Abstract The aim of the study was to examine how preschool teachers from two different municipalities are working with native language support. The method used in this study was a questionnaire survey were 58 preschool teachers participated. It has been shown in a study made in the USA by Galeano (2011) that families from other countries lose their native language faster during recent years than they did before, this may be because families let the English language dominate in the home instead of using their native language. When children start school they are offered mother tongue education, but often it’s not of much use since the students already have a basic speech in English (Galeano, 2011). A study conducted in schools in England showed that mother tongue education is deficient when students get questions on their native language but they choose to answer the teachers in English instead. This is one of the reasons how students lose the ability to speak their mother tongue but they still have the ability to understand what is being said (Cable, Drury & Robertson, 2014). This study shows that many of the preschool teachers that were questioned in the study did not have enough experience when it comes to working with native language support. The preschool teachers felt that they didn’t have good enough guidance to how the work with native language support should proceed in the best way. They couldn’t bring up the issues of language support with parents or answer their questions without double checking with the preschool heads or principals. Most of the preschool teachers know the importance of language support as it makes it easier for kids to become part of the preschool group and that they easier learn Swedish as a second language. Many preschool teachers had to take own initiatives to give children support in their native language, this because many preschools do not have access to mother tongue teachers or interpreter. / Abstrakt Syftet med studien är att se hur förskollärare från två olika kommuner arbetar med modersmålsstöd Undersökningsmetoden som användes var en enkätundersökning där 58 förskollärare deltog. Det har visat sig i studier bland annat i USA att familjer med andra ursprungsland förlorar sitt modersmål snabbare i dagsläget än de gjorde förr då familjerna låter det engelska språket dominera i hemmet istället för att använda sig av modersmålet. När barnen kom upp i skolåldern så erbjöds de modersmålsundervisning men ofta så räcker inte modersmålsundervisning till i skolan då eleverna redan har ett grundläggande tal i till exempel engelska (Galeano, 2011). En studie som gjordes i skolorna i England visade att modersmålsundervisningen är bristfällig då eleverna får frågor på respektive modersmål men att de svarar läraren på engelska istället för modersmålet. Detta bidrar till att eleverna tappar förmågan att tala modersmålet men att de fortfarande har kvar förmågan att förstå vad som sägs (Cable, Drury & Robertson, 2014). I följande studie kände många av förskollärarna att de inte hade någon riktig rutin kring arbetet med modersmålsstöd och de saknade bra vägledning till hur arbetet skulle gå tillväga på bästa sätt, de kunde inte själva ta upp frågorna kring modersmålsstöd med föräldrarna utan var tvungna att samtala med förskolechefer eller rektorer innan de kunde besvara föräldrarnas frågor. Samtliga förskollärare visste att det är viktigt med modersmålsstöd då det underlättar för barnen att komma in i verksamheten samt att de lättare lärde sig svenska som andra språk. Många förskollärare tar egna initiativ till att ge barnen stöd i deras modersmål då många förskolor saknar tillgång till modersmålspedagog eller tolk.

The aim of the present study was to give a systematic overview of research literature on how bilingual and plurilingual EFL learners at secondary and tertiary education acquire/learn English. By searching three databases, nine peer-reviewed articles were chosen, categorised and analysed. The results indicated that multilinguals use learning strategies, as well as using certain languages for different contexts and tasks. Proficiency might also affect when their languages were used, since proficiency influenced learning strategies. To improve the Swedish EFL education for multilinguals, teachers need to help their pupils to become aware of their own learning by reflecting and thinking about their language production. Teachers need to provide instructions to pupils of how to improve their metacognition, thus becoming more autonomous learners. For multilinguals to achieve this, translanguaging is an important part of EFL education. This means that the teacher-education also needs to educate teachers on how to instruct others in metacognition and other learning strategies. Further investigations concerning both the teachers’ perspective and additional research into multilinguals’ EFL learning are needed.