IMMIGRANTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE LEARNING IN SWEDEN: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES

1. IMMIGRANTS’ PERSPECTIVES ON LANGUAGE LEARNING IN SWEDEN: PROSPECTS AND CHALLENGES Presenter: Dr. Ebere Nweze Botkyrka Folkhogskola, Sweden.

2. OUTLINE • ABSTRACT • INTRODUCTION • OBJECTIVES • REVIEW OF LITERATURE • METHODOLOGY • Procedure • Population and Sample • Ethical Consideration • Data Collection Instruments • PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA • Demographic Data • PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS • CONCLUSION • LIMITATION

3. ABSTRACT • Many countries require that immigrants acquire at least a basic knowledge of the host country’s language in order to integrate properly into the society. • In some countries the burden of acquiring such knowledge is the sole responsibility of the immigrant but in other countries like Sweden, there is concerted effort on the part of the government to offer free language learning opportunities to immigrants with legal resident status. However, even though such an opportunity abounds, it is not compulsory that immigrants take them seriously. • But it is important to note that in such countries that attach much importance to their language, acquisition of the language is considered a measure of seriousness on the part of the immigrant’s desire to settle and integrate in the host society. This study investigates the perspectives of adult immigrants enrolled in a Swedish language acquisition study program.

4. INTRODUCTION • Sweden is one of the countries in the world with a strong sense of language nationalism. • Thus immigrants who move to Sweden are faced with the challenge of learning Swedish in order to integrate into the society. • The Swedish authorities have some very professional programs aimed at assisting the immigrants to learn the language faster. • Often many immigrants are faced with the challenge of studying both languages either as L2, L3, L4 or even L5. The last three, L3. L4 and L5 are all terms subsumed under second languages as Ellis 1994 suggests, “generally used to refer to any language other than the first language” p11. • For many of the immigrants involved in this study, Swedish comes a distant 3rd, 4th or 5th in the order of languages they speak. • So I am using these terms to signify the number of languages participants speak. • However, this study is limited to investigating the perspectives of immigrants who are enrolled in the Swedish language study program.

5. INTRODUCTION • The study posits that the free tuition language learning program can achieve better results when the students’ perspectives and particular needs of the learners are involved in content planning and modification. Otherwise the program can disorient, marginalise and disconnect the immigrants more than it would assist their integration. • The challenges to acquire an L2, L3 and L4 may act as a destabilising factor to integration into a new society on the part of the students especially if the perspectives of the immigrant students are ignored. • The study also attempts to investigate if the students’ individual goals can assist them overcome the challenges they encounter while learning Swedish. • The findings of the study might be a resource for policy makers and teachers of L2, L3, L4 courses to plan more learner centred programs and curricula.

6. OBJECTIVES • The study posits that the free tuition language learning program can achieve better results when the students’ perspectives and particular needs of the learners are involved in content planning and modification. • The challenges to acquire an L2, L3 and L4 may act as a destabilising factor to integration into a new society on the part of the students especially if the perspectives of the immigrant students are ignored. • The study also attempts to investigate if the students’ individual goals can assist them overcome the challenges they encounter while learning Swedish. • The findings of the study might be a resource for policy makers and teachers of L2, L3, L4 courses to plan more learner centred programs and curricula.

7. REVIEW OF LITERATURE • Globalisation and need for better economic opportunities ensure that Sweden receives its own share of people movement (Koser 2010). Immigrants in Sweden come from more than 200 different countries with diverse ethnicities, languages, social status, age, educational levels and professional competence and they also have diverse reasons for moving to Sweden as well (Linberg and Sundwall, 2007, Buonfino et al, 2007). • However, Sweden was not a colonising and conquering nation and so does not have ex-colonies that use Swedish at any level of their education or governance. So unlike other European languages such as English, French, Latin, Spanish and Portuguese that are spoken widely outside these countries because of colonialism, Swedish is spoken mainly by people who live inside Sweden.

