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Örebro University


Department of Humanities, Education and Social Sciences English

Teaching English to newly arrived students in Swedish lower secondary school

- A study of challenges and possibilities

Author: Gabriel Hagenfors Id no (880321-2433) Degree Project Essay Term 8

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Abstract

Sweden has in recent years seen a great increase of immigrants, which has led to more schools than ever having newly arrived students. In lower secondary schools, newly arrived students, who may not have studied English before, study English together with native-born Swedes who have studied English for some years already. This great mix of English proficiency levels makes it difficult for English teachers to adapt their teaching to every student’s needs, even though the Swedish curriculum for compulsory school states that “teaching should be adapted to each pupil’s

circumstances and needs” (Skolverket, 2011a, p. 10). In this degree project essay, I present what the National Agency for Education has published about teaching English to newly arrived students in lower secondary school, and I also answer the research question: How can English teachers create a good environment for learning English for newly arrived students in lower secondary school? The findings from three interviews with lower secondary school teachers are that the situation is challenging, and their best advice is to let the newly arrived students study English at their individual level through the help of computers and digital resources. The essay concludes with encouraging English teachers to have realistic ambitions regarding newly arrived students. Teachers must be able to accept that not all students will achieve a grade in English in year 9, but through the Language Introduction Programme, newly arrived students still have a genuine chance of fully completing their compulsory school education.

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Table of contents

1 Introduction ...1

2 Topic and research questions ...4

3 Method ...6

3.1 Literary study ...6

3.2 Qualitative interviews ...8

4 Findings ...11

4.1 Publications and regulations regarding newly arrived students ...11

4.2 Theoretical perspectives ...17

4.3 Teacher experiences of teaching newly arrived students ...20

5 Discussion and conclusion ...30

5.1 Analysing the publications from the National Agency for Education in light of the answers of the interviewed teachers ...30

5.2 The problem with multilingualism ...33

5.3 Practical tips on what to do within the current situation ...35

5.4 Future research ...36

5.5 Conclusion ...37

6 References ...39

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1.

Introduction

Sweden has seen a great increase of immigrants and refugees over these last few years. According to the publication Språkintroduktion: rapport 436 (Skolverket, 2016e), published by the National Agency for Education (Skolverket), as of January 1, 2011, 4000 newly arrived immigrants, aged 16-20, were registered in the reception system at the Swedish Migration Agency. Five years later, January 1, 2016, about 34,000 newly arrived immigrants in the same age group were registered, an increase of 750%. In the fall of 2015, nearly 18,700 students attended the Swedish Language Introduction Programme, which equals 6% of all the students attending upper secondary school (Skolverket, 2016e). This increase is tangible even in the compulsory school, where in October 2014, over 92,000 students were born outside Sweden, and where every fifth student has basic knowledge in a language other than Swedish (Skolverket, 2015).

For these young immigrants to become integrated into Swedish society, knowing the Swedish language is key, but they also need to know English. As Sweden, together with the rest of the world, has become more and more globalised, so has the role of English become increasingly important. Many jobs now require basic English knowledge and use, and for those seeking higher education, proficiency in English is often a requirement. In order for a student to apply for any upper secondary school, he or she must have passed the courses Swedish or Swedish as a second language, mathematics and English, though exceptions can be made regarding the English subject (Skolverket, 2013). These requirements clearly stress that it is of great importance to be able to understand and communicate in English in today’s Swedish society. The stakes are high since if newly arrived students do not complete their compulsory education, they will struggle to find a job and could easily end up outside an integrated society. Unemployment leads to resentment, which in turn makes people much more susceptible to criminality, anger and hate.

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The society we live in is constantly changing, and with change follows new challenges. The same applies for the Swedish school, which is a reflection of the broader Swedish society. One of the biggest changes society has faced during the last few years is a major increase of immigrants and refugees coming to this country, as depicted in the previous paragraph. Immigration is of course nothing new in Sweden, and at the teacher training programme at Örebro University we have

discussed and considered multicultural perspectives of teaching. However, what we have not talked about is the immediate effects the increase of newly arrived students is having on the Swedish school system.

Many English teachers in lower secondary schools now have newly arrived students in their classrooms who have limited Swedish language knowledge and who come with varying levels of English proficiency. Lundahl (2009) points out that the newly arrived students are not a

homogenous group and that while some have not studied English in their home countries, others speak excellent English (Lundahl, 2009). Even though today’s school classes are increasingly socioculturally heterogeneous, the Swedish Education Act, in items 8-9, stipulates that all students in Sweden shall have the same access to an equivalent education (Sverige, 2010). The Swedish curriculum for compulsory school further states that “teaching should be adapted to each pupil’s circumstances and needs. It should promote the pupils’ further learning and acquisition of knowledge based on pupils’ backgrounds, earlier experience, language and

knowledge” (Skolverket, 2011a, p. 10). These are honourable ideals but I can imagine that they must sometimes be hard to achieve, especially considering that the teacher is obliged to meet the needs of newly arrived students who might not speak either English or Swedish, while at the same time meeting the different needs of all the other students. As a student in English education, I am concerned to find out more about what the situation is currently like for English teachers regarding having newly arrived students participating together with the other students in the English language

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classrooms. I can only assume that English teachers will sometimes feel overwhelmed by the challenge of adapting his or her teaching to each pupil’s vastly different circumstances and needs.

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2. Topic and research questions

When it comes to teaching English to newly arrived students, there is a significant difference between lower and upper secondary school. All students attending upper secondary school, newly arrived or not, have passed the required compulsory school level of English and therefore share a somewhat common base of English proficiency. Students who do not meet the admission

requirements to attend upper secondary school can attend the Introduction Programmes in order to be prepared for the Swedish job market or to get the qualifications needed to attend upper secondary school. In lower secondary school, the situation is much different where the newly arrived students as soon as possible will be placed in the same teaching group as the rest of the students. This means that students with very different needs and language backgrounds are being taught in the same classroom, which poses additional challenges for the teacher. This specific issue is present in lower secondary school, but due to the Introduction Programme, it is not present to the same extent in upper secondary school. Since immigration has risen dramatically in recent years, and since I am soon to work as a lower secondary school English teacher, I find it very likely that even I would have newly arrived students in my English class. In order to prepare myself in this regard, I have for this degree project essay chosen the topic of teaching English to newly arrived students who attend regular class in the Swedish lower secondary school.

