atitolina nuo savosios tautos šaknų. Gimtoji kalba laikoma svarbiausiu tautinės individualybės simboliu, nebetenka savo vaidmens, nes stiprėja mokinių abejingumas lietuvių kalbai, o angliškos leksemos tampa tautos žmonių kultūrine siekiamybe. Tai stiprina tautinio ugdymo poreikį mokyklose, tačiau, visų pirma, reikia išsiaiškinti, kokie veiksniai gali daryti palankų poveikį jo tobulinimui. Todėl šio darbo tikslas - ištirti V klasių mokinių nuostatą į gimtąją kalbą kaip tautinio susipratimo veiksnį. Tyrimo objektas − V klasių mokinių nuostata į gimtąją kalbą ir kitus tautinio susipratimo komponentus. Nuostatą į gimtąją kalbą atskleidžiantys rezultatai rodo, kad tautiškumo lygmenyje išryškėja žinios apie lietuvių kalbos turtingumą. Tiriant patriotiškumą, nustatyta, kad pusė respondentų brangina gimtąją kalbą, o beveik visų mokinių išryškėja stiprus nacionalinis susipratimas, nes jie žino istorinį ir gramatinį lietuvių kalbos savitumą. Nuostata į kitus tautinės kultūros dalykus išryškėja tautiškumo lygmenyje, kai mokiniai labiausia norėtų dalyvauti istorinėse ekskursijose. Taip pat atskleista, kad daugiau nei pusė mokinių brangina tautos kultūrą ir mato šviesią Lietuvos ateitį. Ugdymo projektas rodo, kad labai pasikeitė penktos... [toliau žr. visą tekstą] / Such phenomena as challenges of the XXI 21st century, deepening globalisation, cultural integration and economic emigration deeply influence Lithuanian life which is to be associated with strengthening ties in the West, even seeking for identity. This encourages us to concern with cosmopolitanism and makes a distance from the roots of your mother-tongue. Mother-tongue which is regarded as the most important symbol of national individuality is no longer important because of strengthening pupils' indifference to Lithuanian language. Moreover, English lexemes are becoming a national cultural aspiration. This reinforces the need of national upbringing in schools; however firstly let us reveal factors having favourable influence on school improvement. Therefore the aim of the work is to examine 5th year school children' attitude towards mother-tongue as a subject of national consciousness. The object of this research is 5th year school children' attitude towards mother-tongue and other components of national consciousness. Research data shows that in the level of nationality pupils' knowledge of the richness of Lithuanian language develops. Regarding language patriotism it turned out that half of respondents appreciate mother-tongue and almost all of them are national conscious because they know historical and grammatical peculiarities of Lithuanian language. Attitude to other objects of national culture develops in the national level when pupils mostly would like to go on... [to full text]

Taiwan is a country colonized by various regimes over the past four hundred years. The research first adopted the narrative inquiry-an autobiography on my journey to find my Taiwanese identity and mother tongue loss. Secondly, a phenomenological study on three Taiwanese families was conducted to secure an in-depth complex understanding on the scope and extent of the language loss phenomenon in Taiwan, of the thoughts and feelings about losing mother tongues, of the role of political power, the colonial history and other sociocultural contexts in the language loss phenomenon in Taiwan. Ten features and eleven themes were identified in this study. The political power and colonial history are important factors of mother tongue loss among my three participant families.

Syftet med denna studie är att utforska hur individer upplever sin prestation och själva inlärningssituationen då kunskap som ska läras in på ett språk ska återges på deras modersmål i form av tentamen eller i andra diskussionssituationer. Sex personer intervjuades om deras upplevelser att läsa kurslitteraturen på ett främmande språk och sedan återge den inlärda kunskapen på deras modersmål, i detta fall, svenska. Intervjumaterialet analyserades utifrån induktiv tematisk metod. Ur analysen framträdde tre huvudteman: förståelse av innehåll, förmågan att kunna uttrycka sig och slutligen, översättningsproblematiken. Den första två teman visade att prestation inte anses bli negativt påverkad av att den inlärda kunskapen ska återges på modersmålet. Tvärtom, kurslitteraturens språk förlorar betydelse så snart budskapet uppfattas av läsaren. / The aim of the current study is to explore how individuals see their performance and the learning situation itself when material presented in a certain language has to be recounted in the individual's mother tongue in the form of exams or discussion. Six people were interviewed about their experiences of reading textbooks in a foreign language and then recounting the acquired knowledge in their mother tongue, in this case, Swedish. Inductive thematic approach was used to analyse the interview data. During analysis three main themes emerged: understanding the content, the ability to express oneself and finally, translation-related problems. The first two themes showed that recounting acquired knowledge in the mother tongue is not considered to have a negative influence on performance. On the contrary, as soon as the reader comprehends the message the language of the textbook becomes irrelevant.

