Student Thesis Level: Bachelor
Reading Strategies
Multilingual students learning English in a Swedish context
Author: Jessica Ericsson Supervisor: BethAnne Paulsrud Examiner: Jonathan White
Subject/main field of study: Linguistics Course code: EN2035
Credits: 15 hp Date of examination:
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Abstract
This thesis aims at exploring what linguistic challenges and opportunities multilingual students experience when reading in English. This paper has a qualitative approach and consists of focus group interviews as the method for collecting data. The participants were students in compulsory school, ninth grade, studying English as a foreign language. A total of nine multilingual were divided into three groups. Firstly they received a piece of informative text to read, containing a picture and a heading, and secondly they answered and discussed questions about their use of reading strategies. The results from the present study show that they tended to use top-down strategies when reading. The picture was not regarded as important as the heading; yet it was clear that they transferred already developed strategies from other languages. Previous research has shown that a reading ability developed in a student´s first language will be transferred to other languages, through an underlying proficency. Likewise it was expected in this study that the students would use their first language in order to understand English as a foreign language, but unpredictably findings show that Swedish was the preferred language when translating. In conclusion, one can therefore argue for Swedish as the strongest academic language and therefore important in scaffolding multilingual students.
Keywords: Second-language learning, English as a foreign language, reading comprehension, reading strategies, third-language learning
Table of Content
1. Introduction ... 1
1.1 Aim ... 2
2. Background ... 3
2.1 Definitions ... 3
2.1.1 ESL and EFL ... 3
2.1.2 Bi- and multilingualism ... 4
2.1.3 Academic language ... 4
2.2 Perspectives on reading ... 4
2.3 English in Swedish classrooms ... 6
2.3.1 The English syllabus ... 6
2.3.2 Monolingual instruction ... 7
2.4 Previous research and theories ... 8
2.4.1 Research on reading ... 8
2.4.2 The interdependence hypothesis ... 8
2.4.3 Research on language policy ... 9
2.4.4 The translanguaging perspective ... 10
3 Methology and Data ... 12
3.1 Selection of participants ... 12
3.2 Selection of materials ... 12
3.3 Procedure ... 13
3.3.1 Designing the interviews ... 13
3.3.2 Piloting the interviews ... 13
3.3.3 Conducting the interviews ... 14
3.4 Thematic analysis ... 14
3.5 Ethics ... 15
3.6 Reliability and validity ... 15
3.7 Method reflections ... 16
4. Results ... 17
5. Data analysis and discussion ... 19
5.1 Students´ use of reading strategies ... 19
5.2 EFL in a Swedish context ... 21
6. Conclusion ... 23
7. References ... 24 8. Appendix ... 27
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1. Introduction
English has had the status of a global language in the world for a while, either by being the official language in a country or by being a priority in a country´s foreign- language teaching. Already for nearly a decade, English as a foreign language, has been the most widely taught language in the world (Crystal, 2003). It is also the most important international language and widely used for communication in the European Union (Hult, 2012, 2017; Hyltenstam, 1999).
Sweden is no exception. English as a foreign language has been a core subject since 1962 (The Swedish National Agency [hereafter SNAE]). Knowledge of English is a prerequisite for living, working and studying in Sweden (Lundahl, 2012;
Hult, 2012). Hult, Berg and King (2001) further discuss the use of Swedish and English in terms of elite domains. Mastery of English is required in high-status domains such as for example Stockholm School of Economics and is also a common language in subjects that involve natural science. Due to its status in elite domains, there is a need for English to be stressed already in elementary education (Hult, Berg
& King, 2001).
Despite English still being considered as a foreign language, there are several factors that make it comparable to a second language (Hyltenstam & Lindberg, 2004). That is, growing up in Sweden with Swedish-speaking parents, children will have learnt English in school from age 10 or younger and maybe more importantly learning from tv, music and other media in their leisure time. If, on the other hand, a different mother tongue than Swedish is being spoken at home, English may become the third or even fourth language to be learnt.
The ideology in Swedish schools, in teaching the subject of English, often relies on a monolingual approach of teaching. This approach may be more suitable for the students who already have achieved a good proficiency in English, but for those students who are non-native Swedish it might need a greater effort. Therefore it might be time to rethink this monolingual standpoint and employ a multilingual space where students are allowed to use other languages than English in the
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classroom (Källkvist, Gyllstad, Sandlund & Sundqvist, 2017). Cummins´s interdependence hypothesis (2017) implies that students´ will benefit from acceptance of their mother tongue. This means that the students´ first languages can scaffold additional language learning due to already acquired strategies.
No matter their background, students need to be prepared for the national test in English at the end of years 6 and 9 (SNAE). All elementary schools in Sweden are required to have these tests, and reading comprehension is one of the skills measured in English. When performing the test, the student is not allowed to use any tool for translating. Reading texts in English can be a challenge for all students, including native Swedish speakers learning English in school. For this reason, it may be useful to gain a deeper understanding of strategies used by multilingual students. Earlier research often focuses on newly arrived students' reading in a second language.
