Nästan en tredjedel av grundskolans elever har annat modersmål än svenska. De är berättigade en timmes undervisningstid på modersmålet per vecka trots att forskning visar att de tidiga språkfärdigheterna bör utvecklas på elevens starkaste språk. Syftet med föreliggande studie är att tillföra forskning genom semistrukturerade intervjuer om hur tre klasslärare och tre modersmålslärare beskriver sin undervisning och sin kommunikation sinsemellan för flerspråkiga elevers skrivutveckling. Sociokulturell teoribildning och transspråkande utgör studiens teoretiska ansats. Studiens resultat visar att klasslärarna beskrev skrivundervisning med fokus på semantiska och pragmatiska aspekter av språk medan modersmålslärarna fokuserade på fonologiska aspekter. Klasslärarna beskrev att flerspråkiga elever specifikt gynnas av att få samarbeta och få stöttning av klasskamrater. Fyra av deltagarna beskrev flerspråkighet som en resurs i lärandet och två av modersmålslärarna organiserar undervisning med flerspråkigt skrivande genom transspråkande. Modersmålslärarna var i högre grad nöjda med kommunikationen än klasslärarna. Klasslärarna önskade en förbättrad kommunikation och beskrev att kommunikationen påverkas av organisatoriska och tidsmässiga hinder. / Almost one third of elementary school students have a different mother tongue than Swedish. They are entitled to one hour of teaching time per week in the mother tongue, despite research showing that early language skills should be acquired in the student's strongest language. The aim of this study is to investigate through semi-structured interviews how three class teachers and three mother tongue teachers describe their teaching and their communication with each other for multilingual students' writing development. Sociocultural theory formation and translanguaging constitute the study's theoretical approach. The results of the study show that the class teachers described writing instruction with focus on semantic and pragmatic aspects of language while the mother tongue teachers focused on phonological aspects. The class teachers described that it is specifically beneficial for multilingual students to be able to collaborate and receive support from classmates. Four of the participants described multilingualism as a resource in learning and two of the mother tongue teachers organize instruction with multilingual writing through translanguaging. The mother tongue teachers were more satisfied with the communication than the class teachers. The class teachers wanted improved communication and described that communication is affected by organizational and time-related limitations.

This study examines preschool teachers` experiences of working with multilingualism. Through the study I want to find out about what experiences preschool teachers have about working with multilingualism and what has changed during their working life. The study also examines which methods are used most to support the children`s native language and how educators experience work with multilingualism. The data gathering has been carried out using a qualitative method that is semi structured interviews. Six licensed preschool teachers were interviewed. Data has been analyzed using phenomenography. The results show that the work with multilingualism places demands on the educators but is seen with a positive attitude. The result also shows that the educators´ view of working with multilingualism is of importance for the children and their educational development. If the educator lacks will and commitment to work with multilingualism it will affect the education for the children. The children will then not receive the support they need to improve and develop. It is also important that the principals emphasize that multilingualism is included in the preschool`s activities. It also appears in the results that educators` knowledge plays a role in the work with multilingualism and that educators need to know about the child`s background to be able to support the children in their language development. The results show that the most used method support in the work with multilingualism are digital tools and specific learning app Polyglutt. / Denna studie undersöker förskollärares erfarenheter av arbete med flerspråkighet. Genom studien vill jag ta reda på vilka erfarenheter förskollärarna har kring arbetet med flerspråkighet och vad som har förändrats under deras arbetsliv. Studien undersöker även vilka metoder som används mest för att stödja barnens modersmål och hur pedagoger upplever arbetet med flerspråkighet. Datainsamlingen har genomförts med kvalitativ metod som är semistrukturerade intervjuer. Det intervjuades sex legitimerade förskollärare. Data har analyserats med hjälp av fenomenografi. Resultatet visar att arbetet med flerspråkighet ställer krav på pedagogerna men ses med en positiv inställning. Resultatet visar även att pedagogernas syn på att arbeta med flerspråkighet har stor betydelse för barnen och deras pedagogiska utveckling. Om pedagogerna saknar vilja och engagemang till att arbeta med flerspråkighet kommer det att påverka barnens utbildning. Barnen får då inte de stöd de behöver för att förbättra sig och utvecklas. Det är även viktigt att rektorerna lägger vikt på att flerspråkighet inkluderas i förskolans verksamhet. Det framkommer även i resultatet att pedagogers kunskaper spelar roll i arbetet med flerspråkighet och att pedagoger behöver veta om barnets bakgrund för att kunna stödja barnen i deras språkutveckling. Resultatet visar att den mest använda metoden som stöd i arbetet med flerspråkighet är digitala verktyg och specifikt lärandeappen Polyglutt.

