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Turkish Mother Tongue Instruction in Sweden

Year 2022, Issue: 38, 1 - 20, 15.11.2022
https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2022.1138978

Abstract

Home language education has a long tradition in Sweden and includes the teaching of Turkish to children who grow up bilingually with the societal language Swedish and with Turkish as their home and heritage language. The present paper characterises Turkish mother tongue instruction (MTI) and discusses its current status in light of Swedish language policy, as it is reflected in official documents (legislation, policy papers and curricula) vis-a-vis its practical implementation by the municipalities. The paper also presents findings from a research project on Turkish-speaking preschool and primary-school children and their families, concerning MTI attendance and attitudes towards Turkish, as well as on the experiences of Turkish MTI teachers in a Swedish setting.

References

  • Aktürk-Drake, Memet (2017). Turkish maintenance and bilingualism among second-generation Turks in multicultural Stockholm. In: Bahar Başer & Paul T. Levin (eds.), Migration from Turkey to Sweden: Integration, belonging and transnational community (pp. 122-152). London/New York: Tauris. google scholar
  • Aktürk-Drake, Memet (2018). Hur bra har den svenska kontexten varit på att främja balanserad tvåspråkighet? Nordand 13(2): 107-130. google scholar
  • Aras, Ercan (2015). Turkisktalande befolkning i Sverige. Unpublished report. Uppsala: Department of Linguistics & Philology, Uppsala University. google scholar
  • Backus, Ad (2004). Turkish as an immigrant language in Europe. In: Tej K. Bhatia & William C. Ritchie (eds.), The handbook of bilingualism (pp. 689-724). Oxford: Blackwell. google scholar
  • Başer, Bahar & Levin, Paul T. (eds.) (2017). Migration from Turkey to Sweden: Integration, belonging and transnational community. London/New York: Tauris. google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute. (2020). Bilingual development of Turkish-speaking children in Sweden. In: Lenore Grenoble, Pia Lane & Unn Røyneland (eds.), Linguistic Minorities in Europe Online. Special volume on Turkish, ed. Kutlay Yağmur, Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter Mouton. google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute (2022). Turkish heritage families in Sweden: Language practices and family language policy, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2041646 google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute, Haddad, Rima, Lindgren, Josefin, Öberg, Linnéa & Öztekin, Buket (2021). Ordförrådsutveckling hos arabisk-svensktalande och turkisk-svensktalande barn i förskoleåldern och vid skolstart. Språk och stil NF 31(1): 75-107. https://doi.org/10.33063/diva-434152 google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute & Karakoç, Birsel (2020). Subordination in children acquiring Turkish as a heritage language in Sweden. In: Fatih Bayram (ed.), Studies in Turkish as a Heritage Language (pp. 155−204). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil60.08boh google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute, Lindgren, Josefin & Öztekin, Buket (2016). Turkish- and German-speaking bilingual 4-to-6-year-olds living in Sweden: Effects of age, SES and home language input on vocabulary production. Journal of Home Language Research 1: 17–41. https://doi.org/10.16993/jhlr.26 google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute, Lindgren, Josefin & Öztekin, Buket (2021). Storytelling in bilingual Turkish-Swedish children: Effects of language, age and exposure on narrative macrostructure, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. Published online 16 September 2021. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20057.boh google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute, Öztekin, Buket, & Lindgren, Josefin (2020). Bilingual Turkish-Swedish children’s understanding of MAIN picture sequences: Individual variation, age, language and task effects. In: Ute Bohnacker & Natalia Gagarina (eds.), Developing narrative comprehension: Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (pp. 99–147). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.61.04boh google scholar
  • Education Act (Skollagen) (2010). SFS 2010:800. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet. google scholar
  • European Commission Directorate-General for Communication (2018). Special Eurobarometer 469: Integration of immigrants in the European Union. Retrieved 25 May 2021 from http://www.europeanmigrationlaw.eu/documents/EuroBarometer-IntegrationOfMigrantsintheEU.pdf google scholar
  • Extra, Guus, & Yağmur, Kutlay (2010). Language proficiency and socio-cultural orientation of Turkish and Moroccan youngsters in the Netherlands. Language and Education 24(2): 117-132. google scholar
  • Ganuza, Natalia & Hedman, Christina (2015). Struggles for legitimacy in mother tongue instruction in Sweden. Language and Education 29(2): 125-139. google scholar
  • Ganuza, Natalia & Hedman, Christina (2017). Ideology vs. practice: Is there a space for translanguaging in mother tongue instruction? In: Beth-Anne Paulsrud, Jenny Rosén, Boglárka Straszer & Åsa Wedin (eds.), New perspectives on translanguaging and education (pp. 208-226). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. google scholar
