DEN FLERSPRÅKIGA FÖRSKOLAN - Kvalitativ flermetodsstudie av språkande interaktioner i förskolans rutinsituationer

Abstract

Aim: The purpose of this study is to investigate how the curriculum's writings about the development of children's mother tongue are implemented in preschool practice. The investigation was carried out with two different qualitative methods, structured interviews and video observations. It is the teacher's thoughts about the task as well as the teacher's language-supporting actions that are examined. The research data consists of 8 interviews and 19 video recorded observations of meals and circle times. Previous research and investigations have shown that languages other than Swedish are made invisible in preschool and that preschool teachers express uncertainty about the assignment. Unequal opportunities for the children to develop all their languages despite the curriculum's writings make the subject interesting to study. Theory: The investigation uses sociocultural framework. The theory implies that language development and learning take place in social interactions between people where mediating tools are used to understand and act in society. Languages should not be understood as national languages but as sign system. Language is seen from a holistic perspective where society, language, individual and situation interact. Differences in the teacher's attitudes towards other languages are decisive for the languages' inclusion in education. Method: Through thematic analysis of the interviews, the study describes the preschool teachers' interpretations of multilingualism and what it means to support the children in the development of their mother tongue. The investigation also describes which assumptions about language and multilingualism are made by the preschool teachers in the study. With a mixed method where the Early Educational Language Support Activities (ELSA-model) has been used to quantify the occurrence of language supporting actions, these are exemplified with Conversation analysis (CA) excerpts and discussed in relation to previous research and theory. The methods provide different perspectives on multilingual children's terms in preschool. Results: The results of the study show that multilingualism as a concept is interpreted differently by the preschool teachers, from a broad to a narrow interpretation. Who is multilingual and how the preschool finds out seems problematic and is linked to country of origin and ethnicity. The uncertainty and lack of knowledge is also evident in this study and is consistent with previous research results. During the circle times and meals, the teachers carry out lots of language-supporting actions, but the children's other languages are made invisible. English is given a lot of space and is perceived to be an easy language to include in preschool education