"karékla betyder stol på svenska..." : En studie om pedagogers arbete med språkutveckling hos tvåspråkiga barn i mångkulturella förskolor.

The aim of this study was to investigate teachers’ experiences of children’s language development in multicultural preschools. The study included the following research questions: 1.How do teachers work in multicultural preschools to help children with their language development; 2. What do teachers in multicultural preschools think about the possible influence of native language on learning the Swedish language?; 3 What is the significance of educators skills for working with childrens language development? .4 What are the obstacles for helping preschool children in multicultural preschools with their development of the Swedish language? A qualitative approach was used that included semi-structured interviews with four teachers in two separate multi-cultural preschools. The interviews were transcribed and analyzed with relevant theories and concepts (the sociocultural perspective of Leo Vygotskij). The informants were positive to working with bilingual children. There were differences in opinions related to level of competence and training, but they all agreed that the teaching approach used and the degree of involvement was of great importance. They had experiences of how the child’s native language influenced the development of their skills in the Swedish language. Children’s’ learning of the Swedish language was dependent both on knowledge of their native language, but also on teachers’ skills and knowledge in how to create learning opportunities. Keywords: Multicultural, language development, monolingualism, bilingualism, native languag