  • Ganuza, Natalia & Hedman, Christina (2019). The impact of mother tongue instruction on the development of biliteracy: Evidence from Somali–Swedish bilinguals. Applied Linguistics 40(1): 108–131. google scholar
  • Hyltenstam, Kenneth, & Milani, Tommaso (2012). Flerspråkighetens sociopolitiska och sociokulturella ramar. In: Kenneth Hyltenstam, Monica Axelsson & Inger Lindberg (eds.), Flerspråkighet – en forskningsöversikt (pp. 17–152). Stockholm: Swedish Research Council. https://www.vr.se/download/18.2412c5311624176023d25ac6/1529480531679/Flerspraakighet_VR_2012.pdf google scholar
  • KONDA (2007). Social structure survey September 2006. Istanbul: KONDA. Retrieved 11 June 2015 from http://www.konda.com.tr/en/reports.php google scholar Language Act (Språklagen) (2009). SFS 2009:600. Stockholm: Kulturdepartementet. google scholar
  • Levin, Paul T. & Başer, Bahar (2017). The 50th anniversary of the beginning of migration from Turkey to Sweden: Lessons concerning integration, cohesion, and inclusion. In: Bahar Başer & Paul T. Levin (eds.), Migration from Turkey to Sweden: Integration, belonging and transnational community (pp. 1-31). London/New York: Tauris. google scholar
  • Lindgren, Josefin (2018). Developing narrative competence: Swedish, Swedish-German and Swedish-Turkish children aged 4–6. Studia Linguistica Upsaliensia 19. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. google scholar
  • Lindström, L. (2016). Modersmålsundervisning dras in. Upsala Nya Tidning, 8 October 2016. Retrieved from https://unt.se/uppland/uppsala/modersmalsundervisning.dras-in.4398795.aspx google scholar
  • Multicultural Policy Index (2021). Accessed 25 May 2021 from http://www.queensu.ca/mcp/ google scholar
  • Nygren-Junkin, Lilian & Extra, Guus (2003). Multilingualism in Göteborg: The status of immigrant minority languages at home and at school. Amsterdam: European Cultural Foundation. google scholar
  • Öztekin, Buket (2019). Typical and atypical language development in Turkish-Swedish bilingual children aged 4−7. Studia Linguistica Upsaliensia 25. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. google scholar
  • Parkvall, Mikael (2015). Sveriges språk i siffror: Vilka språk talas och av hur många? Stockholm: Morfem & Språkrådet. google scholar
  • Salö, Linus, Ganuza, Natalia, Hedman, Christina & Karrebæk, Martha Sif (2018). Mother tongue instruction in Sweden and Denmark: Language policy, cross-field effects, and linguistic exchange rates. Language Policy 17: 591-610. google scholar
  • School Ordinance (Skolförordningen) (2011). SFS 2011:185. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet. google scholar
  • Solano, Giacomo & Huddleston, Thomas (2020). Migration Integration Policy Index. Retrieved 25 May 2021 from https://www.mipex.eu/key-findings google scholar
  • Spetz, Jennie (2014). Debatterad och marginaliserad: Perspektiv på modersmålsundervisningen. Rapporter från Språkrådet 6. Stockholm: Språkrådet. google scholar
  • Statistics Sweden (2019). https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/artiklar/2019/23-000-barn-gar-inte-i-forskola/ (Retrieved 15 June 2022). google scholar
  • Statistics Sweden (2021). https://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/sv/ssd/ (Retrieved 15 June 2022). google scholar
  • Svanberg, Ingvar (1988). Invandrare från Turkiet: etnisk och sociokulturell variation. 2nd edition. Uppsala: Centre for Multiethnic Research. google scholar
  • Swedish Migration Agency (2017). Beviljade uppehållstillstånd. Received via GB-POS-Statistik@migrationsverket.se google scholar
  • Swedish Ministry of Education (2019). SOU 2019:18. För flerspråkighet, kunskapsutveckling och inkludering: Modersmålsundervisning och studiehandledning på modersmål. Betänkande. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet. google scholar
  • Swedish Ministry of Justice (1974). SFS 1974:152. Kungörelse om beslutad ny regeringsform. Stockholm: Justitiedepartementet. google scholar
  • Swedish National Agency for Education (2008). Med annat modersmål: Elever i grundskolan och skolans verksamhet. Rapport 321. Stockholm: Skolverket. google scholar
  • Swedish National Agency for Education (2017). http://www.skolverket.se/statistik-och-utvardering/statistik-i-tabeller/grundskola/skolor-och-elever, ”Läsåret 16/17_Berättigade till modersmål samt deltagande i modersmål turkiska” (Retrieved 24 July 2017). google scholar
  • Swedish National Agency for Education (2018). Läroplan för förskolan (Lpfö 18). Stockholm: Skolverket. google scholar
  • Swedish National Agency for Education (2019). Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet (Lgr11 revised 2019). Stockholm: Skolverket. google scholar Swedish National Agency for Education (2022). https://www.skolverket.se/skolutveckling/statistik/sok-statistik-om-forskola-skola-och-vuxenutbildning?sok=SokC&verkform=Grundskolan&omrade=Skolor%20och%20elever&lasar=2020/21&run=1 (Retrieved 28 March 2022). google scholar
  • Westin, Charles (2003). Young people of migrant origin in Sweden. The International Migration Review 37(4): 987-1010. google scholar
  • Westin, Charles (ed.) (2015). Integration of descendants of migrants from Turkey in Stockholm: The TIES study in Sweden. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. google scholar
  • Yagmur, Kutlay (2020). Models of formal education and minority language teaching across countries. In: Andrea C. Schalley & Susana A. Eisenchlas (eds.), Handbook of home language maintenance and development (pp. 125-443). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter. google scholar

