This paper provides a comprehensive analysis of the motivations that key policy documents have put forward as justifications for Sweden's mother-tongue instruction in immigrant and historical minority languages as a multicultural policy that has endured for nearly half a century. The diachronic development of these motivations is analysed in four…

Community language schools have grown to become significant educational language providers worldwide. Schools operate as global grassroot initiatives (Liddicoat and Taylor-Leech [2014]. "Micro Language Planning for Multilingual Education: Agency in Local Contexts." "Current Issues in Language Planning" 15 (3): 237-244.), and…

Sami are Indigenous languages spoken by the Sami people in the northern parts of Scandinavia and Russia. All Sami languages are endangered because of historically aggressive assimilation policies. Currently Sami communities are working actively with language revitalisation processes. This article examines pupils' access to knowledge in and about…

This study investigates the effects of weekly heritage language (HL) classes on first language (L1) proficiency in speakers who arrived in the second language (L2)-dominant setting before the onset of puberty. Two groups of L1 Spanish--L2 Swedish bilingual high school students living in Sweden participated in the study. One group currently…

This regional dossier aims to provide concise, descriptive information and basic educational statistics about minority language education in a specific country of the European Union--Finland. Details are provided about the features of the educational system, recent educational policies, divisions of responsibilities, main actors, legal…

In this memorandum the National Immigration and Naturalization Board of Sweden has summarized recent legislative reforms providing home language training and home language lessons for immigrant children and children belonging to linguistic minorities. (A single definition of "immigrant children" has been applied throughout Sweden since…

Since Sweden will never again be a monolingual, monocultural country, new approaches to language instruction in the schools must be developed. Instruction in Swedish and in Swedish as a Foreign Language should be provided for all pupils for whom Swedish is truly a foreign language. Instructional programs should be designed to prevent the…