Public library language cafés : Places for meetings, integration and learning

This thesis focuses on the participants of the public library activity language café, where immigrants and refugees with the help of native Swedes practice the Swedish language. The aim of the thesis is more specifically to examine the function of this activity for its participant’s processes of learning and integration. To investigate this, four questions were asked: which experiences do the participants have of language cafés? How can the language cafés contribute to the process of language development for the participants? Which part does the language cafés play for its participants from a perspective of learning? Which function do the language cafés play for its participants’ processes of integration? These questions were processed through qualitative interviews with participants at language cafés in two public libraries. Concepts from the models the four spaces by Jochumsen et al. (2012), and The indicators of integration framework by Ager and Strang (2008) were then used to analyse the empirical material from perspectives of language, learning and integration. The concepts chosen were: meeting space, learning space, empowerment, language & cultural knowledge, social bridges, social bonds and social links. The result of this investigation shows that the language cafés play the role of a platform for the participants’ language development, retrievement of societal information, and crosscultural meetings. Although the participants integration processes did benefit from the social environment offered by the language cafés, the impact of this activity from a perspective of two-way-integration would have been more efficient if more native Swedes would have taken part