Challenges of teachers working in a multicultural pre-school literacy class with native Arabic-speaking children

Abstract

This study explored the role of the teacher in implementing emergent literacy in Swedish preschools. The participants in this study were six preschool teachers, five Arabic children and five Arabic parents. Data for this study were collected from interviews and observations before they were analyzed. The researcher used excerpts from teachers and parents’ interviews to analyze them and come out with the findings. Teachers face various challenges with children who begin at preschool. Communication is crucial between teachers and children, yet some children do not have sufficient language to communicate and interact well with their teachers. The findings of this research indicate that preschool teachers face further challenges when working with Arabic speaking children. Differences in grammar between both languages –Arabic and Swedish– can impact children learning the Swedish language. While Swedish is the dominant language in the Swedish preschools, multilingual children are, in the beginning, unable to speak it. Additionally, parents play a vital role in teaching literacy to their children through various activities. Swedish preschool teachers demand more help from home to support children’s literacy development. That means there should be a relationship between parents and teachers. Another finding is: learning the mother tongue language at preschool is very important for multicultural children.