The Multilingual English Classroom in Sweden: A Case Study of Discourse and Practice

The purpose of this pilot study is to examine teaching practice and attitudes to multilingualism in Swedish English-language teaching through a case study of a multicultural and multilingual class and its teachers. Using critical discourse analysis and an ethnographically inspired method that combines participant observation with semi-structured interviews, the study seeks to identify discourses, monocultural as well as pluralist, in students’ and teachers’ speech and conversations in the classroom as well as in interviews about language and language learning. The analysis is also applied to the classroom environment and teaching materials employed.