Students’ attitudes to their language and their multilingualism : A qualitative interview study with six students and two teachers

The main aim of this study is to examine six pupils’ attitudes to their mother tongue and their multilingualism. A secondary aim is to investigate the two class teachers’ attitudes to the students’ mother tongue and multilingualism. The method of data collection is based on semi-structured interviews with six students in the third and fourth grades of compulsory school and their two teachers. The participating students were either born in Sweden or arrived before the age of four. The empirical evidence was analysed on the basis of the idea that attitudes can be described as composed of three components: the affective, the conative and the cognitive component. The analysis shows that the students exclusively express a positive attitude to their native language and their multilingualism. A cognitive element in the students’ appreciation of their multilingualism is that they perceive themselves as balanced multilinguals, i.e. master all their languages as well, albeit in different areas. The students express pride and do not seem to hesitate to use their mother tongue. However, it appears that the school is a place associated with the use of Swedish and not their mother tongue. The interviewed teachers express a positive attitude to multilingualism and the students’ maintaining their mother tongue. At the same time, though, the teachers do not seem to be prepared to incorporate the students’ language resources in their teaching