8. REVIEW OF LITERATURE • So most immigrants coming to Sweden have their very first contact with Swedish when they arrive in Sweden. Thus there is the need to assist the immigrants in their quest to settle in Sweden by teaching them the language. • The Swedish authorities introduced language programs as far back as the 1960s in order to meet this need. The aim then was to teach the language for the purpose of work and social relationships (Lindberg and Sundwall, 2007). • Studies have been done on the Swedish language programs. Some studies have focused on the crisis of identity and tension that surrounds immigrants trying to learn a new language which is a carrier of another culture (Granberg 2001, Carlson 2002, 2006).

9. REVIEW OF LITERATURE • SFI (Swedish for Immigrants), is purported to be one of the programs at the core of integrating the immigrants into the Swedish society. However, many immigrants are not impressed with the fact that their value is measured only by their ability to learn and speak fluent Swedish. This often takes years depending on several different factors affecting learning of the language. • In an article titled “Sweden’s foreign professionals suffer a multicultural learning curve”, Lisa Mikulski (2014) laments a subtle exclusion policy that keeps highly educated foreign professionals out of work. She warns of the dire consequences Sweden might suffer in the near future if educated foreign professionals are excluded from the job market on the grounds of language

10. REVIEW OF LITERATURE • Probably, one of the major criticisms of the SFI program is that it is program practically decreed into being by an Act of Parliament and meant to serve just the ‘Swedish’ desire to integrate the immigrants without recourse to the perspectives of the immigrants. • Such an act runs contrary to the view expressed by Paulston, Christina Brat1982, “The very recent interest in language attitude studies is illustrative of the increasing understanding in the field of language planning of the importance attitudes play in the successful implementation of language policies. The prediction of attitudes toward alternative language policies is considered an important aspect in theoretical speculations about language planning as a discipline” (P.31)

11. REVIEW OF LITERATURE • LivinusTorty(2009) notes that the immigrants’ frustration in learning the language stem from the limited opportunities for socialising and interacting with native Swedes as well as the latter’s demand for perfection in the use of the language. • He also cites poor pedagogical methods as one of the factors impeding the learners’ achievement of the desired language learning target. • However, his research is too limiting in that it failed to address the perspectives of immigrants from other nationalities-a limitation the present research would attempt to address. • It also studied mainly enlightened participants but this study departs from his in the sense that there are diversities of social and intellectual levels among the participants. Moreover, this study is being carried out while the participants are still enrolled in the Swedish language program.

12. METHODOLOGY • Perspectives and opinions of the participants are essential for making conclusions and recommendations. Thus the qualitative method is used to gather and analyse data (May, 2002). At the same time research and statistics on the study of the Swedish language by immigrants is also relevant. • The data is collected using a combination of semi structured questions and open ended questions administered on participants enrolled in two levels of Swedish language courses (SFI and SAS). • The need to use semi structured questions is informed by the desire to guide the researcher in articulating and framing questions related to the research while the use of open ended questions is intended to elicit individual comments beyond the semi structured questions.

13. Procedure:This is mostly an Action Research as the research was going on simultaneously with the courses the students are enrolled in (Stringer, 2008). The main motivation for the research stems from class and individual discussions that the researcher had with some of the students and the teacher while enrolled in a Swedish for Immigrants course (SFI). • I observed some frustrations on the part of the students and a lack of a coherent pedagogical method on the part of the teacher. • Ialso observed an equal frustration on the teacher for the lack of motivation to learn on the part of the students. Moreover, I observed that as adult students, learners are not part of the decisions on how they want to learn and what content that can best facilitate their learning. This is at the core of Action Research which is a method that involves participation in the continuous construction and reconstruction of knowledge between learners and teachers (Mills, 2007). This is also in line with the goals of Constructivist theoretical framework that encourages constant collaboration between learners and teachers with the aim of constructing and reconstructing new bodies of knowledge together.

14. Population and Sample • The target population for the study is students enrolled in the Swedish Language course; SFI and SAS-grund (Basic Swedish as a Second Language), in one of the municipalities in Sweden. • The population suits the objective of the study which is to investigate the perspectives of students still enrolled in the program at the time of the research. • This population also fulfills the goals of Action Research which seeks to use results to improve content and methodology. However, the sample is chosen randomly as is reflected in the different categories that participated in the research. • The sample size proposed originally was 50; however, only 33 participants completed and returned the semi-structured interview responses within the stipulated time. Consequently, the analysis of data is based on the 33 participants and not on 50 as originally proposed.

