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Translanguaging in English Classrooms in Sweden? : A Study of Teacher Beliefs and Practices

Gyllstad, Henrik LU ; Källkvist, Marie LU orcid ; Sandlund, Erica and Sundqvist, Pia (2019) The 3rd Swedish Translanguaging Conference
Abstract
In English Language Teaching in Sweden, the entextualized ideology is monolingual, i.e., English Only (Hult, 2017; Lundahl, 2012). Evidence from a large-scale classroom observation study (Swedish Schools Inspectorate, 2011) and a smaller-scale classroom-interaction study (Authors 3 & 4 2016) reveals a de facto bilingual policy of both English and Swedish enacted in classrooms, however. As studies focusing on English teachers’ beliefs are lacking, we do not know whether in-service English teachers themselves endorse the monolingual belief that is entextualized in education policies (Hult 2017) and materials for pre-service teachers (Lundahl, 2012). In this paper we address this research gap by reporting quantitative results from a... (More)
In English Language Teaching in Sweden, the entextualized ideology is monolingual, i.e., English Only (Hult, 2017; Lundahl, 2012). Evidence from a large-scale classroom observation study (Swedish Schools Inspectorate, 2011) and a smaller-scale classroom-interaction study (Authors 3 & 4 2016) reveals a de facto bilingual policy of both English and Swedish enacted in classrooms, however. As studies focusing on English teachers’ beliefs are lacking, we do not know whether in-service English teachers themselves endorse the monolingual belief that is entextualized in education policies (Hult 2017) and materials for pre-service teachers (Lundahl, 2012). In this paper we address this research gap by reporting quantitative results from a nation-wide questionnaire administered to a stratified random sample of in-service teachers of English in Swedish secondary schools (N = 139). The questionnaire, administered online in 2017, targeted beliefs and self-reported practices linked to the use of languages in the English classroom. The results show that an overwhelming majority of teachers (98%) saw multilingualism as something positive, and 83% said that background languages should be drawn upon when learning an additional one. More specifically for English, 63% agreed that pupils learn English best if they are allowed to use their background language(s) in the learning. At the same time, seemingly conflicting, c. 60% stated that they use English only when teaching, and 66% that pupils learn English best if they stick to English only during English lessons. These results will be interpreted through the theoretical lens of ‘educators as policymakers’ (Menken & García, 2010), where teachers are conceived of as active agents implementing language education policies as well as language (learning) ideologies into their teaching practices. (Less)
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author
; ; and
organization
publishing date
type
Contribution to conference
publication status
published
subject
conference name
The 3rd Swedish Translanguaging Conference
conference location
Växjö, Sweden
conference dates
2019-04-11 - 2019-04-12
project
Multilingual Spaces? Language Practices in English Classrooms
language
English
LU publication?
yes
id
ae78787f-1da2-4fb8-84f6-9b059513c857
date added to LUP
2019-04-15 13:29:04
date last changed
2019-04-17 02:19:21
@misc{ae78787f-1da2-4fb8-84f6-9b059513c857,
  abstract     = {{In English Language Teaching in Sweden, the entextualized ideology is monolingual, i.e., English Only (Hult, 2017; Lundahl, 2012). Evidence from a large-scale classroom observation study (Swedish Schools Inspectorate, 2011) and a smaller-scale classroom-interaction study (Authors 3 & 4 2016) reveals a de facto bilingual policy of both English and Swedish enacted in classrooms, however. As studies focusing on English teachers’ beliefs are lacking, we do not know whether in-service English teachers themselves endorse the monolingual belief that is entextualized in education policies (Hult 2017) and materials for pre-service teachers (Lundahl, 2012). In this paper we address this research gap by reporting quantitative results from a nation-wide questionnaire administered to a stratified random sample of in-service teachers of English in Swedish secondary schools (N = 139). The questionnaire, administered online in 2017, targeted beliefs and self-reported practices linked to the use of languages in the English classroom. The results show that an overwhelming majority of teachers (98%) saw multilingualism as something positive, and 83% said that background languages should be drawn upon when learning an additional one. More specifically for English, 63% agreed that pupils learn English best if they are allowed to use their background language(s) in the learning. At the same time, seemingly conflicting, c. 60% stated that they use English only when teaching, and 66% that pupils learn English best if they stick to English only during English lessons. These results will be interpreted through the theoretical lens of ‘educators as policymakers’ (Menken & García, 2010), where teachers are conceived of as active agents implementing language education policies as well as language (learning) ideologies into their teaching practices.}},
  author       = {{Gyllstad, Henrik and Källkvist, Marie and Sandlund, Erica and Sundqvist, Pia}},
  language     = {{eng}},
  title        = {{Translanguaging in English Classrooms in Sweden? : A Study of Teacher Beliefs and Practices}},
  year         = {{2019}},
}