Turkish Mother Tongue Instruction in Sweden

Year 2022, Issue: 38, 1 - 20, 15.11.2022
https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2022.1138978

Abstract

Home language education has a long tradition in Sweden and includes the teaching of Turkish to children who grow up bilingually with the societal language Swedish and with Turkish as their home and heritage language. The present paper characterises Turkish mother tongue instruction (MTI) and discusses its current status in light of Swedish language policy, as it is reflected in official documents (legislation, policy papers and curricula) vis-a-vis its practical implementation by the municipalities. The paper also presents findings from a research project on Turkish-speaking preschool and primary-school children and their families, concerning MTI attendance and attitudes towards Turkish, as well as on the experiences of Turkish MTI teachers in a Swedish setting.

References

  • Aktürk-Drake, Memet (2017). Turkish maintenance and bilingualism among second-generation Turks in multicultural Stockholm. In: Bahar Başer & Paul T. Levin (eds.), Migration from Turkey to Sweden: Integration, belonging and transnational community (pp. 122-152). London/New York: Tauris. google scholar
  • Aktürk-Drake, Memet (2018). Hur bra har den svenska kontexten varit på att främja balanserad tvåspråkighet? Nordand 13(2): 107-130. google scholar
  • Aras, Ercan (2015). Turkisktalande befolkning i Sverige. Unpublished report. Uppsala: Department of Linguistics & Philology, Uppsala University. google scholar
  • Backus, Ad (2004). Turkish as an immigrant language in Europe. In: Tej K. Bhatia & William C. Ritchie (eds.), The handbook of bilingualism (pp. 689-724). Oxford: Blackwell. google scholar
  • Başer, Bahar & Levin, Paul T. (eds.) (2017). Migration from Turkey to Sweden: Integration, belonging and transnational community. London/New York: Tauris. google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute. (2020). Bilingual development of Turkish-speaking children in Sweden. In: Lenore Grenoble, Pia Lane & Unn Røyneland (eds.), Linguistic Minorities in Europe Online. Special volume on Turkish, ed. Kutlay Yağmur, Berlin/Boston: de Gruyter Mouton. google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute (2022). Turkish heritage families in Sweden: Language practices and family language policy, Journal of Multilingual and Multicultural Development. https://doi.org/10.1080/01434632.2022.2041646 google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute, Haddad, Rima, Lindgren, Josefin, Öberg, Linnéa & Öztekin, Buket (2021). Ordförrådsutveckling hos arabisk-svensktalande och turkisk-svensktalande barn i förskoleåldern och vid skolstart. Språk och stil NF 31(1): 75-107. https://doi.org/10.33063/diva-434152 google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute & Karakoç, Birsel (2020). Subordination in children acquiring Turkish as a heritage language in Sweden. In: Fatih Bayram (ed.), Studies in Turkish as a Heritage Language (pp. 155−204). Amsterdam/Philadelphia: John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil60.08boh google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute, Lindgren, Josefin & Öztekin, Buket (2016). Turkish- and German-speaking bilingual 4-to-6-year-olds living in Sweden: Effects of age, SES and home language input on vocabulary production. Journal of Home Language Research 1: 17–41. https://doi.org/10.16993/jhlr.26 google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute, Lindgren, Josefin & Öztekin, Buket (2021). Storytelling in bilingual Turkish-Swedish children: Effects of language, age and exposure on narrative macrostructure, Linguistic Approaches to Bilingualism. Published online 16 September 2021. https://doi.org/10.1075/lab.20057.boh google scholar
