To Örebro University

Multilingual support and translanguaging for students learning Swedish as an additional language (SAL)

This presentation reports on an ongoing practice-based research project which aims to investigate the opportunities for SAL learners to orient to instructional activity created by different forms of bilingual support. It also seeks to measure the qualitative and quantitative effect of this provision on student language performance and course achievements which is an under researched dimension (Maraco et al., 2014). In August, 2017, a Swedish for immigrants (SFI) teacher team introduced bilingual language assistants (BLAs; språkstödjare; ibid.) in order to increase student achievement rates. After a pilot study researching this venture, a second teacher team has been added made up mostly of bi-or multilingual SFI teachers for comparative purposes. A third aim is to explore the relevance of translanguaging pedagogy in these multilingual settings (Lewis et al., 2012)

Interviews and observations point to mother tongue support via BLAs and the multilingual teachers as a vital learning asset in making instruction intelligible, validating the students’ own language, facilitating participation and promoting inclusion. However, the way BLAs and multilingual teachers use Swedish can be as important for understanding instruction as mother tongue use. Moreover, an overdependence on bilingual support can dilute vital conditions for student language learning such as efforts to grasp meaning and cope with communication independently.  There is therefore a need for translanguaging pedagogical practice to be coordinated within a progressive strategy which secures scaffolding experience for students that is, strategic proportions of challenge and support which catalyze human learning. 

Lewis, G., et al. (2012). Translanguaging: origins and development from school to street and beyond. Educational Research and Evaluation, 18(7), 641-654. 

Macaro, E. et al. (2014). Exploring the value of bilingual language assistants with Japanese English as a foreign language learners. The Language Learning Journal, 42(1), 41-54.