Syftet med studien är att bidra med kunskap om förskollärares arbetssätt med att utveckla modersmål hos förskolebarn som talar annat språk än svenska. Frågeställningar som har inkluderats är: Vad använder förskollärare för strategier och metoder för att utveckla barns modersmål i förskolan? Vilka svårigheter och utmaningar finns för förskollärare gällande utveckling av barns modersmål i förskolan? Fem förskollärare har intervjuats i fem olika mångkulturella förskolor i två olika kommuner för att besvara studiens frågeställningar. Studiens teoriramverk är det interkulturella perspektivet och den sociokulturella teorin. Resultatet visade att samtliga förskollärare är eniga om att uppmärksammandet av barns modersmål är av stor betydelse i förskolan och att det är viktigt att låta barnen få använda sitt modersmål. Barn som har en bra grund i sitt förstaspråk har det sedan lättare för att lära sig det svenska språket anser förskollärarna. Förskollärare använder sig av olika metoder och strategier vid modersmålsundervisning som exempelvis dans och arbete i mindre barngrupper. Förskollärarna lyfter upp tidsbrist, stora barngrupper, missförstånd, material och verktyg som svårigheter och utmaningar. Slutligen påtalar förskollärarna en avsaknad av flerspråkiga förskollärare samt rätt verktyg för modersmålsundervisning. Fortsatt forskning inom området krävs dock för att ge stöd och vägledning till förskollärarna gällande modersmålsutvecklingen i förskolan.

The purpose of this examination is to study and have a deeper understanding about the different perceptions preschool teacher have regarding to the importance of the pedagogical environment, in relation to strengthening multilingual work and children's mother tongue. We also want to study preschool teachers' perceptions about the structure and organization of the indoor environment and how it can promote children's multilingualism.  The study used phenomenography as a methodological approach and the theory of variation as the theoretical starting point, based on semi-structured qualitative interviews. We have interviewed ten preschool teachers from three different municipal preschools and one special educator that works in one of the communes.  The results of our study show that there are different perceptions about the pedagogical environment in relation to multilingual work. The result high lighted a greater awareness from preschool teachers’ perceptions about the work with the pedagogical environment compared to the multilingual work. Experiences and knowledge about the pedagogical environment were also experienced more than the multilingual work, which the preschool teachers perceived as problematic as they have the majority of children who are multilingual in preschool.

The role of students’ first language (L1) in second and foreign language teaching has been an issue within language teaching. Whether to use the students’ L1 is a conflicted matter whereas certain teaching theories collide with actual practices. Teachers in Sweden are dependent on the National Curriculum as it is the guideline for their teaching and the fact that the syllabus for English does not mention the use of the students’ L1 leaves it up for interpretation. The aim of the present study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions of their students’ L1 when teaching English as a second or foreign language in the Swedish primary school in years 4-6. Furthermore, the study aims to obtain a general view of which situations teachers tend to switch to their students’ L1 and to what extent. Data was collected through a mixed-method approach, using both a questionnaire and conducting follow-up email interviews. The results showed that teachers generally see their students’ L1 as a facilitating factor when teaching English. However, there were participants who reported the desire to use English as much as possible when teaching. Independent of the situation, the overall most frequent answer was that the participants used their students’ L1 sometimes. Factors that affect the use of L1 are the students' age and guidelines from the teacher training program. These results contribute to the field of research in a Swedish context and shows that this subject area merits further investigation.