Therefore it would be of interest to examine reading strategies used by those not defined as being new arrivals but have been in Sweden for longer than four years.
When a student has spent more than four years in a Swedish school, the student is no longer accounted as newly arrived (SNAE). This study was conducted at a multilingual compulsory school. Most, if not all, of the students attending the school speak several languages at home and only a few of have Swedish as their native language.
1.1 Aim
The aim of this study is therefore to investigate what linguistic challenges and opportunities multilingual students´ experience when reading in English. In order to do this the following questions are asked:
1. Which reading strategies are used by the Swedish multilingual students?
2. How do they feel the strategies are working?
3. How may the students´ first language either be of help or prevent their understanding when reading a text in the English language?
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2. Background
This section aims to present a background to the study. Firstly, there is a description of definitions followed by an overview about reading comprehension and strategies.
Secondly, there is a section with examples from the English curriculum and English taught in a Swedish context, followed by earlier research on reading and language policies.
2.1 Definitions
Various definitions need to be explained for this thesis. In this section some key concepts will therefore be defined, starting with English as a second language versus English as a foreign language.
2.1.1 ESL and EFL
ESL (English as a second language) refers to non-native English speakers learning English in a country where it is official or plays a major role in society. English as a foreign language (EFL) appear when speakers learn English through the medium of the dominant language (Wray & Bloomer, 2006). When refugees and migrants enter school, they are required to learn the dominant societal language which may be described as their second language (L2) whilst their mother tongue (MT) is normally labeled as their first language (L1) (García & Seltzer, 2016). For these students, the dominant societal language in Sweden is learnt as a second language (SSL) and English is learnt as a foreign language (EFL) (Hyltenstam & Lindberg, 2004). Wray and Bloomer (2006) use the term second language (L2) in a more general way including not only second and foreign language but also to refer to third or fourth languages. Foreign language learning is a formal learning that only occurs in a school context, while second language learning is more informal and occurs in a person´s daily life (Hyltenstam & Lindberg, 2004).
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The definition bilingual is used for someone who knows two languages while multilingual means knowledge of more than two languages (Wray & Bloomer, 2006). Additive bilingualism is when a new language is added to an already existing one but where the languages are learnt separately. This contrasts with dynamic bilingualism whereas the two languages are learnt simultaneously (García & Lin, 2016). García (2011) argues that languages are interrelated and therefore should be thought of as a dynamic process. Cross-linguistic influence (CLI) refers to the interaction between languages. This interaction is a more complex issue in third language learning than in second language acquisition (SLA) since there are two more relationships to consider “…that is the interaction between L1 and L3 plus that between L2 and L3” (Jessner 2006, p. 21). In SLA research, it is often assumed that L2 is the weaker language and L1 the dominant.
2.1.3 Academic language
Basic Interpersonal Communicative Skills (BICS) is the basic communicative ability that a child learns through social interaction with their environment, normally during their early school years (Cummins, 2017). This everyday language (BICS) often contains more context-bound support. As the child enters higher grades, greater demands are placed on the language of knowledge. This is referred to as Cognitive Academic Language Proficiency (CALP). In other words, to succeed in school, the students need to develop a relevant language of knowledge. While BICS on one hand contains a limited vocabulary, CALP places significantly greater demands on vocabulary and more complex grammatical structures (Cummins, 2017).
2.2 Perspectives on reading
In Goodman´s early work on reading he explains the reading, process through three kinds of knowledge (Goodman, 1967, referred to in Gibbons, 2002 p. 78): “semantic knowledge (knowledge of the world; syntactic knowledge (knowledge of the structure of the language); and graphophonic knowledge (knowledge of the sound-
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letter relationships).” This knowledge is used simultaneously, and what effective readers do is to choose between them, depending on earlier experiences (Gibbons, 2002). Therefore it matters how much knowledge the reader already has about the topic.
According to this, Goodman states that reading is a psychological guessing game, meaning that it is not the precise perception nor the identification of everything read that will make a reader skillful. Efficient reading is rather the ability to select the
“…most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right the first time”
(Goodman, 1967, p. 2) and this requires an ability to anticipate what has not yet been seen. Since the passive reader assumes that everything is clear in the text, it is easy to become stressed or lose interest in getting through it. This may be unintentionally, as well as that the motivation to complete the task is more important than to get a deeper understanding.Reichenberg (2008) claims that it is naïve to think that passive reading depends solely up on how often one reads; instead she believes that the reading ability is something that constantly needs to be challenged. The fact that a reader becomes passive may also be due to limited vocabulary or insufficient prior knowledge, linguistic as well as more culture-specific, and this results in a double learning effort (Reichenberg, 2008).
Many books also require familiarity with aspects that are cultural. Cultural aspects should not be avoided but instead the children need help to build up knowledge about the matter, something that will provide help when reading the text.