  • Bohnacker, Ute, Öztekin, Buket, & Lindgren, Josefin (2020). Bilingual Turkish-Swedish children’s understanding of MAIN picture sequences: Individual variation, age, language and task effects. In: Ute Bohnacker & Natalia Gagarina (eds.), Developing narrative comprehension: Multilingual Assessment Instrument for Narratives (pp. 99–147). John Benjamins. https://doi.org/10.1075/sibil.61.04boh google scholar
  • Education Act (Skollagen) (2010). SFS 2010:800. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet. google scholar
  • European Commission Directorate-General for Communication (2018). Special Eurobarometer 469: Integration of immigrants in the European Union. Retrieved 25 May 2021 from http://www.europeanmigrationlaw.eu/documents/EuroBarometer-IntegrationOfMigrantsintheEU.pdf google scholar
  • Extra, Guus, & Yağmur, Kutlay (2010). Language proficiency and socio-cultural orientation of Turkish and Moroccan youngsters in the Netherlands. Language and Education 24(2): 117-132. google scholar
  • Ganuza, Natalia & Hedman, Christina (2015). Struggles for legitimacy in mother tongue instruction in Sweden. Language and Education 29(2): 125-139. google scholar
  • Ganuza, Natalia & Hedman, Christina (2017). Ideology vs. practice: Is there a space for translanguaging in mother tongue instruction? In: Beth-Anne Paulsrud, Jenny Rosén, Boglárka Straszer & Åsa Wedin (eds.), New perspectives on translanguaging and education (pp. 208-226). Clevedon: Multilingual Matters. google scholar
  • Ganuza, Natalia & Hedman, Christina (2019). The impact of mother tongue instruction on the development of biliteracy: Evidence from Somali–Swedish bilinguals. Applied Linguistics 40(1): 108–131. google scholar
  • Hyltenstam, Kenneth, & Milani, Tommaso (2012). Flerspråkighetens sociopolitiska och sociokulturella ramar. In: Kenneth Hyltenstam, Monica Axelsson & Inger Lindberg (eds.), Flerspråkighet – en forskningsöversikt (pp. 17–152). Stockholm: Swedish Research Council. https://www.vr.se/download/18.2412c5311624176023d25ac6/1529480531679/Flerspraakighet_VR_2012.pdf google scholar
  • KONDA (2007). Social structure survey September 2006. Istanbul: KONDA. Retrieved 11 June 2015 from http://www.konda.com.tr/en/reports.php google scholar Language Act (Språklagen) (2009). SFS 2009:600. Stockholm: Kulturdepartementet. google scholar
  • Levin, Paul T. & Başer, Bahar (2017). The 50th anniversary of the beginning of migration from Turkey to Sweden: Lessons concerning integration, cohesion, and inclusion. In: Bahar Başer & Paul T. Levin (eds.), Migration from Turkey to Sweden: Integration, belonging and transnational community (pp. 1-31). London/New York: Tauris. google scholar
  • Lindgren, Josefin (2018). Developing narrative competence: Swedish, Swedish-German and Swedish-Turkish children aged 4–6. Studia Linguistica Upsaliensia 19. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. google scholar
  • Lindström, L. (2016). Modersmålsundervisning dras in. Upsala Nya Tidning, 8 October 2016. Retrieved from https://unt.se/uppland/uppsala/modersmalsundervisning.dras-in.4398795.aspx google scholar
  • Multicultural Policy Index (2021). Accessed 25 May 2021 from http://www.queensu.ca/mcp/ google scholar
  • Nygren-Junkin, Lilian & Extra, Guus (2003). Multilingualism in Göteborg: The status of immigrant minority languages at home and at school. Amsterdam: European Cultural Foundation. google scholar
  • Öztekin, Buket (2019). Typical and atypical language development in Turkish-Swedish bilingual children aged 4−7. Studia Linguistica Upsaliensia 25. Uppsala: Acta Universitatis Upsaliensis. google scholar
