Background

• 38 pupils in the 4th grade

• 18 had Swedish as a second language

• small teaching groups

• no major progress

• time to think in a new way

My thoughts

• Strengthening of the mother tongue - a positive effect?

• Are the pupils literate in their mother tongue?

• I started a project.

• Performance analysis – 14 pupils participated 13 of them were at the beginners’ level in Swedish as a second languge.

Intensions

• to strengthen the mother tongue

• to make pupils proud of their native language

• to establish cooperation with parents

• to establish cooperation with mother tongue teachers

Schedule

• Project started in October 2007 – ended in May 2008 • Daily access to Somali and Arabic/Kurdish speaking teachers

Approach

• Meeting with parents - importance of being able to read and write in their mother tongue - introduction of the language book - Cultural differences. - illiterate parents - homework

• Close contact with mother tongue teachers - they commented on the language book - and gave material to me. - classrooms

Observations during the project

• Improvement of the classroom climate - energy and willingness - arabic book

• Language awareness - pupils compared alphabets - swedish pupils admired their classmates

• The house - library

• Cognitive development - mathematics - talking about languages

Result

• May 2008 - 12 of 14 pupils could read and write in their mother tongue

• 3 pupils left the ”small teaching group” in mathematics and are now enrolled in the mathematics profile of their secondary school (year 6)

• 11 pupils had improved their Swedish as a second language skills and were on the next level according to performance analysis.

Meet the students

• Short film where some of the pupils who participated in the projcet discuss language.

Follow-up

• A report of this project was sent school administrators and local politicians.

• It was met with silence.