If they do not know anything about the topic in combination with limited linguistic resources, there is a risk to rely too heavily on graphophonic knowledge (Gibbons, 2002). To rely heavily on graphophonic knowledge when reading can result in slow reading – word by word – and disrupt the possibility to understand the content in the text. “Rather, ESL learners need access to a linguistically and culturally rich reading environment, a range of reading strategies to bring the process of reading, and a literacy program that aims to develop all the roles that effective readers take on”
(Gibbons, 2002, p. 84). To predict what a text is about is a very important strategy for reading comprehension.
There are two methods, bottom-up and top-down, that need to be described.
Bottom-up is a traditional method, starting with the smallest piece of the language, for example graphophonic knowledge and spelling. The students begin with single
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words and build sentences with help from patterns of grammar (Gibbons, 2009).
According to Gibbons, this is not beneficial for students who study a second language due to differences in the sounds compared with their first language and because the texts in general are far from what they already know which will make the reading very abstract (Ibid).
Top-Down is a completely different method; it is a more holistic method. In this method it is more beneficial to recognize what kind of text it is and for what purpose it is written. Gibbons (2009) states that students´ preknowledge of the world and the language they already have will be a help in predicting what the text will be about.
The students´ ability to apply metacognitive strategies is hampered by insufficient prior knowledge. When students get introduced to a new text, for example informational text, they need to get familiar with the structure, and activate their thoughts about the content because what they know from start is important Blachowics & Ogle, 2008).
2.3 English in Swedish classrooms
The syllabus from the National curriculum will be presented, mainly regarding reading comprehension as it is the focus of this thesis, followed by English taught in a Swedish context.
2.3.1 The English syllabus
The initial text in the English syllabus states, “The English language surrounds us in our daily lives and is used in such diverse areas as politics, education and economics” (SNAE, 2011a, revised 2018, p. 34). The aim of the English syllabus is therefore to give the students tools necessary for communication in a language that will increase their opportunities to be a part of an international society. All-round communication skills should be a part of the teaching, including spoken and written English and there should be opportunities for the students “… to develop their ability to understand and interpret the content of spoken English and in different types of texts”, as well as to “…use language strategies to understand” (SNAE, 2011a, p.
34).
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When language skills are not enough, they need to use different strategies to solve problems and support communication. Therefore, the aim is to develop and use different strategies. For each subject, including English, there are knowledge requirements for passing grades E, C and A. E is the lowest passing grade and if knowledge is insufficient, the students can be awarded an F (SNAE, 2011b). The following quote is taken from the knowledge requirements for grade E at the end of year nine:
Pupils can understand the main content and clear details in English spoken at moderate pace and in basic texts in various genres. […] To facilitate their understanding of the spoken language and texts, pupils can choose and apply a strategy for listening and reading. content of the spoken language and texts, strategy for listening and reading (SNAE, 2011a, p. 39).
The only difference if compared with knowledge requirements for grade C or higher at the end of year nine is that the students need to choose and apply more than one strategy (SNAE 2011a, p. 39-41). In the core content, years 7-9, one can read about
“…strategies for understanding details and context in spoken language and texts, such as adapt listening and reading to the type of communication, contents and purpose” (SNAE, 2011a, p. 37).
2.3.2 Monolingual instruction
The Swedish Schools Inspectorate (2011) presented a report where they examined teachers´ use of English in the Swedish classroom. Of 293 schools across Sweden, approximately 50 per cent of the teachers reported, the use of English-only as a medium of instruction (Källkvist et al., 2017). According to Källkvist et al. (2017), this may be realistic in Sweden due to good proficiency levels in English and because of the similarities between Swedish and English, but for the students who are bilinguals, in for example Swedish and Arabic, it might be a greater challenge to enter a classroom with a strict English-only approach. The other 50 per cent used both Swedish and English as languages of instruction which can be difficult for non- native Swedish learners (Källkvist et al., 2017). The English-Swedish policy can also be seen in the schoolbooks in the form of wordlists in Swedish and English.
According to Lundahl (2012), these wordlists are problematic for students with a foreign background who have limited knowledge in Swedish. He wants to explore other ways of learning new words and phrases in the multilingual classroom.
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2.4 Previous research and theories
This section present earlier research on reading comprehension among bilinguals and multilinguals, followed by research on university students’ attitude towards an English-only policy. The previous research is about university students, but the fact that they share similar experiences with the students in this thesis makes it relevant to use. Each category of research will be connected to important background theories, striving to find out and explain more about what linguistic challenges and opportunities multilingual students experience when reading in English.
2.4.1 Research on reading
According to Cummins (2000), the second language reader will need to have developed reading ability in the first language. If the reader has a poor reading comprehension in L1, then more support will be needed in learning to read in the second language (Gibbons, 2002). A study from the US and Canada shows that when reading and writing was interrupted in the first language, learning in the second language was more difficult (Cummins, 2001). Lack of rich literacy practices in home languages can therefore be an obstacle for academic success (García, 2011).
Other studies have shown that the role of home language only explains 1 % of the variance (Strand & Schwippert, 2016). These findings indicate that a student´s home language only accounts for a very small part of the differences in reading achievement when compared to native-speaking students. Therefore other factors such as school climate, parental support and teachers´ support need to be considered (Strand & Schwippert, 2016).