The aims of the essay are to:

• summarise the different stages a child goes through, from arriving in Sweden as an immigrant or refugee until the student is qualified to attend upper secondary school, and

• give practical tips and ideas to English teachers in lower secondary school who are about to teach newly arrived students.

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1. What has the National Agency for Education published about teaching English to newly arrived students in lower secondary school?

2. How can English teachers create a good environment for learning English for newly arrived students in lower secondary school?

I am writing this degree project essay in order to prepare myself for working as an English teacher in lower secondary school. Even if I would not personally have newly arrived students in my own class, my fellow English teacher colleagues surely will. In the next section I will present the methods I have used to answer my research questions. 


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3. Method

In order to address the research questions stated in the previous section, as well as to better inform and prepare myself for teaching English at secondary school, I employed the following research methods. For this degree project essay I have:

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Conducted a literary study of publications by the Swedish National Agency for Education regarding teaching English to newly arrived students in the Swedish lower secondary school.

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Conducted three qualitative interviews with teachers who have taught English at lower secondary

school with newly arrived students in their regular classes.

3.1 Literary study

My first method was to conduct a literary study consisting of publications and online articles by the National Agency for Education. Throughout the literary study I have kept in mind both my aim to “summarise the different stages a child goes through, from arriving in Sweden as an immigrant or refugee until the student is qualified to start upper secondary school” and my research question “what has the National Agency for Education published about teaching English to newly arrived students in lower secondary school?”. In order to collect my data, I went to the Agency’s website www.skolverket.se. Using the keyword “nyanlända elever” (newly arrived students) in their own website search engine resulted in 287 hits. Looking through all of them was never an option given the time parameters of this essay, but by looking through the top results I quickly found material relevant to my aim and research question. On their website, the Agency always shows helpful links to their other publications about adjacent topics. The same goes for their publications, in which I found many references I would later look up and add to my own data collection. This method for

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data selection is called snowballing and was used until my review of the literature reached theoretical density (Eriksson Barajas et al., 2013).

For my data analysis, I chose the method of content analysis, which according to Eriksson Barajas et al. (2013), is characterised by how researchers “systematically and step by step classify data, in order to more easily be able to identify patterns and themes, where the goal is to describe and quantify specific phenomena” (p. 147, my translation). The content analysis for this essay was undertaken in four steps. Firstly, as publications and articles were read, all passages with relevant information regarding my aims and research questions were copied and pasted into a new

document. Secondly, all passages were categorised into subheadings under my two overall headings “Publications and regulations regarding newly arrived students” and “Theoretical perspectives”. Thirdly, texts from complete subheadings were excluded if they were not relevant enough and did not fit within the timeframe limitations of the essay. Fourthly, the texts from each remaining subheading were summarised and presented in the findings section.

A limitation in using the snowballing method for data selection process is that there is a present risk that an important aspect of the newly arrived student-process might be missed. Another risk is that if I would be to strictly only follow the snowballing method, then I would only read progressively older publications and newer research and regulations would be missed. In order to avoid these limitations, I actively sought to verify my findings with the teachers I interviewed. I also constantly checked the Agency’s website to make sure that my findings were up to date. In this essay, I therefore claim that my findings are as up to date as possible, but I also want to

acknowledge that the regulations from the National Agency of Education could come to change in recent years, and therefore make parts of my findings out of date.

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3.2 Qualitative interviews

My second method was to conduct three qualitative interviews with teachers who teach English at lower secondary school with newly arrived students in their regular classes. The reason I selected teachers based on this criteria was because I wanted to listen to the experience of teachers who had faced the issue I am looking into. The first thing I did was to decide that I wanted my interviews to be qualitative and semistructured. By semistructured I mean that I would have a set of prepared questions grouped into themes, but instead of making sure that the teachers answered all my questions I would let the teachers’ answers direct the course of the interview. This is in accordance to Fejes & Thornberg’s (2015) description that with a semistructured interview, “the dialog between the interviewer and the informant is to a high degree dependent on the answers of the

informant” (Fejes & Thornberg, 2015, p. 166, my translation). On the one hand I wanted to ask followup questions and talk about what was important to the teacher, and on the other hand I wanted to make sure that we covered most of my presented themes. Since I had decided for my interviews to be maximum 30 minutes, a semistructured interview was an ideal approach. The interview questions are included in the Appendix.

In order to find English teachers willing to be interviewed I designed an information letter in which I briefly presented myself, the essay and the outline of the interview. I then went to six different lower secondary schools and met with the headmasters, who in their turn distributed my letter to their respective English teachers. Due to my timeframe for data collection colliding with the national tests in English, all English teachers I had contacted but one were unable to participate. At that point, I expanded my criterion for the informants to also include teachers who had taught English at lower secondary school with newly arrived students in their regular classes, but that might not be currently teaching. This enabled me to get a different perspective on my topic since I, through the help of friends and colleagues, found previous lower secondary school teachers, who

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now taught English to newly arrived students at the Language Introduction Programme and Municipal Adult Education, respectively. One of the teachers I met with in person, the other two I interviewed over the phone. When contacting the teachers for the first time, in order to decide a time and date for the interviews, I got consent to record the interview and explained that they would be confidential informants, to which they all agreed. I recorded all interviews using my smartphone. The interviews were all conducted in Swedish.

To analyse the data collected from the interviews, I again chose the method of content analysis, which I described above. The content analysis for the interviews was undertaken in four steps. The first step was to transcribe the interviews from spoken Swedish to written English. This means that every quote from any one of the teachers throughout this essay has been translated by me. Most of the interviews were transcribed, except for parts that had no or little relevance for my essay. Throughout the interviews, the teachers often answered several questions that I had written down but had not asked yet. Therefore my second step was to arrange the transcribed texts in categories corresponding to my written interview questions. I also added new categories if they mentioned something relevant but that I had not asked about. The third step was to bring all three transcriptions into one document where all answers were placed next to each other under each question. Also in this step, in order to present my findings coherently, I switched the order in which the questions and answers were organised. In the fourth step I decided what should be included in the findings sections. To do this, I looked over all the answers and based on their relevance, I decided if an answer should be quoted, summarised or left out. My guideline for this step was to work as much as possible with the actual quotes themselves and to not interfere with my own summaries or paraphrases.

One limitation with conducting qualitative interviews is that I am only listening to three voices out of the hundreds I also could be listening to. As a researcher, I have to be aware that even

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if all three of my informants say the same thing or express the same idea, this does not mean that the same must be true at another school. This awareness causes me to be careful about what claims I can and cannot make based on my data. Another limitation is that all the data had to be translated from Swedish into English, which could pose a risk of important nuances being lost in translation. In those cases when translation was difficult, I added the original Swedish word or phrase in parentheses straight after the English translation.