Translanguaging has been breaking ground with ideas that learners’ already mastered languages and the target language should coexist to support and scaffold each other's development, instead of the historically preeminent idea that has been to separate the school language and the target language. The curriculum for Swedish schools does not give any guidelines on how to address this contradiction in research. This degree project aims to examine how English teachers in Sweden perceive the use of translanguaging in their teaching of grades 4-6 (ages 9-12). Also, how they possibly prepare for and implement this in their lessons. The study was conducted through an online questionnaire with a total of 24 participants, with quantitative and qualitative type questions. In addition to the questionnaire, qualitative email interviews were conducted with a total of three participants. The collected data show that the majority of the participating teachers have a positive view of translanguaging. Despite some teachers being against it and believing that target language should be used as much as possible, the school language was still used by all participants to scaffold the learners. Though translanguaging is a relatively new, not very well-known concept, it is being regularly used although not always consciously.Our hope is for this study to generate more research to further define the concept of translanguaging and what effect it has on learners.

Magister Artium - MA / Early Childhood Development (ECD) prioritizes the foundation for children aged 0-9 years old. This program focuses on the cognitive, physical, emotional, or holistic development of a child for the child to thrive and be a functioning member of society. Recently, this initiative has been prioritized by both the national government and UNICEF (Shapley, 2014; September 2014). In the Cape Town context one finds that large population of children are frequently exposed to extreme poverty and gang violence. They also lack the communication and literacy skills they require; this includes grasping basic ideas related to reading and writing and have little to no community support system.

Several studies show that students with a mother tongue other than Swedish are disadvantaged in the meeting with text rich mathematical tasks. This is especially so when the tasks have a context that is linked to Swedish culture and tradition that is unknown to the students. This study examines how multilingual middle school students respond to text-rich mathematical tasks. More specifically, the study has investigated multilingual students' difficulties and resources in meeting text-rich mathematical tasks.To answer the questions, qualitative interviews were conducted with a total of eight pupils who, on the basis of four text-rich textbook tasks, had to reason and reflect on the content, language and problems of the tasks. The theoretical approach to analyze the empirical material was social semiotics. Social semiotics is about how people communicate, create meaning and interact with the outside world through different social and cultural contexts. In these social and cultural contexts, humans creates so-called resources that are available to interpret, communicate and create meaning.The results of this study indicate that multilingual students encounter linguistic, cultural and contextual difficulties in the mathematical text-rich tasks. Furthermore, the results of this study also show how these multilingual students use different semiotic resources in their encounter with the text-rich mathematical task such as; dynamically thinking through two languages in parallel, pointing at words, pictures and using a mental “number-exchange”, where the students exchange the mathematical numbers, from Swedish to their native language to cognitively calculate the mathematical numbers.

Due to globalization, diversity in the Swedish classrooms is common. This study sets out to examine the pupil’s and teacher’s perspectives of multilingualism in Sweden and how it effects English language learning. Although, a majority consider multilingualism to be an asset in language learning, many still believe that children mix the languages together and become confused. There seems to be no unanimous answer to whether or not multilingualism aids in learning an additional language. Therefore, this study aims to examine positive and negative effects of monolingualism and multilingualism in English language learning in Sweden. More specifically, the aim is to explore whether or not multilingualism aids pupil´s in speaking English as a Foreign Language. The question “What effects does multilingualism have in Year 1 - 3 EFL students’ speaking skill?” was formulated. The research for this qualitative study included interviews of six teachers and four pupil´s, combined with observations of different classrooms in the south of Sweden. The results indicate that both pupil´s and teachers view multilingualism as an advantage to language learning.

This degree project aims to explore, in the context of translanguaging, teachers' perceptionsof the use of pupils’ first language within English as a second language education inSweden. Following a review of the concept of translanguaging from a historic andpedagogical perspective, teachers’ views on the roles of their pupils’ first and secondlanguages as reported in international research, recent research pertaining to teachers'perceptions and pedagogical methods within translanguaging is highlighted. Results from amethodological triangulation examination of data emanating from a survey, interviews andclassroom observations show that: even though the term translanguaging is relativelyunknown, teacher respondents use translanguaging as a method within ESL education inSweden; a majority of teachers value their English-use higher than their use of the pupils’first language, but are not averse to using translanguaging when deemed appropriate; and amore positive attitude is displayed towards the pupils use of their first language, but the useof English is preferred.