The Multilingual English-language Classroom: A Case Study of Teacher-Student Interaction

The purpose of this project is to gain insights into the dilemmas facing teachers and students in a multilingual English-language classrooms in Sweden with a focus on communication patterns in teacher-student interaction. The project takes as its starting point a problem voiced by Swedish teachers of recently arrived immigrants in adult education. These teachers claim that when students’ level of both English and Swedish is low, they find all aspects of teaching of English problematic, but particularly to manage the classroom, give directions and teach language structure. The method for the investigation is conversation analysis of classroom interaction involving a participating teacher and a group of learners. Classroom interaction will be documented in audio and video recordings. This documentation will be studied using conversation analysis with a focus on communication patterns and particularly communication problems. Classroom observations will be complemented with semi-structured interviews with the participant teacher.