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4. Findings

4.1 Publications and regulations regarding newly arrived students

The stages a child goes through, from arriving in Sweden as an immigrant or refugee to being qualified to attend upper secondary school is well documented by the Education Act and the National Agency for Education, and for this degree project essay I have looked at publications and web articles that the Agency has published related to teaching English to newly arrived students in lower secondary school. I am therefore in this section going to present findings related to my first research question: “What has the National Agency for Education published about teaching English to newly arrived students in lower secondary school?” In the discussion section, I will add a critical analysis of my findings.

I will here summarise the stages a newly arrived student goes through. To start, a “newly arrived student”, defined by the Education Act, item 12 a, is a person who 1) has been living abroad, 2) now lives in Sweden, and 3) has started compulsory school here later than the start of the autumn term the year he or she turns seven. A student is no longer considered “newly arrived” after four years have passed (Sverige, 2010). Students coming to Sweden in recent years have arrived from many different countries but most come from Afghanistan, followed by Syria and Iraq (Skolverket, 2016e). It is important to again stress that these students are not a homogenous group; however “common for most newly arrived students is that they have left the places where they previously lived and that they do not have Swedish as their mother tongue” (Skolverket, 2016e, p. 14, my translation).

In Sweden, all children aged 7-16 must attend compulsory school, and if a child in this age group arrives in a town and is nationally registered, then it is the obligation of the municipality to make sure that the child is offered a place in a compulsory school. Children applying for asylum

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and children with limited residence permits will not be nationally registered but have still the same right to attend compulsory school. The National Agency for Education, in their publication

Utbildning för nyanlända elever (Education for newly arrived students, my translation, 2016f),

stresses the importance of a close collaboration between the school headmaster and the municipality when a newly arrived child is to be accepted into a local school. According to the National Agency for Education, “it is not closely regulated how soon newly arrived children and youth […] are to be accepted into the educational system, but it needs to be done as soon as possible and without unnecessary delay” (Skolverket, 2016f, p. 15, my translation). As for asylum seekers, they should be implemented, at latest, a month after arrival (Skolverket, 2016f).

When the child has been accepted into the school, it is the responsibility of the headmaster to make sure that the knowledge of the student is assessed. The National Agency for Education calls this assessment a screening exercise (kartläggnig), and it is to be conducted with haste within two months from the arrival of the student. The Agency has in recent years thoroughly designed this screening exercise to help school staff in the assessment process. For the screening exercise, the headmaster should assemble suitable teachers and a translator, and if possible, enable the student to be assessed in his or her strongest language. The exercise consists of three steps and step 1 gives information about the student’s language and previous school experiences and functions as a

foundation for step 2, which assesses the student’s knowledge in literacy and numeracy (Skolverket, 2016b). As of April 15, 2017, it is mandatory for all compulsory schools to use steps 1 and 2 when assessing newly arrived students. The third step is optional to use and is uniquely designed to help teachers of specific subjects to assess the student’s knowledge in the given subject, e.g. English (Skolverket, 2016a/2016b). Based on the assessment, the age of the student, and personal circumstances considered, the newly arrived student is placed in an appropriate grade (Sverige,

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2010). In order for the student to be able to have meaningful social participation, it is important that contact with peers in the same age is not neglected (Skolverket, 2016f).

If the newly arrived student does not have sufficient knowledge in the Swedish language in order to participate in regular classes, then he or she may be taught in a preparation class (Sverige, 2010). The aim for the preparation class is to give the student temporary and focused support in the Swedish language so that he or she can participate in regular classes as soon as possible. It is not mandatory for the school to organise preparation classes, but the National Agency for Education states that these classes can be suitable for many students (Skolverket, 2016f). As soon as the student is considered ready to participate in the regular class of any given subject, the student will no longer be taught in the preparation class. This means that the student might first be taught in the preparation class, but will gradually shift towards being taught in the different regular classes (Skolverket, 2016f). It is not allowed for a student to receive all his or her teaching in a preparation class, and a student is not allowed to be taught there for more than two years (Skolverket, 2015).

Another way the school can help a newly arrived student learn the Swedish language is to offer him or her a prioritised timetable, in which the student, for a limited time, receives more teacher led teaching hours in the Swedish language. These hours are taken from other subjects, but focus extra on learning Swedish might help the student to achieve more in the other subjects. A student can only be offered a prioritised timetable for a maximum of one year (Skolverket, 2016f).

The Swedish School Ordinance (Skolförordningen) states that “a student shall be offered study guidance in his or her mother tongue, if the student needs it” (Sverige, 2011, chapter 5, §4, my translation). It is therefore the task of each school to appoint study tutors so that students who do not yet speak sufficient Swedish will be guided by someone in their mother tongue. The publication Studiehandledning på modersmålet (Study guidance in the mother tongue, my

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study guidance can shorten the time it takes for a newly arrived student to be able to participate in regular classes (Skolverket, 2015). It is easy to understand how important a study tutor can be for a newly arrived student. Students become more confident when they can show their knowledge in their strongest language, something that they cannot yet do in Swedish. This also has a positive effect on the students’ study motivation (Skolverket, 2015). If the student’s needs and the teacher’s planning is taken into account, study guidance in the mother tongue can be an effective support, and it is therefore important that the study tutor is familiar with different course plans and knowledge requirements. It should also be noted that being a study tutor is not the same as being a mother tongue teacher. While the mother tongue teacher follows the course plan for the school subject mother tongue, the study tutor helps the student in all school subjects (Skolverket, 2015).

When the newly arrived student is ready, he or she should start attending with the rest of the students in regular classes. The National Agency for Education has written some guidelines in order to help the school staff in this crucial moment for the newly arrived student. The Agency states that the headmaster should have prepared routines and that teachers and the rest of the school staff should exchange knowledge and experiences about the newly arrived student in order to follow the student’s knowledge in each subject. The teachers should also plan and carry out the teaching together in order to ease the transition between the preparation class and the regular classes (Skolverket, 2016f).

In regular class, all students follow the same curriculum and the same course plan and in this regard there are no exceptions for the newly arrived students. The same applies for assessment. A newly arrived student might start attending the school late in the term, and the teacher might therefore have little or no information about the student’s knowledge in a subject, yet “the same directions for assessment apply for the newly arrived students as it does for all the other

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lower secondary school that aims to apply for upper secondary school must pass the courses Swedish or Swedish as a second language, mathematics and English (Skolverket, 2013a).