2.4.2 The interdependence hypothesis
According to the interdependence hypothesis, listening, speaking, writing and reading abilities develop in parallel in the students’ L1 and L2 (Cummins, 2017).
Pronunciation is counted as a superficial aspect that differs between languages, whereas there is an underlying conceptual ability that is common. Thus, reading and writing skills, as well as learning strategies, can be transferred between languages
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and to describe this phenomena Cummins uses the term Common Underlying Proficiency as a part of The Dual Iceberg Model (Cummins, 2017, p. 140).
Retrieved from: https://ealresources.bell-foundation.org.uk/eal-specialists/research-1970s-onwards- jim-cummins
By this model Cummins wanted to show “…that knowledge and abilities acquired in one language are potentially available for the development in a second language because of the common underlying proficency” (García, 2011, p. 5). If the student already has a developed cognitive/academic language proficiency (CALP) in L1, it is therefore more likely that the L2 will be acquired more rapidly (Cummins, 2000).
2.4.3 Research on language policy
Monolingualism seen through a Western scholarly lens is commonly established as the norm while bilingualism is seen as double monolingualism (García, 2009).
Regarding the best practice in foreign language teaching there are three interrelated assumptions (Cummins, 2007, p. 222-225):
1. Instruction should be carried out exclusively in the target language without recourse to students´ LI.
2. Translation between L1 and L2 has no place in the teaching of language or literacy.
3. Within immersion and bilingual programs, the two languages should be kept separate.
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In Shvidko´s (2017) study, the aim was to find out what attitudes the students had toward an English-only institutional policy. The study was conducted at a large private University in the United States. The purpose of the school´s program was to develop proficency in interpersonal communication as well as academic studies (Ibid). Students who represented the most common L1 groups were selected and asked to answer a survey about attitudes toward English-only policy. Afterwards, student interviews and focus groups were conducted for further understanding (Shvidko, 2017). Responses from the survey revealed that 84,2 per cent of all the students had a generally positive attitude toward target language only (TL) and a majority of them thought the TL policy reminded them to use English more often.
Similarly, the participants in her study said that TL policy helped them to step “out of their comfort zone” and towards improved language skills (Shvidko, 2017, p. 37).
Despite showing an overall positive attitude towards the TL policy, there was some dissatisfaction about the teacher’s attitude towards the students´ use of L1.
According to the study many students believed that L1 could offer necessary help, especially for clarification and “…more than half of the survey participants believed that L1 should be allowed for students of lower proficiency levels” (Shvidko, 2017, p. 40). Further, they thought there should be an equal acceptance of both native language and English, that it was not realistic to have English-only rule.
There might be a practical justification for monolingualism, for example that the students have several first languages and therefore it is impossible to take them all into account, but according to Cook, there is no explicit reasons for avoidance in a classroom where students do not share the same first language (Cook, 2001).
Instead, he argues for methods aiming to create links between the languages and where L1 can serve as an important tool when carrying out cognitively and linguistically complex tasks (Cook, 2001).
2.4.4 The translanguaging perspective
Cen Williams (1996) was the first to use trawsiseithu as a Welsh term for pedagogical practice in Welsh/English classrooms. The simultaneous use of both languages in the same lesson contributed to improved language and knowledge development. Translanguaging is a theory that puts a focus on the diversity of languages when used simultaneously and not separately. The Welsh scholars
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understood the importance of an integrated bilingualism and to let the students use both English and Welsh for receptive and productive purposes (García & Lin, 2016).
A pedagogy that favors translanguaging means that monolingual methods and attitudes are reversed in favor of the students´ entire linguistic repertoires and register, which instead are being used as resources for more effective learning (Paulsrud, et al., 2018). For the classroom, this means that the teacher acknowledges the students´ linguistic resources, meaning that the students rather use all their languages for a better learning situation. García and Li Wei (2014) use the definition
“translanguaging space” when referring to these classroom practices. This can for example mean that the students read a text in English but write a summary in their mother tongue. According to García and Lin (2016), there are many advantages with a translanguaging perspective, not least the linguistic flexibility it offers. By imposing a translanguaging perspective, the bilingual students are free to use all their resources to help them to make sense of the new language they are learning (García & Lin, 2016).
When the students enter higher grades, it presents a more demanding linguistic challenge as the instructions become more cognitively demanding while at the same time usually more context-reduced (Cummins, 2017). Hammond and Gibbons (2001) explain the relation between challenge and support:
With low challenge and high support, students will operate within their comfort zone and may enjoy their classroom experiences, but they are unlikely to learn a great deal. It is when the learning context provides both high challenge and high support that most learning takes place (2001, p. 16).
Therefore, Gibbons (2009) continues to stress the importance of high expectations on the students´ potential, meaning that their ability to deal with these more cognitively demanding tasks are possible but need to be combined with lots of support, referred to as scaffolding. Scaffolding is a metaphor first used by the psychologists Wood, Bruner and Ross in 1976, describing the nature of parental support given to children in language development (Hammonds & Gibbons, 2001).
