Teachers' Perceptions of Translanguaging in English Teaching in Sweden

Abstract: The role of students’ first language (L1) in second and foreign language teaching has been an issue within language teaching. Whether to use the students’ L1 is a conflicted matter whereas certain teaching theories collide with actual practices. Teachers in Sweden are dependent on the National Curriculum as it is the guideline for their teaching and the fact that the syllabus for English does not mention the use of the students’ L1 leaves it up for interpretation. The aim of the present study was to investigate teachers’ perceptions of their students’ L1 when teaching English as a second or foreign language in the Swedish primary school in years 4-6. Furthermore, the study aims to obtain a general view of which situations teachers tend to switch to their students’ L1 and to what extent. Data was collected through a mixed-method approach, using both a questionnaire and conducting follow-up email interviews. The results showed that teachers generally see their students’ L1 as a facilitating factor when teaching English. However, there were participants who reported the desire to use English as much as possible when teaching. Independent of the situation, the overall most frequent answer was that the participants used their students’ L1 sometimes. Factors that affect the use of L1 are the students' age and guidelines from the teacher training program. These results contribute to the field of research in a Swedish context and shows that this subject area merits further investigation.