However, if a student has had little or no opportunity to attend regular English class, and therefore does not meet the knowledge requirements, the student might still be accepted into upper secondary school through an exemption regulated by the Education Act (Sverige, 2010). The condition is that the student meets all the other qualification requirements and that the student is considered to have a chance to complete the education of the given programme (Skolverket, 2011b). The additional condition is that the student, when in upper secondary school, must complete both compulsory school English and the English courses for the given programme in the same time period as his or her peers only study the upper secondary courses (Skolverket, 2011b). For this transition to work, it is important that the compulsory school and the upper secondary school work closely together (Skolverket, 2011b). When a quoted local upper secondary school headmaster explains who the exemption is for, he mentions the most motivated newly arrived students (Skolverket, 2011b), which I find makes sense since a student exempt from compulsory English will have to work much harder than his or her peers in upper secondary school.

If a newly arrived student does not meet the knowledge requirements by the end of year 9, the student has the right to complete his or her compulsory education during another two years, a right every student has. However, the student also has the right to choose to enter an Introduction Programme (Skolverket, 2016f). There are five different Introduction Programmes within the upper secondary school, and the one specially adapted for newly arrived students is called the Language Introduction Programme. The students there are primarily being taught Swedish, and the aim for the programme is that “the students, after attending the Language Introduction Programme, will be able to move on to upper secondary school or some other education” (Skolverket, 2013c, p. 1, my translation). The National Agency for Education states that the Language Introduction Programme

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shall include the subjects from both compulsory school and upper secondary school that the student has not yet passed but needs for his or her continuous education (Skolverket, 2013b). A school is at the same time also allowed to turn the Language Introduction Programme into an education on a basic new-beginner level and let the students gradually continue their studies at another

Introduction Programme together with other students in need to make up their compulsory school grades (Skolverket, 2013c). Below is an outline of possible routes.

Figure 1: Language introduction

(Skolverket, 2013c, p. 11, my translation).

Coming to a new country with an unfamiliar culture is never easy, and it is not hard to imagine the difficulties these newly arrived students are facing as they start studying in school in a language they might never have heard before. It takes a lot of work from both the student and the school in order for a newly arrived student to possess the language-knowledge required for the different school subjects (Skolverket, 2016f). One publication by the National Agency for Education, called Greppa språket (Grip the language, my translation, 2012), states that it takes about 6 to 8 years for multilingual students to develop a proper school language. Not until then is the student able to fully adapt the language to multiple purposes and recipients (Skolverket, 2012). Statistics from the National Agency for Education show that multilingual students struggle more in school than other students do (Skolverket, 2015). More research on multilingualism will be

LANGUAGE INTRODUCTION

OTHER INTRODUCTION PROGRAMME

NATIONAL PROGRAMME (IF QUALIFIED) OTHER EDUCATION: E.G. MUNICIPAL ADULT EDUCATION,

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presented in the next section. Other statistics, also published by the National Agency for Education, show that students born outside Sweden who have arrived here before they start compulsory school, on average, have almost as good school results as students born in Sweden, but “the older a student is when immigrating, the worse school results that student tends to achieve” (Skolverket, 2015, p. 12, my translation).

4.2 Theoretical perspectives

While reading through the publications from the National Agency for Education, I came across two reoccurring themes that I found particularly important for my essay. One was research on

multilingualism, primarily by Jim Cummins, and the other one was the importance of adapting one’s teaching to meet the student’s needs. In this section on theoretical perspectives, I will expand on those topics.

One important aspect to take into consideration when teaching newly arrived students is to acknowledge the student’s mother tongue. The National Agency for Education points to research by Cummins (2000) which stresses the importance that the school and its teachers “[acknowledge] and make visible the students’ language experiences as an important resource in order for the students to invest in learning the target language” (Skolverket, 2016c, p. 1, my translation). As the students notice that their experience is given credibility and used as a resource, the engagement of the student will increase (Skolverket, 2016c). Lightbown & Spada (2013) explain that in everything we learn, we draw on what we already know and that this also is true when it comes to learning a new language. There are, in their words, “no doubts” that learners draw on patterns of languages they know in order to discover complexities and make sense of the target language (Lightbown & Spada, 2013). When this background language knowledge is harnessed through pedagogical approaches that promote language awareness, the student can start to see that aspects of language can be

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borrowed and adapted to the target language. The mother tongue and other languages a student might speak will then become useful linguistic resources (Cenoz, Hufeisen & Jessner, 2001).

Much research over the last decades has displayed the positive aspects of being multilingual. Jim Cummins (2000) has ever since the 70’s done research about multilingualism and in his book

Language, Power and Pedagogy he describes how during the last 30 years, close to 150 empirical

studies have been conducted that all have reported on the positive connection between speaking additional languages and students’ linguistic, cognitive, or academic growth. The most consistent result from these studies is that bilinguals have advantages in learning new languages, and that they display greater metalinguistic abilities — the ability to reflect on the use of language (Cummins, 2000).

Yet, it is not self-evident that learning another language will have solely positive

consequences. Cummins (1976) has brought forth his influential theory, called the threshold level

hypothesis, in which he claims that there are two threshold levels of linguistic competence that must

be attained in order for the beneficial cognitive aspects of bilingualism to be tangible. Once the first threshold level is achieved, by reaching high level proficiency in one of the languages,

“bilingualism will not bring about any negative cognitive effect”, whereas once the second

threshold level is achieved, by reaching high level proficiency in both languages, “bilingualism will have positive cognitive effects” (Lasagabaster, 1998, p. 119). However, if the learner has low proficiency in both languages, negative cognitive effects will come as a result instead

(Lasagabaster, 1998). Cummins’ (1976) original hypothesis was created with bilinguals in mind. David Lasagabaster (1998) sought to find out if the threshold level hypothesis could be applied to a trilingual context, which his findings prove it could (Lasagabaster, 1998).

