cohesion - European Centre for Modern Languages

Section 4:
External experts’ contributions
to the four thematic strands of the conference
Strand A:
Coping with linguistic and social diversity
11. Multilingualism and mother tongue education in Umeå
Tatjana Atanasoska
Introduction
Sweden has a long tradition of mother tongue tuition for children who have a minority
home language. The current syllabus states that this form of tuition helps pupils to
strengthen their self-esteem and identity. It was this point that led to my research
question: what do the pupils themselves think about attending mother tongue
education? Therefore I met some students from compulsory school in spring 2007 and
conducted oral interviews with them. In the following I shall present some of my
findings.
Mother tongue education in Sweden
“Hemspråk” versus “modersmål” 1
Although the government decided in 1996 (see also Utbildningsutskottets betänkande
1996/97: UBU12) to change the name of mother tongue education from
“hemspråksundervisning” to “modersmålsundervisning” (i.e. “home language
education” to “mother tongue education”), the first expression is still commonly used
in Sweden. The reason the government gave for the official change was that home
language only includes the informal situation “at home”, in the family (Regeringens
1 “Hemspråk” means, translated literally, “home language” and “modersmål”, “mother tongue”.
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