The aim of this article is to describe young children's beliefs about language and bilingualism as they are expressed in verbal utterances. The data is from Swedish-medium preschool units in three different sites in Finland. It was generated through ethnographic observations and recordings of the author's interactions with the children. The…

In 1981, Swedish Sign Language gained recognition by the Swedish Parliament as the language of deaf people, a decision that made Sweden the first country in the world to give a sign language the status of a language. Swedish was designated as a second language for deaf people, and the need for bilingualism among them was officially asserted. This…

Swedish research and opinion on bilingualism, language policy, and bilingual education in Sweden is reviewed. The Swedish debate on language planning and bilingual education revolves around two perspectives: structural-functional theory and conflict theory. Swedish research consists primarily of statistical and descriptive studies rather than…