Två-Och flerspråkighet som "språkpolicy" i förskolan

The purpose of the essay was to investigate the way four different educators, at a pre-school with a bilingual profile, work towards strengthening the children’s bilingualism as well as their identity. The research questions concern which guidelines are being used, the educators perceptions concerning children’s bi- and multilingualism and in what way they believe that their pre-school distinguishes itself from others. Qualitative individual interviews and observations were conducted and the empirical data was analyzed using a theoretical framework, constructed of theories concerning language development, ethnicity and identity. The result presented in the study shows that the pre-school not only follows the national curriculum but also their own guideline. The guideline states that there should be both Spanish- and Swedish speaking personnel and that they are “responsible” for the education in their own language. The educators had predominantly two views concerning bi- and multilingual learning, the first one was that translation and repeating enhances the children’s language capability, whilst some pointed on the importance of communication and being attentive to the children’s needs, to enable a good learning environment. The main part of the educators stated, somewhat surprisingly, that the main criteria that distinguishes them from other pre-schools were of a cultural nature. Their opinion was that the “Latin culture” of the pre-school leads to a more loving and lively working climate