Är jag flerspråkig? Språkbadselevers uppfattningar om sin flerspråkighet

Authors

  • Siv Björklund Vasa universitetet
  • Sanna Pakarinen Vasa universitetet
  • Karita Mård-Miettinen Vasa universitetet

Keywords:

flerspråkighet, språkbad, uppfattningar, språkfärdigheter

Abstract

The current study examines immersion students’ perceptions of their use of multiple languages and how they identify themselves linguistically. Data were collected through questionnaires and pair and group interviews among students in grades 7–9. In this article we focus on students’ answers to a question about how they identify themselves linguistically. Overall, the results show that immersion students are confident language users and claim to have a multiple language repertoire. A majority of the students (75 %) consider themselves to be multiple language speakers: in their explanations they refer to the number of languages they use and their mastery of those languages. They often mention oral skills in several languages as proof of their multiple language profile but receptive skills and language(s) which they use for thinking are also used as arguments for such a profile. Interestingly enough, the students often list several languages in their multiple language repertoire but only elaborate on the languages they learn in school.