As highlighted in the introduction, “teaching should be adapted to each pupil’s

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for every teacher. This means that teachers at the same time also must adapt their teaching to the knowledge level of the newly arrived students, a right regulated by Swedish law in the Education Act (Sverige, 2010). In 2011, the Swedish Schools Inspectorate, carried out a quality examination of how English is taught in grade 6-9 by scrutinising 22 different lower secondary schools from all across Sweden. The results from their report showed that 50% of the teachers showed more

weaknesses than strengths regarding their abilities to adapt their teaching to the students’ different needs (Skolinspektionen, 2011). What the Schools Inspectorate criticised was how common it was that the teachers handed out assignments where the students were expected to work in the same way to find the same answers, a model which led to many students being inactive since some sit and wait for help from the teacher, while others were done quickly and had to wait for new assignments. The report also gave examples of schools that, with the same resources, were successful in adapting to the students’ needs. These schools handed out open assignments which could be solved in

different ways, and where the students had more freedom to choose content and level of difficulty (Skolinspektionen, 2011).

The difference between the good and bad examples, previously described, lay in the teacher’s planning of the activities before the lesson. The skill of planning open and adapted activities is an important ability to have as a teacher, especially when teaching newly arrived students. Hedge (2000) emphasises that being able to plan good activities is an important aspect of teaching competence. She describes this aspect as “the ability to manage activities and interactions successfully in the sense that learners know what they need to do and why they are doing it, are motivated to work actively, are monitored and guided when help is needed, and can work undisturbed by discipline problems” (Hedge, 2000, p. 31).

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4.3 Teacher experiences of teaching newly arrived students

For this degree project essay, I conducted interviews with three different teachers and before I present the findings from the interviews, I describe them and explain the different perspectives they carry with them to the interviews. The informants were all women from three different medium sized cities and due to their confidentiality, I will here refer to them as teacher 1, teacher 2 and teacher 3. Teacher 1 currently works at a lower secondary school where she mainly has taught English and Swedish. She has been a teacher for about 17 years, and for the last six years, she has taught immigrant students in Swedish as a second language. This year she again teaches English, which she has not done for some years. Teacher 2 is currently retired, but still works some at the Municipal Adult Education, where she teaches English to adult immigrants. She started working as a teacher in 1974 and has since primarily taught English and French in lower secondary school. Teacher 3 currently teaches Swedish and English at the Language Introduction Programme, and at the same time, she teaches Swedish at an upper secondary school. She previously worked at a lower secondary school with an English profile where she, among different subjects, taught English. I had prepared 20 different questions for the interviews, but the questions I was the most eager to ask were “As a teacher, what are the most challenging aspects of working with newly arrived students?” and “In regular English teaching, how do you create a good environment for learning for newly arrived students, and what are your best tips to an English teacher about to teach newly arrived students?”

The first question I asked each teacher was what the process was like at their lower secondary schools when a newly arrived student was accepted to the school. Teacher 1 answered that this process has had different shapes throughout her years at her school. Some years ago all newly arrived students started off in what she called an “intro class” (introklass). But as for this year, she told me, each newly arrived student has come in year 7 and they have all joined their peers

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in regular classes from day one, though they have special schedules. Teacher 2 also mentioned that this process has been shaped differently over the years. She told me that there was and is, what she calls, an “reception group” (mottagningsgrupp) that is being organised for all newly arrived lower secondary school students in the municipality. All three teachers described in similar terms how their respective preparation classes for newly arrived students worked. The students were gradually being transferred to the different regular classes, first to practical subjects like crafts and physical education, and lastly to subjects like social studies and science studies. In all schools, the newly arrived students joined the regular English classes almost instantly, regardless of the students’ previous English knowledge. Teacher 1 expanded on this topic when she explained that

it is easy [for the student] if the student has studied English before — you don’t have to know Swedish in order to study English. But if you don’t know any English, like most students do not, then it is hard if you’re placed in the regular class.

When asked about if the school offered study tutors to the students, teacher 2 and 3 shared very similar experiences. Teacher 3 said that they have study tutors and that every student, at all three lower secondary schools in the city where she lives “have access to the tutor at least one hour per week. But the tutors focus on social studies science studies, and math, not English.” Teacher 2 said that they “had no collaboration with the study tutor. [The study tutor] focuses on the heavier subjects like social studies and science studies, where there is a lot of texts that the students need help with. The tutors won’t necessarily know English themselves.” Teacher 1 said that they have had study tutors “to some students [and that] it have happened in relation to English, which was helpful. But many times the study tutors don’t speak English themselves.” Teacher 1 commented on the students’ wish to fit in and to belong when she said: “many students do not want to have the study tutor in the regular class, not all, but many think so. They don’t want to be singled out.”

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Another question I asked the teachers was how the needs of newly arrived students differ from the needs of students who have grown up in Sweden? Teacher 1 said that “there are big cultural differences that you do not think about. From my years teaching Swedish as a second language, I’ve learnt these parts.” She described how in the textbooks and in the national exam, there might be cultural references like music and tv-shows that “might be natural for us, but unheard of for them. […] These new students don’t have these references. Everything takes longer time, there are all kinds of other things that aren’t just about English.” Teacher 2 said that many of the newly arrived students “have a need to feel that they belong to and are a part of their class.” She explained that many students feel like they are on the side. In the reception group, they have been their own group on the side, and they do not yet have sufficient Swedish proficiency to be able to understand and pick up nuances “which sometimes makes it hard to follow the language used in subjects and breaks. To belong is their big need and wish.”

When asked about what the most challenging aspects are of working with newly arrived students, teacher 3 said that it all “depends on the level of the students’ language abilities as they arrive. It varies much how much school background they carry with them.” She also drew parallels to the Language Introduction Programme, where she now works, and said that

the challenge for the organisation has been to try to ability grouping the students on an individual basis. This is incredible staff demanding, to have ability grouping in every subject. You might need to have two and three teachers in the social studies subject; same with English — but we haven’t had the resources to do so.

On the same question, teacher 2 said:

For me, this is relevant [even] now when teaching adults. One challenge is that I can’t turn to the Swedish language in order to explain something. That is the big challenge. In

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textbooks, there are only lexical translations into Swedish. Sure, [the students] know some Swedish, but not to the same extent as someone who has grown up here. That was the biggest challenge… I [also] wished that we would be two teachers in the classroom, to be able to work with these students based on their needs. I feel that it many times was not based on their needs. The situation was that you had the class and you would also make sure that the newly arrived students had something to do.

Teacher 2 expressed the importance of giving all students the opportunity to just talk in English to each other in groups of 2-4, and said: “You can’t just have a class with 25 students and try to make them have good conversations. For this you need smaller groups. The [lack of] time to meet all the needs is the greatest challenge.”