Bruner was influenced by Lev Vygotskskij and his sociocultural theory. Since then the term is well known and used in an uncountable amount of research about teachers´ support in school. Scaffolding aims at providing the students the necessary support for them to be independent learners and this means support given at the time in need (Hammonds & Gibbons, 2001).
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Gibbons and Hammond state; “To be truly effective, such support needs to be progressively adjusted to address the needs of different students within the one classroom” (2001, p. 17). For a long time, teachers have been going back and forth between languages for a scaffolding purpose, but even among bilingual teachers there are some difficulties in accepting translanguaging pedagogical strategies (García & Lin, 2016). By employing a translanguaging perspective on bilingual education in Sweden, we should look at “…how English and Swedish are used together to offer affordances and scaffolding for both content and language learning…” (Paulsrud, 2014, p. 221). In summary, we should move beyond additive bilingualism and aim for the dynamic bilingualism translanguaging has to offer.
3 Methology and Data
This study has a qualitative approach and consists of focus groups interviews based on the research questions about reading strategies. In this section, information about participants, material, method, process, ethics, validity and limitations will be presented and discussed.
3.1 Selection of participants
For this study, there were three groups with three participants in each group, a total of nine students. There was no gender perspective considered when selecting the participants, though it was not considered necessary for the research questions on strategies used by the students. The participants were students in compulsory school, ninth grade, studying English as a foreign language. All participants had in common that they learnt Swedish as a second language for more than four years. Their proficiency level in English was lower than their L1 and L2. Most of the students shared either Somali or Arabic as their L1, but Romani and Albanian were also represented.
3.2 Selection of materials
The material used in this study is a paragraph from a text found in a schoolbook called Sparks textbook year 9 (Appendix: All women allowed to vote). The name of
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the author is Jeremy Tylor and the book was published 2018 (Gleerups education AB). The purpose of the text is to inform about women´s suffrage. There is a picture and a heading to the text. It was chosen because of the accurate level of proficiency and has a topic that requires some academic background.
3.3 Procedure
The purpose of this section is to justify the chosen method and to give information about the process of designing, piloting and finally conducting the focus group interviews.
3.3.1 Designing the interviews
Focus group interviews are “a qualitative research data collection method that involves interviewing two or more people simultaneously” (Roller & Lavrakas, 2015, p. 354). This kind of group discussion is a dynamic process where the participants can exchange ideas that preferably result in new experiences. It should not be confused with talk that occur naturally, though “…focus groups are always arranged by a researcher for the purpose of research” (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2011, p.166). Even if there were some presumptions about the students´ strategies, it was not completely clear what all the surrounding issues were. According to Hesse-Biber and Leavy (2011), focus groups can help the researcher figure out what these key issues are. The students´ background as multilinguals was a good reason for focus group interviews. The focus group interviews gave new insights into the reading process of multilinguals and therefore served as a unique form of data.
3.3.2 Piloting the interviews
In order to make sure the questions were concrete and easy to understand, a pilot study was conducted. The pilot study took place in the same school as the actual study. Three students were given a consent form (Appendice). At first they were given some time to read the piece of text. After reading they were informed orally and offered to ask clarifying questions. The reason for this was to make sure everything was understood correctly before signing the consent form. Shortly after they agreed to participate, the focus group interviews started. The text used was of
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similar length and level as the text aimed for the study. It took approximately seven minutes for them to read and underline difficult words. The next step was to try out the questions. The overall responses were that the questions were easy to understand.
They thought the amount of text was enough to answer the questions.
3.3.3 Conducting the interviews
A total of three focus groups interviews were conducted. A letter on informed consent was given to the participants. The process of informed consent followed the same procedure as the pilot study. All interviews were conducted in Swedish, audio- recorded and transcribed for content. Answers were then translated into English, with grammatical errors included. The questions were about their choice of reading strategies (Appendix: Interview questions). At first, they read the text and were asked to underline words they did not understand or found difficult. This took approximately 5 minutes. After reading. they were asked one question at a time. The questions were given to them in a specific order and they could only see one at a time. The four questions were answered and discussed in small group discussions.
The interviews took about 4-7 minutes each. The interviews were transcribed right after the interviews.
3.4 Thematic analysis
The thematic analysis was driven by the research questions of this thesis and has a deductive stamp; meaning that it began with the hypothesis that the students´ L1 is the most important language in learning an additional language. Braun and Clarke (2006) recommend a guide that is useful when analyzing the results. The first step was to get familiar with the data by reading all the focus group interviews carefully and put their answers into relation to the research questions. As a second step, two hypothetically possible main themes (or categories) were set up. The first theme was on reading comprehension and strategies and the second on students´ beliefs about English-only. Based on the main themes, a color coding in yellow and blue was made. This was done in order to sort the interview results under the correct theme.
When writing the second theme about students´ beliefs, another pattern emerged,
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EFL in the Swedish context. This change helped organize the results better, all according to the aim of the thesis.
