Språkliga gemenskaper och minoritetsspråkiga barn i svensk förskola

The purpose of the thesis is to provide knowledge about how language communities arise and are maintained in Swedish kindergartens where children from minority language backgrounds participate. 

The research questions are:

1. What type of linguistic, social, pedagogical and organisational conditions are important for language communities in kindergarten?
2. What kind of language situations, events and actions contribute to language communities in kindergarten?

The results of the first study show how newly arrived children participate by combining various communication tools such as speech, body language and materials. In addition, the results show how the newly arrived children’s use of communication tools shifts from distinctly physical forms to more verbal forms over a period of five months. This change in the use of communication tools changes the way children participate in communication events. Furthermore, the results show how the children learn languages and cultural communication methods from each other. The results also illustrate the elevated status of Swedish and English in kindergarten. One of the children, who speaks English, received linguistic support in their mother tongue from the kindergarten teachers. This was not the case for one of the other children who spoke Persian as their mother tongue.

The second study points to three significant and interconnected results. Firstly, the implementation of the Finnish language support programme is limited and under pressure from the kindergarten’s monolingual norms and organisation of language development work.  Secondly, the implementation of the programme is both challenged and made possible through the participation of children based on their curiosity and interest. The programme is also challenged and made possible through the participation of bilingual teachers and the teaching they can offer. Thirdly, the bilingual teacher’s use of bilingual pedagogy, and the work on creating a common focus of attention, creates opportunities for the programme. However, despite the fact that the participation of children and bilingual teachers in the programme can create good conditions for the revitalisation of the Finnish language, the results show that the Finnish language programme seems to be vulnerable as a linguistic revitalisation activity.

The thesis is based on two empirical studies that use a common ethnographic communication model as a starting point. Case Study I investigates how newly arrived children communicate as newcomers in the Swedish kindergarten context. Case Study II deals with a language revitalisation programme for children with Finnish minority backgrounds in Swedish kindergartens. A common aspect of the two studies is that both take place in a context where Swedish is the majority language and the children in the sample belong linguistically and culturally to minority groups.

Skaremyr, E. (2019). “Språkliga gemenskaper och minoritetsspråkiga barn i svensk förskola”. Akademisk avhandling. Karlstads universitet.