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Article published In: Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education
Vol. 5:2 (2017) ► pp.214–237

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Policy and practice in a Swedish EMI primary class

 | Stockholm University
Published online: 6 November 2017
DOI logo with link
https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.5.2.03tot
This case study explores the questions of how national and local education policies address languages of instruction for a Swedish compulsory school offering English-medium instruction (hereafter EMI) as well as how these policies are interpreted and implemented in practice. Critical discourse analysis provides a framework for examining the relationship between stated and enacted policies at the various institutional levels. Methods from linguistic ethnography yielded rich data including classroom observations, interviews, and artifact collection over a period of three school years in grades four through six. Findings from the study reveal discourses of language hierarchies, a native speaker ideal privileging English and practices that reflect varying degrees of language separation. While Swedish is occasionally used to support English-medium content learning, there is little space for students’ mother tongues in the mainstream classroom. The findings from this study have implications for how stakeholders may put language-in-education policies into practice in EMI programs.
Denna fallstudie undersöker hur nationell och lokal utbildningspolicy behandlar frågan om undervisningsspråk för en svensk grundskola som erbjuder engelskspråkig undervisning (här kallad EMI), samt hur policy tolkas och tillämpas i praktiken. Kritisk diskursanalys används för att granska förhållandet mellan uttalad och tillämpad policy på de olika institutionella nivåerna. Metoder från lingvistisk etnografi har använts, bland annat klassrumsobservationer, intervjuer och insamling av artefakter i en klass under årskurs fyra till sex. Analys av materialet visar på språkliga hierarkier, ett ideal där infödda talare av engelska har en särskild status och varierande grader av språkseparation i klassrumspraktiker. Medan svenska ibland används för att stötta inlärning i den engelskspråkiga ämnesundervisningen, får elevers andra modersmål begränsat utrymme i ämnesklassrummet. Resultaten från denna studie har betydelse för hur ideologier kring språk och språkbruk bör beaktas av de olika aktörerna vad gäller språk- och utbildningspolicyfrågor.
Article outline
  • 1.Introduction
  • 2.Background
    • 2.1Languages in Sweden: Status and language hierarchies
    • 2.2Languages of instruction in Swedish schools
  • 3.Theoretical framework
  • 4.Methodology
    • 4.1Critical discourse analysis (CDA)
    • 4.2Linguistic ethnography
    • 4.3Contexts and participants
    • 4.4Data collection
  • 5.Findings
    • 5.1Policies
      • 5.1.1National policies
      • 5.1.2Local policies
    • 5.2Practices
      • 5.2.1Swedish as primary LOI
      • 5.2.2English as primary LOI
      • 5.2.3Other languages in the classroom
  • 6.Discussion
    • 6.1Language hierarchies in national and local language-in-education policies
    • 6.2Language policies in classroom practices
  • 7.Implications for policy and practice in EMI
  • Acknowledgements
  • References
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