When teacher 1 answered what she thought was most challenging aspect of teaching newly arrived students, she said:

I simply don’t have time for them, and I would really want to [have time for them], and to teach from a new beginner level, or the level they are at. […] It is hard. If I compare to Swedish as a second language… there, I only have newly arrived students. In English, I just have a few. The Swedish students take over. I don’t have enough time to tend to the newly arrived students. I try to get these students to read something, if they want to. When the other students are working I of course try to attend to newly arrived students. I might say to them, “you don’t have to work with this, I understand that it is hard, you can work with your other material.” But they most of the time say “no, I’ll work with this”, but still they can’t do it.

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Teacher 1 continued by saying, “It is really hard. I can’t tell them ’no you can’t do this.’ That is why I’d wish to have the separate groups, where they could really tell if they understood or not, and ask for help.”

This idea of having a separate group where the newly arrived students can practice English at a new beginner level together with other newly arrived students was a theme that all three teachers mentioned. I have already mentioned how teacher 3, at the Language Introduction Programme, would like to have even more ability grouping for the students, but that they do not have the resources to do so. Teacher 2 said that years ago,

we always had a small study group for every year in our school. Most often, students from the reception group came there to the little group to receive more help. [I] tried to meet with them when they had time, for example during longer breaks. This is not how it is now. When commenting on how it is now, she says:

My best tip is to be two [teachers] in the classroom, […] then one teacher could go out [with some students] if there was a need for that. I don’t think it’s all dashing (jättekäckt) to just say that everyone should be in the same group, and that it will turn out very well, unless they share similar previous knowledge.

Teacher 1 backed up her wish for separate groups with different arguments when she said:

My proposal for these students that won’t pass compulsory English — though it’s a matter of money — is to have them in a separate group, just like when I teach Swedish as a second language. […] That is my idea, but it’s not how it works. More resources are needed. They should have no teaching with the regular class, they have their own English curve. […] I think the averagely motivated [newly arrived] students, who struggles at times — like most

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what the other students seem to understand. They lose the motivation, I think. They think that it’s they who are stupid. This is the risk when you don’t have an intro class. You

shouldn’t of course lock students in a separate class, no, they are to join the others as soon as possible. But, they join a subject they don’t understand, see others who understand and think “I’m a stupid idiot” — which they are not. I think it’s sad that it is like this. The strong students can take this, especially if they are social and make contact.

One question was about the newly arrived students’ first languages and if the teachers took multilingualism into consideration in their English teaching. Teacher 3 said that in their lower secondary school, they did not. Teacher 1, however, said:

I alway try. Even in English class, of course, but especially in Swedish as a second language. [There], when studying grammar, I always compare a grammatical feature in Swedish to English, German, and possibly French. I then ask what is it like in your language so that they will see the grammatical structures, and see connections between languages, which will help them — it’s important to me. But then we have the problem that many who come from, well, at least Africa, they rarely have their mother tongue as their school language.

She explained that their mother tongue proficiency often is quite low and that they therefore often cannot write in that language. In the same way, she said, their school language —mainly English or French — might not be that developed either. Teacher 1 continued:

But then they at least know how to write some English or French. Due to this lack of proficiency it can be hard to see any connections to the mother tongue, if you can’t write it well. I think grammatical features are easier [to understand] for students who have studied in school in their mother tongue. Still, of course, if you’ve learnt English in school, then you can catch on in the English classes here. There are pros and cons, just like with everything.

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Teacher 2 shared her perspectives from teaching both youth and adults when she said that in a school class,

I had a girl from China who had studied English. When she was learning Swedish, it was a little bit like her English got worse. I’ve seen this with other students. Learning Swedish took too much time and effort in some way, so learning English and English proficiency fall in the background. Many of my students at the Municipal Adult Education say “I was so good in English and not it’s not as good as it used to be.” I think it’s quite logical; that one language can take the upper hand.

I asked each teacher what the most rewarding aspects are of teaching newly arrived students and teacher 2 answered: “The greatest reward is the insight it gives into other countries and

cultures. It is so enriching.” Teacher 3 answered in a similar way when she said:

It’s fun. It’s incredibly rewarding because there are so many language confusions. There is a comfortable atmosphere in the classroom where funny situations occur around the language. It’s very fun. And it’s an incredible possibility… of giving and taking. You don't just learn about languages, we all learn from each other.

Teacher 1, in her answer, focused more on the positive aspects that the newly arrived students bring with them into the classroom. She explained that these students often have an English accent coloured by their mother tongue. She said:

Their English accent might be broader than ours, and therefore they might be more quiet. [But] I’m really glad when they anyway read out loud, even if it’s not always right or if they struggle with the pronunciation. It’s good for the others to hear that. The A level Swedish students think their English is perfect and that no one can hear that they have an accent —

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that’s what they think — then it’s good for them to hear different accents, and that it’s still right even if there is an accent. […] The newly arrived students can contribute in this way.

When asked if they had any examples of students that did well in the English subject, and what the contributing factors were, the teachers lifted previous English knowledge and motivation as the main factors for success. Teacher 1 told me about one student who has

pretty much studied no English before, but he has a sister who knows english. She helps him, I understand that. I see that he reads a couple of hours every day, I think. He does what I ask him to do. He really tries and studies hard. He has the motivation. Students that do well have that in common, they succeed.

Teacher 2 said that what is important is “primarily their previous knowledge. It is very important. The earlier you enter into regular English teaching, the better it is. Your own motivation also matters.” Teacher 3 said that “in general, students who perform well are students with school background and students who have studied English before.” She explained that many students need to learn not just Swedish, but also a completely different culture and school system, and continued: “It is essentially impossible for them to take in everything they need for the different subjects. In order for it to work well, the students must have studied English before their arrival.”

An important question for this essay was “In regular English teaching, how do you create a good environment for learning for newly arrived students, and what are your best tips to an English teacher about to teach newly arrived students in lower secondary school?” To this question, teacher 1 answered that it is important to focus on getting all students to dare to talk from day one. She said: “It’s okay to make mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes then you don’t need to be here.” She also gives the advice to “when possible, try to involve the newly arrived students, which is easier in year 7 than in year 9.” She expanded on this topic and said: “If you have an exercise book and you will

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go though the answers, I will try to think if there are easy answers. I will then ask the newly arrived students to answer first, or ask them to read something short.”

She also gives the tip to use computers, which she thinks is “a good alternative for these students. They can sit with adapted tools and programs while the other students work with other assignments.” Her final tip is to “not correct accents. That is important.” Additionally, teacher 1 have come across books that are specifically designed for newly arrived students in the English course. She said there are not many books like that, “but some exist.” She continued: “But it’s hard for the students to sit here in class and work with [the books]. They get the books and then I try to see that they work with it independently.” Teacher 1 said that she had also tried to offer extra English studies during the time of pupils’ options (elevens val), but that the students who were interested in, for example, sports would, “of course, chose that, where they also had the chance to reach for a higher grade.”