According to the Constitution of South Africa (1996), as well as the Schools Act of South Africa (1996), everyone has the right to education in the language of their choice. The advantage of being educated in one’s home language is a well-known and accepted as a demonstrated fact (Oosthuizen, Rossouw & De Wet, 2004:22). Unfortunately, Oosthuizen et al. (2004:22) remark that the biggest problem in education today, is that home language education cannot be given to everyone in South Africa. As a result many parents choose English as the Language of Learning and Teaching (LOLT) for their children, since they believe English is the language of empowerment. Although English Second Language (ESL) learners pose a challenge to educators in the class, they still have a right to quality education. Therefore, thorough planning is essential to ensure that these learners are taught according to their needs. The primary aim of this research study was to determine if primary school educators designed their lesson planning to accommodate ESL learners with a limited English proficiency. The primary aim could only be determined if the following sub-aims were successfully analysed: *To determine through a literature investigation which specific language barriers ESL learners, with limited English language proficiency, experience during a lesson. *To determine through a literature investigation why lesson planning is important; *To determine to what extent educators accommodate language barriers to learning of ESL learners, with a limited English language proficiency, in their lesson plans. *To determine how educators reflect on their lesson plan, in order to determine whether ESL learners, with limited English language proficiency, coped with the lesson. *To establish which modifications, if any, educators make after reflection to accommodate ESL learners with limited English language proficiency in the follow lesson planning? A Qualitative research method was followed during the study. Data was collected for the research study by doing a document analysis and semi-structured interviews with primary school educators who are currently in the teaching profession and have ESL learners in their class. A convenience sample was used, where the nearest parallel medium school was chosen with participants readily available. The following findings emerged from the study: According to the literature study, the most common specific language barriers which ESL learners with limited English proficiency experience in the classroom are: *Experience it difficult to express themselves in English; *Educators disparity in language between learners and educators; *a limited English vocabulary; and *struggling with comprehension of English. Findings of the empirical study showed that the participants do not plan for accommodations for ESL learners who may experience barriers to learning. They indicated that since English is the LOLT of the school and because they feel that the learners should be proficient in the language they do not need to plan for possible misunderstandings or communication problems that could occur because of a language barrier. However, they did acknowledge that a limited vocabulary and ways of expression can cause communication problems. / MEd, Learner Support, North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2012

Taiwan is a country colonized by various regimes over the past four hundred years. The research first adopted the narrative inquiry-an autobiography on my journey to find my Taiwanese identity and mother tongue loss. Secondly, a phenomenological study on three Taiwanese families was conducted to secure an in-depth complex understanding on the scope and extent of the language loss phenomenon in Taiwan, of the thoughts and feelings about losing mother tongues, of the role of political power, the colonial history and other sociocultural contexts in the language loss phenomenon in Taiwan. Ten features and eleven themes were identified in this study. The political power and colonial history are important factors of mother tongue loss among my three participant families.

The overall aim of the study was to take part of teachers' experiences and work force mother-tongue education and literacy development in the Sámi School. The study was conducted through interviews with twelve teachers who teach at two Sámi schools. The focus has been on looking how to work with native speakers teaching at the Sámi School, what factors promote / hinder students' development of their first or second language, and the importance of collaboration between the schools` various professions work with multilingual students reading and writing skills. Through interviews of various categories of teachers, I have tried to visibility problems of the education of minority language children and their reading and writing skills. I discuss the teaching, the importance and the lack / availability of communication and consensus between different categories of teachers. The study reveals the importance of adequate education for the teachers and the lack of Sámi teaching materials. From a sociocultural perspective, the situated and creative learning opportunities, where the teaching is based on students' prior knowledge and experience, is a factor that contributes to literacy development. The study also shows that mother tongue education contributes to students' identity is strengthened and that they will be confident with their background. / Det övergripande syftet med studien var att ta del av lärares erfarenheter och arbetsformer gällande modersmålsundervisning och läs- och skrivutveckling i sameskolan. Studien har genomförts genom kvalitativa intervjuer med tolv lärare som undervisar vid två sameskolor. Fokus har lagts på att titta hur man arbetar med modersmålsundervisningen vid sameskolorna, vilka faktorer främjar/hindrar elevernas utveckling av sitt första respektive andraspråk samt vilken betydelse samverkan mellan specialpedagoger, klasslärare och modersmålslärare har kring arbetet med flerspråkiga elevers läs- och skrivutveckling. Genom intervjuer av olika lärarkategorier har jag försökt synliggöra problematiken kring undervisning av minoritetsspråkiga barn och deras läs- och skrivutveckling. I studien diskuteras det kring undervisningen, vikten av och bristen/tillgången på kommunikation och samsyn mellan olika lärarkategorier. Studien synliggör även vikten av adekvat utbildning till undervisande pedagoger och bristen på samiskt läromedel. Ur ett sociokulturellt perspektiv är de situerade och kreativa lärande tillfällena, där undervisningen utgår från elevernas tidigare kunskaper och erfarenheter, en faktor som bidrar till läs- och skrivutveckling. Studien visar också att modersmålsundervisningen bidrar till att elevernas identitet stärks och att de blir trygga.

The study aims to contribute to a debate on the benefits of exposing children to early second language acquisition and maintenance of their mother tongue in early childhood settings. The study uses a qualitative interpretative approach, using a case-study method. Quantitative and qualitative methods were used, and data collected were thematically analyzed.