This research is about how the educators view the best way to help multilingual students develop their understanding for mathematics. The aim of the study is to identify the different aspects from the teacher’s point of view of this new approach of teaching: what are the limitations versus the opportunities? The study is limited to a multicultural school in Stockholm and to the experience of a few class teachers and mother tongue teachers. A qualitative approach was used and the interview was selected as the method to collect the data. Three class teachers as well as three mother tongue teachers were interviewed about their experiences. The interviews were recorded and transcribed word by word. There have been discussions about the skills in mathematics in multilingual speaking students, and that their greatest obstacle of understanding mathematics is that they are being taught in another language than their own mother tongue. The National Agency for Education have stated that multilingual students who gets high grades in the mother tongue education tend to get higher grades in mathematics as well (Skolverket 2008). The result shows that the staff, the class teachers and mother tongue teachers, have been able to build a bridge between mathematics and their student’s mother tongue. The results also indicate that one’s mother tongue is a key component in student’s understanding and management of mathematics. This also benefits the student’s development of their self-esteem: mathematics taught in the student’s mother tongue helps the student to develop both their first and second language side by side.

This work should be seen as a pilot study of the effect that the common-sense based statement that one understands and learns best in their best language has on pupils in Swedish schools. A number of students have been given a mathematical test in the language they use for their normal school activities, and that is not their mother tongue. Some of them (approximately 50%) were led to believe this particular test to be language fair. Their average score on the test has then been compared to the average score on the same test of the remaining 50% students who considered the test a normal one. The difference in performance between the two subgroups has been interpreted with the help of the concept of stereotype threat. This pilot study showed a trace of the hypothesised best language stereotype threat in a specific group of students and will hopefully serve as a guide for a larger work that could prove (or falsify) the existence of the best language stereo-type threat with statistical certainty, extend its range of applicability to a wider group of students and establish its size as compared to other related factors. A final caveat: This study is focussed on (and relevant only for those) students that perform their school activities in a language different from their mother tongue but that are fully operational in the teaching language.

This essay is a study about the school introduction of immigrant pupils in the Swedish compulsory school. The purpose if this study is to examine the organisation municipal school introduction for immigrant pupils in the compulsory school in Södertälje. The method I have used is qualitative research method which depends on interviews and analysis of documents. The result shows that the municipal is without a plan for the school introduction of the immigrant pupils and that the individual compulsory school has the main responsibility for the school introduction of the immigrant pupils. The result also shows that there is a need of increased teaching of mother tongue. There is also a need of competence development within intercultural pedagogy. My conclusions are that a municipal plan for the school introduction of immigrant pupils should increase the immigrant pupils’ possibility to a shorter time of introduction to the compulsory school.

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Great changes in modern society condition educational priorities. Changes in educational system are inevitable. A strategic aim was raised during the meeting of EU Summit Council in Lisbon in 2000 - to create the most competitive and dynamic economy based on knowledge, which should ensure constant growth, better workplaces and better social life. The fulfillment of this aim depends on high quality knowledge, abilities and attitude of each member of the society. A work group of European Committee decided on the main key competences - that is combination of multifunctional knowledge and abilities which are needed for each person in order to get individual satisfaction, development, involvement and work. Competence of communication in native language is one of the main eight competences, which were offered by the workgroup of European Committee. Competence of communication in native language must be acquired at school and be the basis for other competences. In order to see how university students are ready for successful studies and future life a research based on competence of communication in native language (reading, writing, speaking and listening) was carried out asking first year students their opinions at Vilnius Pedagogical University and General Jonas Žemaitis Military Academy. After the analysis of research data it became clear that the majority of first year students think that they are ready for life. They have a positive opinion about their competence of... [to full text]

Research and the literature show that there is a culture of failure in science subjects in South African schools. Among many factors responsible for this state of affairs, it is assumed that lack of language proficiency in the Language of Learning and Teaching (LoLT) could be the cause. Studies indicate that mother-tongue learning is key to better academic performance in schools. The question of which language should be used as the LoLT in South African schools is a hugely debated issue. Arguments regarding this debate centre around two main issues, namely, the Language in Education Policy (LiEP) and psycholinguistic theories. Means have to be sought to address the issue of poor academic performance by learners in these schools. One of the central areas which needs attention to improve learners academic performance in these schools is learner comprehension. An empirical research study was done in an attempt to determine whether mother-tongue subtitling would improve learners‟ comprehension of science. A total of 93 Grade 12 learners from two schools in one township were used in this study. The participants were divided into two equivalent groups: one group watched and listened to mother-tongue subtitled science content material, and the other group watched and listened to the same science content material that was not subtitled. Both groups then wrote a physical science comprehension test after watching and listening to the video. This process was repeated over a period of six weeks during which one lesson was given and one video was shown each week. The comprehension test questions were divided into the recall and understanding domains. The results of this experiment revealed that mother-tongue subtitling improved the science comprehension of learners in as far as recall is concerned. / MA (Language Practice), North-West University, Vaal Triangle Campus, 2013

The purpose of my study is to examine how four teachers in a pre school believe they relates to and reasons about bilingualism. To be able to realize thisstudy, i proposed three issue following: How do the teachers in kindergarten relate to bilingualism? How do teachers in preschool reason around the work of bilingual children? What do teachers think about the educational environment in relation to language development?

