Language focused teaching: Helping all students achieve in a multi-cultural school.

This study examines if and how language focused education in all subjects helps students with a second language background achieve the goals of the Swedish curriculum. Through a combination of interviews and observations in an upper secondary school in the south of Sweden it can be shown that language focused education in all subjects is a good way to help those with a second language background succeed in their education. The essay also gives practical examples of how teachers in the school work to help their students develop language skills, using writing manuals, model texts, and language and vocabulary lists. The school’s language policy is shown to be an important part of the success of language focused teaching in all subjects as it helps both teachers and students focus on the linguistic goals of teaching as well as the subject specific goals. In addition, the language policy ensures that newly employed teachers are given the opportunity to learn about language focused teaching in their own subjects and through policy documents gain an understanding of how other staff members work with language