Multilingualism and Translanguaging in Swedish Upper Secondary school : An exploration of English teacher candidates’ attitudes

Abstract: This ethnographically informed, qualitative study aims to investigate English teacher candidates’ attitudes towards multilingualism and translanguaging in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms and in the school environment. More specifically, the study intends to identify potential contributing factors to the formation of said attitudes, such as the influence of policy documents and of the teacher training program on the perception of the future working environment. The data was collected with semi-structured interviews; the participants were four teacher candidates, two females and two males, enrolled in the teacher education program in a Swedish university. In addition, at the time of data collection, all participants had completed most of the teacher education program, an aspect that increased the relevance of their responses, since they would soon be active teachers in the Swedish school system. Overall, the participants expressed positive attitudes towards multilingualism and translanguaging in a school environment. However, some hesitation in their answers was detected when they are asked how they would work with multilingual students in their future practice. These findings suggest that, if teacher candidates receive adequate education to approach their future working environment with confidence they would be better equipped to provide adequate pedagogical support to students whose L1 is other than Swedish. This would foster positive attitudes towards multilingualism and translanguaging and would, consequently, lead to an improvement in the academic results of multilingual students. The teacher candidates’ increased awareness of the benefits and challenges of multilingualism and their ability to put into practice the general principles they learn at university would benefit from changes in the teacher training program, in the curriculum compiled by the National Agency of Education, and in the national pedagogical approach to language learning.