  • Parkvall, Mikael (2015). Sveriges språk i siffror: Vilka språk talas och av hur många? Stockholm: Morfem & Språkrådet. google scholar
  • Salö, Linus, Ganuza, Natalia, Hedman, Christina & Karrebæk, Martha Sif (2018). Mother tongue instruction in Sweden and Denmark: Language policy, cross-field effects, and linguistic exchange rates. Language Policy 17: 591-610. google scholar
  • School Ordinance (Skolförordningen) (2011). SFS 2011:185. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet. google scholar
  • Solano, Giacomo & Huddleston, Thomas (2020). Migration Integration Policy Index. Retrieved 25 May 2021 from https://www.mipex.eu/key-findings google scholar
  • Spetz, Jennie (2014). Debatterad och marginaliserad: Perspektiv på modersmålsundervisningen. Rapporter från Språkrådet 6. Stockholm: Språkrådet. google scholar
  • Statistics Sweden (2019). https://www.scb.se/hitta-statistik/artiklar/2019/23-000-barn-gar-inte-i-forskola/ (Retrieved 15 June 2022). google scholar
  • Statistics Sweden (2021). https://www.statistikdatabasen.scb.se/pxweb/sv/ssd/ (Retrieved 15 June 2022). google scholar
  • Svanberg, Ingvar (1988). Invandrare från Turkiet: etnisk och sociokulturell variation. 2nd edition. Uppsala: Centre for Multiethnic Research. google scholar
  • Swedish Migration Agency (2017). Beviljade uppehållstillstånd. Received via GB-POS-Statistik@migrationsverket.se google scholar
  • Swedish Ministry of Education (2019). SOU 2019:18. För flerspråkighet, kunskapsutveckling och inkludering: Modersmålsundervisning och studiehandledning på modersmål. Betänkande. Stockholm: Utbildningsdepartementet. google scholar
  • Swedish Ministry of Justice (1974). SFS 1974:152. Kungörelse om beslutad ny regeringsform. Stockholm: Justitiedepartementet. google scholar
  • Swedish National Agency for Education (2008). Med annat modersmål: Elever i grundskolan och skolans verksamhet. Rapport 321. Stockholm: Skolverket. google scholar
  • Swedish National Agency for Education (2017). http://www.skolverket.se/statistik-och-utvardering/statistik-i-tabeller/grundskola/skolor-och-elever, ”Läsåret 16/17_Berättigade till modersmål samt deltagande i modersmål turkiska” (Retrieved 24 July 2017). google scholar
  • Swedish National Agency for Education (2018). Läroplan för förskolan (Lpfö 18). Stockholm: Skolverket. google scholar
  • Swedish National Agency for Education (2019). Läroplan för grundskolan, förskoleklassen och fritidshemmet (Lgr11 revised 2019). Stockholm: Skolverket. google scholar Swedish National Agency for Education (2022). https://www.skolverket.se/skolutveckling/statistik/sok-statistik-om-forskola-skola-och-vuxenutbildning?sok=SokC&verkform=Grundskolan&omrade=Skolor%20och%20elever&lasar=2020/21&run=1 (Retrieved 28 March 2022). google scholar
  • Westin, Charles (2003). Young people of migrant origin in Sweden. The International Migration Review 37(4): 987-1010. google scholar
  • Westin, Charles (ed.) (2015). Integration of descendants of migrants from Turkey in Stockholm: The TIES study in Sweden. Amsterdam: Amsterdam University Press. google scholar
  • Yagmur, Kutlay (2020). Models of formal education and minority language teaching across countries. In: Andrea C. Schalley & Susana A. Eisenchlas (eds.), Handbook of home language maintenance and development (pp. 125-443). Berlin/Boston: Walter de Gruyter. google scholar
There are 44 citations in total.

Details

Primary Language English
Subjects Linguistics
Journal Section Research Articles
Authors

Ute Bohnacker 0000-0002-6715-7470

Publication Date November 15, 2022
Published in Issue Year 2022 Issue: 38

Cite

APA Bohnacker, U. (2022). Turkish Mother Tongue Instruction in Sweden. Dilbilim(38), 1-20. https://doi.org/10.26650/jol.2022.1138978