To the same question, teacher 3 answered:

In big classes where students have very different language proficiencies, you have to have material that the students can work with on their own, which forms small classes within the class, that work with different elements. I [also] work a lot with computers and digital teaching aids where the students can work independently. Then I walk around and help them. There are materials that combine textbook and computer software. In a class with 25 students, it is necessary to find teaching material that can divide the class into smaller groups.

The best tips from teacher 2 when it comes to teaching newly arrived students and the other students in the same classroom was the following:

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My best tip is to try to get help. It sounds insane, but it depends on your ambitions. If your ambition [is for the newly arrived students] to succeed, and that the learning environment should be good for everyone, then maybe you can’t make that happen in the regular class if [the newly arrived students] have no previous English knowledge.

Even teacher 2 lifted the idea of working with computers and said that

it gives the students the possibility to study on their own, at their own level. But language isn’t something you do on your own. Still, the advantages with working with computers are many. There you can work in your own pace, adapted to the level of the user. Online, there are many resources to be found. […] Working with computers is a goldmine if you have it. In the interview, teacher 2 also mentioned that they had offered extra help during the time of pupils’ options and that the students at her school were willing to use this time to catch up on their English.

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5. Discussion and conclusion

5.1 Analysing the publications from the National Agency for Education in light

of the answers of the interviewed teachers

How can English teachers create a good environment for learning English for newly arrived students in lower secondary school? I will here begin answering that research question in light of the answer to my other research question: What has the National Agency for Education published about teaching English to newly arrived students in lower secondary school? Firstly, all children, immigrants or not, who currently reside in Sweden have the right to attend compulsory school. Secondly, as stated many times already, the curriculum for compulsory school states that “teaching should be adapted to each pupil’s circumstances and needs” (Skolverket, 2011a, p. 10). This also includes every need of every newly arrived student (Sverige, 2010). I find myself wondering if this could actually be achievable in lower secondary school. I have already presented, in the quality examination by the Schools Inspectorate, that in 2011, only 50% of the observed English teachers showed more strengths than weaknesses regarding their abilities to adapt their teaching to the students’ different needs (Skolinspektionen, 2011). This figure is worrisome, especially considering that since then, there has been a 750% increase of newly arrived young people (Skolverket, 2016e). I believe that if many teachers in 2011 struggled to meet all the student’s needs, then even more teachers are likely to be struggling now. I base this idea on the most salient finding from my interviews; that if the newly arrived students have no, or limited, English background knowledge, and if they are being taught in the same classroom as the other students, then it is very challenging for one single English teacher to sufficiently meet the needs of these newly arrived students.

Though it seems unattainable for English teachers to fully meet every student’s knowledge needs, the National Agency for Education has brought forth materials, guidelines and publications

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that will help the local school and its teachers regarding the newly arrived students. The new national screening exercise, for example, is one helpful tool that schools can use when accepting new newly arrived students, and the fact that step 1 and 2 are mandatory to use, I believe will result in the education being more equivalent for all students. For English teachers, another helpful aspect about the screening exercise is the third and optional step where the student’s previous English knowledge can be assessed. What I find positive about it is that teachers do not have to come up with new material on their own. All the materials needed to conduct the screening exercise, along with instruction videos and complete instructions can be found at the website of the National Agency for Education (Skolverket, 2016a).

Another great help for the newly arrived students is the offer to receive study guidance in their mother tongue. As described in the findings section, the Swedish School Ordinance states that “a student shall be offered study guidance in his or her mother tongue, if the student needs

it” (Sverige, 2011, chapter 5, §4, my translation). According to teacher 2, there is such a need in the English classroom since she expressed that she “can’t turn to the Swedish language in order to explain something.” The reality for each of the three English teachers was, however, that study guidance ultimately was prioritised for subjects like social studies and science studies, and not for the English course. I personally find this situation to be unfortunate because many students would truly be helped in the English subject if they would be offered study language in their mother tongue. At the same time, I also find the situation understandable since all schools have finite resources at their disposal.

I also like the idea of preparation classes, where the student is given temporary and focused support in the Swedish language so that he or she can participate in regular classes as soon as possible. Even though the teachers had different names for it, there were preparation classes

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newly arrived students did not receive any new beginner level English instruction, but were all sent to participate in the regular English classes. As already discussed, this great mix English proficiency levels is not ideal for learning for anyone.

What all teachers wished for was that there would be a separate group where those among the newly arrived students who needed it could study English at their own level. Teacher 1

expressed this idea quite explicitly when she said that these students “should have no teaching with the regular class.” Since, according to the findings from my interviews, the overall most challenging aspect of teaching newly arrived students is that the teachers could not meet every need of every student in the classroom, this challenge could be greatly overcome if the schools would organise separate English groups based on the students’ previous English knowledge. At the same time, all teachers talked about this matter realistically and pointed out that this is a matter of money and resources. I, too, find it unlikely that lower secondary schools, on a large scale, would start to organise separate English groups anytime soon.

Even though it might be tough for a newly arrived student with no or little previous English knowledge to succeed in the compulsory English course, a running theme throughout both the literary study and the interviews is that motivated students can still make it, against the odds.

Thanks to the exemption for English, motivated students who have been in Sweden not long enough to get a grade in compulsory English can be accepted into upper secondary school, where they will study both compulsory school level and upper secondary school level English. I think this

exemption sends a positive message from the National Agency for Education, that it pays off to be motivated.

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5.2 The problem with multilingualism

One theme that has followed me throughout this degree project essay has been the role of multilingualism in learning English as a third or fourth language. As presented in the section of theoretical perspectives, much research has been conducted proving that bilinguals have advantages in learning new languages, and that they display greater abilities to reflect on the use of language (Cummins, 2000). Cenoz, Hufeisen & Jessner (2001) confirm these findings in their article Towards

Trilingual Education, in which they state that “most research studies confirm that third language

learners present advantages over second language learners and attribute these advantages to highly developed learning strategies, metalinguistic awareness and communicative sensitivity” (p. 6). I find that these are the kind of voices the National Agency for Education listens to as they write: “Multilingualism is in many ways a resource for both the individual and the society” (Skolverket, 2015, p. 8, my translation). If multilingualism has all these benefits, how can then the same agency publish statistics that show that multilingual students struggle more in school than other students do (Skolverket, 2015); how can teacher 1 say that some of her multilingual students display low metalinguistic abilities, and how can teacher 2 say that learning Swedish has diminished her students’ English proficiency? I believe the answer lies within the weakness of the term ’multilingualism’ and in Cummins’ (1976) threshold level hypothesis.

