"Språket är grunden till allt" : En fallstudie om förutsättningar för svenskspråklig utveckling hos minoritetsbarn

In this report, a case study of conditions for Swedish language development in children of immigrant origin is presented, and its results explored. The boundaries of the case study are defined as preschool pedagogues’ facilitation of Swedish language development through co-learning, in children of immigrant origin in an ethnically segregated urban area. Concepts central to the report include dialogue, second language learning and perspectives on language difficulties. For the theoretical background of the report, a basic sociocultural theorem is used, which links language as well as other areas of development to verbal interaction in a social context. The result is presented as patterns in attitudes and experiences of pedagogues and children, as they show in observations of varied contexts of social interaction and interviews. As results show, children of immigrant origin show resilience to negative influences brought on by pedagogues in social contexts coloured by dialogue and co-learning