3.5 Ethics
All interviews must follow ethical principles and therefore the students were given a consent form with all necessary information and clarification of the parts they did not completely understand. The consent form was written in Swedish since it would be difficult for the students to understand more formal English. All the students had a good proficiency level in Swedish. If something was ambiguous, they got further explanation. The purpose of informed consent is to make sure the participants are aware of potential risks when participating in a project (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2011). As a researcher, one needs to make sure the participants understand that their participation is completely voluntary and that they can drop out from their study whenever they want. Once they participate, it is important that they understand to what degree the confidentiality is afforded to them (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2011, p.
64). They were told that recordings were only for this study and that their names or school would not appear anywhere, all information would be kept safe.
3.6 Reliability and validity
When conducting a qualitative study, validity and reliability can be complex issues.
A description of the researcher´s relationship with the group as well as the use of multiple means needs to be explained and analyzed (Hesse-Biber & Leavy, 2011).
Focus group interviews are also a dynamic process, meaning that the conversation occurs within a specific context, and between chosen participants. To address this fact one can say that it is difficult, if not impossible, to replicate the same result.
According to this, Hesse-Biber and Leavy (2011) conclude that even if the same researcher conducted the same focus group interviews again, most likely the data would differ.
The fact that the participants knew the researcher could have influenced the result of this study. Therefore it was written in the consent form as well as orally that participation would not affect their grades. Another way to address this was to have the group discussions first after they had received their grade in English. The
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purpose was not to find out their proficiency level in reading and therefore it can be assumed that the researcher’s relation to the participants had very little, or no effect at all on the validity of the result. On the contrary, this relation could have been beneficial for the discussions due to comfort within the groups to share ideas.
3.7 Method reflections
For this study, a total of nine students participated. If I did this research again it could have been interesting to have a gender perspective. Unfortunately, it is something that would have required more participants and a risk of being a larger scale study. The students participating in the study had E, or higher, as a grade and the reason for this was to be able to use the same text for all of them. If the text was too difficult for them, they would not have been able to share their strategies in the same way. The ones who were thought to give as much information as possible were asked, meaning willingness to participate was an important criteria. To talk about strategies requires a good proficiency level and therefore the questions were in Swedish. If the use of English was required in the groups interviews, it would most likely not result in any discussion. A reason for choosing students with a good proficiency level in Swedish was to use a language they all shared and felt comfortable with. In order to have a good focus on each question, they were given one at a time as a strategy to keep focus in the discussions.
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4. Results
Here, the results are presented in the same order as the questions were asked. When the students had the text in front of them, they first read and underlined the words which they found difficult or did not understand. In all three focus groups, the students answered that the first thing they did was to read the heading and look at the picture. They found that by reading the heading they were more prepared for the following part of the text. They also agreed that the picture was helpful as it helped them predict the content. In two of the focus group discussions, they mentioned that despite the importance of the picture, it would have been more difficult if the heading was left out. As one of them expressed it:
Without the heading it would have been more difficult. In the of the text you would have understood but it would have been harder to connect.
According to one of the students, it would have been possible to understand the text even without the heading, but a lot harder. She said that the picture helped clarify what the text was about, but the heading was crucial for their understanding.
After reading the text, they were asked about the content of the short paragraph they had just read. Five of the students simply answered that they had understood but gave no further information. Two of the students gave very short answers like
´woman´s rights´, ´a demonstration´. Only two of the students gave more developed answers including women´s suffrage and their right to vote, which were words they expressed in Swedish. Most of the students said it was not necessary to understand all words in order to get the content of the paragraph. There were several words that were difficult to understand. The frequency of the words they underlined can be seen in the table below.
Table 1: Frequency of difficult words words in text N= 9
suffrage 7
beneficial 6
The act 3
To vote 1
equal 1
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As one can see in the table, the words that almost all the students underlined were
´suffrage´ and ´beneficial´. The purpose for further discussions was to find out more about their use of strategies in dealing with these difficult words. One student said that a common strategy for dealing with difficult words was to underline them and then come back to them after reading the whole text. In all the groups, at least one of the students expressed that when they did not understand a word, they chose to read the sentence before and after the word revealing that the purpose for this was to guess the meaning of the word. In two of the groups, the students said that they divided a long word in two parts to see if that made it more comprehensible. They expressed that the thought behind this was the assumption that a long word can contain two shorter words. One of the students said she even tried to erase a word to see if it was possible to understand the meaning of the text by simply skipping it.
Another common answer in all groups was to translate the word that was difficult, like this example from one of the students:
I search for synonyms or translation or split the word. First, I translate the word to Swedish. Then I read before and after to see if the word connects to it.
The overall answers showed that Swedish was the preferred language the students turned to when translating words. They expressed that their first language sometimes helped them, but they also thought that it usually did not offer the exact translation they were looking for, but they did use it sometimes. Like one of the students stated:
If I don´t understand the word in Swedish, then I translate to my first language…if I don´t understand it either, I´ll search for synonyms.