According to Aronin & Hufeisen (2009), editors of the book The Exploration of

Multilingualism, ’bilingualism’ is the ability to speak two languages. When they define

’multilingualism’ they write: “Recent emerging research from scientists following educational or psycholinguistic traditions tends to agree that multilingualism is the ability to use three or more languages to some extent” (Aronin & Hufeisen, 2009, p. 14-15). What “to some extent” means in terms of language proficiency is under current debate. To bring this discussion to a national level, the National Agency for Education states that “multilingualism (flerspråkighet) can mean anything

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from mastering two or multiple languages just as well as a native speaker, to only being able to use one’s different languages in certain situations or for certain purposes” (Skolverket, 2015, p. 8, my translation). What we find here is that definitions of multilingualism say nothing about language proficiency. Person A might have medium or low proficiency in four languages and struggle in school, and person B might have high proficiency in three languages and thrive in school, yet they are both considered ’multilinguals’.

In relation to the vague term of multilingualism, it is relevant to go back to

Cummins’ (1976) threshold level hypothesis, which aims to explain how background-language proficiency matters when attempting to learn a new language. As described in the section of

theoretical perspectives, there are two threshold levels of linguistic proficiency that must be attained in order for all of the positive advantages of multilingualism to be developed. If a student has reached high level proficiency in one of the languages, then the first threshold is reached and multilingualism will not bring about any negative cognitive effect. If a student has reached high level proficiency in two languages, then the second threshold level is achieved and multilingualism will have positive cognitive effects. However, if the student has low proficiency in every language, then negative cognitive effects will come as a result instead (Cummins, 1976; Lasagabaster, 1998).

I believe this third outcome corresponds well with example teacher 1 offered about the students whose previous school language was different from their mother tongue. These students then came to Sweden where they must learn not only Swedish, but also English.

These students will quickly be in a situation where they might have low and medium level proficiency in four different languages — a situation that, according to Cummins, is cognitively harmful. We learn new languages on top of the foundation of the previous languages we speak (Lightbown & Spada, 2013). If the foundation is unstable, so will the rest of the building be. I

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believe this is the theoretical and scientific reasoning behind the following statement by the National Agency for Education:

The mother tongue is very important for children’s development of language, identity, personality and thoughts. A well developed mother tongue enables a good foundation for learning Swedish, other languages, and other subjects. Students who study their mother tongue have better grades on average in all school subjects. (Skolverket, 2017, web, my translation).

5.3 Practical tips on what to do within the current situation

Thus far in the discussion, I have pointed out some of the factors why conditions are not ideal for newly arrived students to learn English in lower secondary school if they are being taught in the same class as the other students, unless they have studied English before. But what can teachers do within this current situation to create an environment as good as possible for learning English for these students? In this section I will answer that questions by using a list of tips that the teachers presented.

1. Use computers and digital resources. First of all, the one tip that all three teachers from my interviews mentioned was the use of computers and digital resources. By using computers, the students can learn English at their own pace and at the level they are at. All the teachers spoke very fondly of letting the newly arrived students work with computers. Teacher 2 even said: “Working with computers is a goldmine if you have it.” She also gave the tip to search for relevant online material at www.ur.se. Unfortunately, the teachers could not recall the names of any other digital resources.

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2. Try to include the newly arrived students. Teacher 1 said that when they are to go through the answers from a text book together, she looks to see if there are any easy answers. If there are, she will let the newly arrived students answer first.

3. Get all students to dare to talk. If all students dare to talk in English with each other, then all students are more likely to feel included. Teacher 1 said that she would work really hard with this, especially to try to get them all to dare to speak from day one.

4. Allow for mistakes. Teacher 1 mentioned this tip when she was explaining how she would try to get the students to dare to talk. Her motto regarding the students mistakes is: “It’s okay to make mistakes. If you don’t make mistakes then you don’t need to be here.”

5. Do not correct accents. The newly arrived students can often be shy and when they use the English they have, they might speak English with a heavier accent than the other students. In order to encourage them to continue speaking, do not correct accents.

6. Use the time at the “pupils’ options” (elevens val). This tip worked great at the school of teacher 2. There, students would come voluntarily to the time of the pupils’ options where they could receive extra help in order to catch up on their English. The same idea was however also tested at the school of teacher 1, but with the outcome that the students would rather spend the time with a subject where they would have the chance to reach for a higher grade.

5.4 Future research

It has been very interesting researching this aspect of teaching English to newly arrived students. Since my perspective in this essay has been focused on the English teacher, it would be interesting to read future studies that focuses on the newly arrived English learners, their views and

experiences. It has also been my aim to map out what the situation is currently like in the lower secondary schools. Another interesting field of research would be to investigate how the current

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system could be altered and changed in order to more effectively meet the needs of all students, and the newly arrived students in particular.

5.5 Conclusion

In this conclusion, I will comment on one of the more unexpected tips by teacher 2. She said: My best tip is to try to get help. It sounds insane, but it depends on your ambitions. If your ambition [is for the newly arrived students] to succeed, and that the learning environment should be good for everyone, then maybe you can’t make that happen in the regular class if [the newly arrived students] have no previous English knowledge.

When I first heard this tip, which I interpret as a tip to lower your ambition, something inside of me wanted to protest, but the more I have thought about it, the more it makes sense. If I re-interpret this phrase, what teacher 2 is saying is that if a student has no previous English knowledge and if he or she is to be taught together with the other students, then maybe the student cannot succeed. This idea goes hand in hand with what teacher 3 said: “It is essentially impossible for [the newly arrived students] to take in everything they need for the different subjects. In order for it to work well, the students must have studied English before their arrival.” Teachers 2 and 3 are here saying the same thing and I realise that their attitudes are not that every student, no matter the cost, must achieve a grade in compulsory school English while still in lower secondary school. Both teachers currently work with newly arrived students too old for compulsory school, and at the Language Introduction Programme, every year, teacher 3 sees students coming from lower secondary school without the required grades in English to attend upper secondary school. Yet in the interviews, none of them seemed particularly worried over the fact that there were students that would not get a grade in year 9. I believe this is because they both know that there is a clear and achievable way for the newly

References

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