The purpose of our study is to interpret and understand the experiences that parents to multilingual children have towards multilingualism in pre-school. We are also interested in finding out what these parents think about their children’s development in multilingualism both in pre-school and at home.   Our study is based on qualitative interviews. We interviewed nine families that have multilingual children in pre-school.  The data we collected from our interviews has been analyzed using socio-cultural and inter-cultural theories along with previous research.   The result of our study showed that parents to multilingual children have both positive and negative opinions about the multilingual concept. Most of our informants had positive opinions about multilingualism in general. At the same time they all had concerns about what multilingualism can do for the linguistic development of their children. Because of the negative opinion our parents have towards multilingualism in pre-school, everyone but one parent said that they would decline the possibility for their child to participate in mother tongue or first language activities in pre-school. We reach a conclusion that one important thing that needs to improve in order for these parent not to worry about their children’s linguistic development is the collaboration between pre-school and the parents.

Huvudsyftet med denna studie var att undersöka hur förskollärare arbetar med flerspråkiga barn i förskolan. Jag valde att använda mig av en kvalitativ intervjumetod, då jag ville ha pedagogernas resonemang och åsikter. Båda förskolorna som jag har varit på och gjort mina intervjuer på visar att pedagogerna visar ett stort intresse genom sin nyfikenhet av att lära sig ord och fraser på barnens olika språk. Pedagogerna tar sin hjälp genom att de använder sig av föräldrarna för att få tillgång till ord och fraser som hjälper pedagogerna i verksamheten. Det är övervägande bland pedagogerna att de uppmuntrar barnen om att prata sitt modersmål även på förskolan med varandra, pedagogerna påpekar även hur viktigt det är att föräldrarna pratar sitt modersmål hemma med barnen. Pedagogerna vill att varje barn ska känna stolthet över sitt ursprung, språk och kultur. Förskolorna använder sig av sång, musik och sagor, de delade även in barnen i smågrupper för att alla ska få komma till tals. Ladberg skriver om att sagor är ett bra och rikt material där barnen lär sig nya ord. Hon poängterar även att det är bra att dela in barnen i smågrupper där barnen är ungefär i samma språkliga nivå. Barn som inte förstår ledsnar och tappar koncentrationen, ger upp ”stänger av” för språket. Sagor läses bäst i smågrupper (Ladberg 2003, s. 157, 158). Resultatet visar att pedagogerna visar ett förhållningssätt som bygger på en nyfikenhet hos pedagogerna, lyssnar, samtalar och forskar tillsammans med barnen. Pedagogerna ger barnen en delaktighet genom att plocka fram barnens läroprocesser och utveckling genom läroplansmålen (Lpfö 98 reviderad 2010, s. 9, 10). / The main purpose of this study was to look how preschool teatchers work with multilingual children in preschool. I chose to use a qualitative interview method, since the teachers reasoning and opinions were at value. That was my interest in this study. Both preschools that I have been to and done my interviews at show a great interest by their curiosity to learn words and phrases in different languages. The teachers use the children´s parents for access for new words. It is predominant among the teachers to encourage the children to speak their mother tongue with each other in preschool, and the teachers also point out how important it is that the parents speak the mother tongue at home with the children. The teatchers wish is that every child should feel proud of their origin, language and culture. The preschool used song, music and fairy tales and they also divided the children into smaller groups so everyone could have their say. Ladberg describes how fairy tales are a good and abundant material were the children learn new words. She also points out that it´s good to divide the children into differnet small groups were they´re approximately at the same level. Children who don´t understand become sad and lose their concentration, give up ”shut down” the language. The best way is to read fairy tales in small groups (Ladberg 2003, s. 157, 158). The difficulty to work with multilingual children is that the teachers sometimes don´t know if the children understand what teachers are saying. The result shows that the teachers show an approach, which is based on curiosity of the teachers and listen, converse, and do research togheter with the children. The teachers give the children participation by bring out children´s processing of learning and development by the goals of the curriculum (Lpfö 98 2010, s. 9, 10).

This study is a qualitative action research that I have undertaken with four teachers in the college where I work, for the purpose of improving curriculum delivery and student services to our majority multilingual student body. Based on my research in a public school board with Grades 4 to 12 students where I learned that mother tongues (L1s) are valued by students as scaffolds to their learning of English (L2) I proceeded to explore L1/L2 curriculum delivery with adult community college students whose prior learning is encoded in their mother tongues. I explored the possibility of legitimizing the use of students’ mother tongues in college classrooms as scaffolds to their acquisition of their L2. There were three phases to this study. Through these three phases of the study I sought to understand the impact of this multilingual pedagogical approach on the students’ learning experience, academic engagement and identity formation. In phase 1, I worked with 90 English as a Second Language (ESL) students whom I surveyed to determine their levels of understanding of our English-only curriculum delivery and student services. In phase 2, I worked with three English for Academic Purposes (EAP) students and interviewed them to explore their reaction to their teacher’s allowing them to use their mother tongues in class as part of pedagogy. In phase 3, I worked with 19 EAP students and interviewed them in focus groups to explore more deeply their learning experience, academic engagement and identity formation in two college classrooms where their mother tongues were part of everyday pedagogy. On the basis of the findings of this study I argue that the creation of space for students’ mother tongues in college classrooms is an ethical imperative since their mother tongues are integral components of their identities and all of their prior learning and life experiences are encoded in their mother tongues. Overall the findings highlighted bilingual students’ perceptions that their L1s constituted an important scaffold for their learning of English. Students’ comments also expressed their sense of the centrality of L1s to aspects of their identity.