In two of the groups, they concluded that Swedish is important in order to understand English. As one student in one of the groups expressed it:
Only English can be difficult, many students may not have learned so good English when they came here.
The other students in her group agreed and said it is good to have another language that can help you.
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In the focus group discussions about the best way to understand a text, the overall answers were that it must be read more than once, and thoroughly. An example of this was what a student said about the importance of reading the whole text carefully:
You can´t just read a paragraph and skip the rest and then think that you will grasp the whole text.
Another student implied that the first time you read a text you get an important insight into what it is about, but that it is the second time things will be clarified for you. One student said that it was helpful to summarize the main findings of the text and repeat the parts that were difficult, pointing out that she did the writing in Swedish. Another thing that was brought up in one of the group discussions was the usefulness of knowing what type of text it was. By this, they meant that it could be important to know if it was an article or a factual text because then you know how it is written. In conclusion, these findings bring some clarity to what strategies are used by non-native EFL learners in a Swedish school context. In the next section, these results will be further examined and discussed.
5. Data analysis and discussion
The aim was to investigate what linguistic challenges and opportunities multilingual students experience when reading in English. This will be set up in two themes:
firstly, the students´ use of reading strategies, analyzed and discussed through the lens of the interdependence hypothesis; secondly, the EFL in a Swedish context, discussed through the lens of scaffolding and translanguaging.
5.1 Students´ use of reading strategies
At the outset, the students answered that they first read the heading and looked at the picture to be more prepared for the rest of the text. They also concluded that the heading was more important for their understanding than the picture. As explained by Gibbons (2002), this is an important strategy for reading comprehension.
Further, she argues that if previous experiences have provided us with the schematic knowledge we need, then it is easier to make predictions about the text (Gibbons, 2002). This was brought up in one of the group discussions, as they talked about the
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usefulness of knowing what type of text it was. According to the curriculum, the students should develop their ability in understanding different types of texts, and to use different strategies when language skills are not enough.
Blachowics and Ogle (2008) identify that students need to get familiar with the structure of a text in order to apply metacognitive strategies. This means that if the students have learned these strategies in L1, then it will be easier to apply when they learn an additional language. The two students giving more detailed answers about women´s suffrage and equality give reason to believe that earlier knowledge supported their understanding of the content.
Further, one of the students pointed out that in order to get a deeper understanding it is very important to read a text more than once: “that you cannot just be lazy and believe you will get the point anyway”. Reichenberg (2008) identifies that this kind of passive reading can be due to limited vocabulary and insufficient prior knowledge, in contrast to just the lack of motivation that the student brought up.
Two thirds of the students revealed that a common strategy in dealing with limited vocabulary was to guess what the difficult word meant by reading the word in its context. According to Goodman´s earlier work, efficient reading is about the ability to select the “…most productive cues necessary to produce guesses which are right at the first time” (1967, p. 2). The student who expressed that you can not be lazy and get the point anyway gave reason to believe that she is an efficient reader, though she understood that this guessing game requires active reading.
Results show that none of the students used the traditional bottom-up method, something that can be interpreted as having achieved functional reading strategies.
By contrast, the result indicates that they chose a top-down perspective, for example by reading the headline and checking the picture to figure out the content before reading the whole text. How well they understood the text was not measured in this research but from their answers about the content one can assume that they understood the main points but perhaps not the details. This means that knowledge in other languages, such as their L1 and L2, seemingly helped them when reading the text about women´s suffrage. This is in line with Cummins´s (2017) interdependence hypothesis where languages share underlying features such as already adapted reading and writing skills. According to the hypothesis, Cummins argues that second language learning will benefit from a developed CALP in L1.
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Results from the US/Canada study showed that when reading in L1 was interrupted, learning in the second language would be more difficult than if they already had knowledge of reading in L1 (Cummins, 2001). The students in this research did not talk about their reading habits, but that could be an additional point for further investigation. By using the Dual Iceberg Theory, Cummins (2017) has identified many important issues in bilinguals´ language learning, but for further research it would be interesting to learn more about the crosslinguistic influence between all languages. For example, the relationship between L2 and L3 or L4. If for example Cummins’s iceberg had three or four summits, then how would the underlying proficiency appear.
Other strategies used by the students were to split a long word in two parts, or to translate the word, but this will be further analyzed and discussed under the following theme, focusing on English in a Swedish context.
5.2 EFL in a Swedish context
Three of the students answered that a common strategy was to split a word in two, to figure out the meaning of the word but in two separate units. The reason for splitting a word in two parts can be based on the underlying syntactic knowledge in Swedish rather than their L1, as the Swedish language is more interwoven with English than their L1 and therefore shares some important syntactic features. In accordance with this five of the students expressed that their first choice was to translate the English word to Swedish, like the student who enlightened that she rather wrote a summary in Swedish than in English or her L1. The reason for this can, as mentioned earlier be because Swedish is a stronger academic language for them, but also the fact that Swedish and English is more similar than for example Arabic and English (Källkvist, et al., 2017).
