Teacher perception on translanguaging in grades 4-6 in Swedish Schools

Abstract: Translanguaging has been breaking ground with ideas that learners’ already mastered languages and the target language should coexist to support and scaffold each other's development, instead of the historically preeminent idea that has been to separate the school language and the target language. The curriculum for Swedish schools does not give any guidelines on how to address this contradiction in research. This degree project aims to examine how English teachers in Sweden perceive the use of translanguaging in their teaching of grades 4-6 (ages 9-12). Also, how they possibly prepare for and implement this in their lessons. The study was conducted through an online questionnaire with a total of 24 participants, with quantitative and qualitative type questions. In addition to the questionnaire, qualitative email interviews were conducted with a total of three participants. The collected data show that the majority of the participating teachers have a positive view of translanguaging. Despite some teachers being against it and believing that target language should be used as much as possible, the school language was still used by all participants to scaffold the learners. Though translanguaging is a relatively new, not very well-known concept, it is being regularly used although not always consciously.Our hope is for this study to generate more research to further define the concept of translanguaging and what effect it has on learners.