The results clearly show that the students tend to rely more heavily on Swedish than their L1 when reading in English. Jessner (2006) states that second language research usually assumes that L2 is the weaker language which is something that seemingly needs to be rethought when considering the results of this study. This indicates that their ability to read in L2, rather than L1, seems to have helped them when reading in English. Cummins (2001) states that it is very important that the students have developed a reading ability in the first language; if not, more support
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will be required when learning L2. Much of his research is based on the students as bilinguals learning English as a second language, while this thesis rather focuses on multilingual students learning English as a foreign language. This might be a reason why the outcomes of the results surprisingly highlight Swedish as the preferred language of support. Swedish is the language of instruction in most schools in Sweden and the students in this study are therefore used to reading texts in Swedish, which can explain why they rather turn to Swedish (than L1) for support. Also Strand and Schwippert (2016) concluded that other factors such as school climate, parental support and the teacher´s support played a much greater role for the students’ reading achievement than the role of their home language.
Most of the students thought English only would be difficult and explained possible constraints due to poor language proficiency. In contrast, the university students in Shvidko´s study had a positive attitude towards target language only and thought it helped them to step “out of their comfort zone” (2017, p. 37). Those students still believed that L1 should have a place in their language learning, but that it was not realistic to have a rule for English-only. From the results in this thesis, the students rather thought their L2 should have a place in their language learning.
García (2011) writes about additive bilingualism and believe it is important to see language learning as a dynamic process where languages should not be kept apart from each other. Further, she argues that the students will have a greater linguistic flexibility if a translanguaging space is created in classroom practices. In addition, García (2011) explains that even if a strong L1 is important for literacy practices, it does not have to be fully developed to scaffold the second language; on the contrary, languages should be introduced and used simultaneously.
In accordance with her statement, the findings in this study confirm that both L1 and L2 are used simultaneously when reading in English. If we encourage the students to use all their languages, they could gradually be able to move towards a greater use of English. This more flexible use of languages, which the translanguaging perspective has to offer, can help the students move out from their comfort zone and deal with more cognitively demanding tasks. Cook (2001) states that the students several first languages is no reason for avoidance; instead methods should aim for creating links between the languages. This kind of support must be given at the time in need and addressed to “…the needs of different students within the one
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classroom” (Hammond & Gibbons, 2001, p. 17). This can mean that teachers not only need to acknowledge the students´ whole linguistic resource but also preferably see how Swedish specifically can be used to scaffold the students´ English language learning (Paulsrud, 2014).
Given these facts, the students´ L1 seems to be of less importance than expected.
Instead, it seems like their L2 offer more possibilities when reading in English. At the end of years 6 and 9, the students must perform the national tests which obliges use of English only. This means that a translanguaging perspective may offer the necessary support that the EFL learners need to gradually become more comfortably in language learning.
6. Conclusion
Based on the results it was clear that the students had strategies for how to read a text. This implies that they had previous experiences that helped them even when learning an additional language. Their knowledge in Swedish seemed to offer the schematic knowledge and can be a reason for their good knowledge about different text types but also due to good knowledge of strategies in their L1. From this point of view the importance of L1 needs to be discussed. The assumption about the role of L1 can be true for newly arrived students but not necessary for the ones with a good Swedish proficiency level. Further studies need to focus on the importance of L2 in learning additional languages. In a Swedish context this means that we need to explore and further investigate the role of Swedish in learning English as a foreign language. Not least for the students with a foreign background but perhaps also for the native Swedish students. If the Swedish language can be used to scaffold learning then we need to address this knowledge and give way for a greater academic success among all students that might benefit from it. This small-scale research indicates that Swedish can be used to scaffold learning, and therefore make reason for rethinking monolingual teaching and instead employ a translanguaging space in the EFL classroom.
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7. References
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English in Sweden's elite domains. World Englishes 20(3). p.305–319 Blachowics. C. Ogle, D. (2008). Reading comprehension. Strategies for
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Braun, V. & Clarke, V. (2006). Using thematic analysis in psychology. Qualitative Research in Psychology.
Cook, V. 2001. Second language learning and language teaching. London: Arnold Crystal, D. (2003). English as a global language (2nd edition). Cambridge:
Cambridge University Press
Cummins, J. (2017). Flerspråkiga elever: Effektiv undervisning i en utmanande tid. Stockholm: Natur & Kultur.
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Gibbons, P. (2002). Scaffolding language, scaffolding learning: Teaching second language learners in the mainstream classroom. Portsmouth, NH:
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Jessner, U. (2006). Linguistic awareness in multilinguals. English as a third language. Edinburgh University Press
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8. Appendix
Interview questions in Swedish
Vad är det första du gör när du har en ny text framför dig?
Förstår du vad texten vill säga?
Hur gör du när du ser ord du inte förstår?
Vad anser du är det bästa sättet att förstå en text?
Interview questions in English
What was the first thing you did when you had the text in front of you?
Do you understand the content of the text?
What do you do when you see a word you do not understand?
According to you, what is the best strategy to understand a text?