15. Ethical Considerations Most researchers are aware that ethical consideration or the lack therefore can make or mar a study. The need to consider the participants’ feelings is paramount to a good data collection. Proposed participants were given the choice of participating or opting out if they did not identify with the objectives of the study nor interested in its results. Some declined participation and even among the 50 that accepted, not all returned their responses. It may have been that along the line, they changed their minds Protecting the privacy and the identity of the participants was another issue of importance to the researcher. To protect participants’ identities therefore, the researcher did not include the category of names in the demographics section. And in the analysis the category of numbers is assigned wherever, there is a need to quote particular participants’ comments.

16. Data Collection Instruments The ideal data collection instruments for a qualitative research such as this are personal, face to face interviews and focus group discussion meetings. However, due to some factors, the researcher decided to use semi-structured and open-ended interview questions administered through writing. The responses of the participants were also collected through their written expressions. The factors that informed this decision include time, space and number. In order to cover as much area as possible, 22 semi-structured questions were constructed. The researcher asked as many questions because administering the questions was a one of exercise as against face to face interview or focus group discussion method that afford opportunities of spending longer time with participants but in diverse segments. Thus some of the questions were initial questions while some were follow-up questions.

17. PRESENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF DATA • This was done through the coding of responses in order to find out the recurringresponses which will form a pattern for naming the predominant categories. • Before moving on to name and interpret the categories gleaned from the participants, I will first present the data collected from part A section of the study that bothers on demographics. • The data in this section is presented not necessarily because they formed any pattern for recurring categories but they attest to the diversity of the participants and lend credence to the claims of the random sampling methods applied in choosing the participants.

18. Demographic Data: • The age range of participants is 20-50 years. There is a cluster around 20-40 years with 13 of the participants at the age bracket of 20-30, 12 in the age bracket of 31-40 while 6 participants were within the bracket of 41-50. Two participants did not write down their ages. • There were 23 female participants and 10 male participants. • However, the five most diverse categories within the demographics were nationalities of the participants (13 different nationalities); the number of languages they speak; 15 in all (Almost every participant spoke more than one language with a range between 2-5); their mother tongue (13 different mother tongues); the number of years they have lived in Sweden (6 months to 17 years); and the length of time they have been enrolled in the Swedish language program (3 months-7 years).

19. PRESENTATION AND DISCUSSION OF FINDINGS • After sifting, distilling and abstracting the data, it became apparent that there are five categories identifiable in the responses of the participants. These include: • Reasons for enrolling in the Swedish language course • Course content and pedagogical methods • Individual responsibilities for learning • Interferences with other languages • Prejudices on both the learners’ part and on the part of Swedes.

20. Reasons for enrolling in the program: • There are four major reasons advanced for enrolling in the program. These include, getting a job, furthering their education, socialising and being married to a Swede. • The highest recurring reasons however, are for getting a job, furthering education and socialising with 29 (88%) of the participants queuing up behind these reasons. On a closer look however, the socialising reason collapses into the getting a job reasons and education reasons. • Many of the participants think that being able to speak the language will expose them to probably more interaction with native Swedes which will in turn boost their chances for advertising themselves as job seekers. • The younger immigrants distributed around ages 20-30 years, think that they want to further their education so they need to learn the language. • Many within this age bracket have progressed to SAS grund and SAS 1 in their Swedish language education. They also need the language to interact with peers at school.

21. Course content and Pedagogical methods • Many of the participants found the course contents for their Swedish learning very cumbersome. There is much dissatisfaction with segments of the courses especially the part on grammar. The emphasis seemed to be on learning the individual components of the grammar without much context to practice them in context. As a result, , the students knew the grammatical components without being able to apply them when they left the classroom. • Some of them queried the rationale behind the teacher talking all the time while students sit and listen for a course designed to make the students to speak the language. • The participants who indicated that they needed just the SFI level in order to get jobs wondered why courses are not designed accordingly and students assigned to classes according to the purpose of their studies from the start instead of lumping them together for some weeks before separating them. • The participants also complained that the program is designed for learners and as such is supposed to be learner centred, yet there is no evaluation process throughout the course that elicits students’ feedback and suggestions on course content and pedagogical methods.

22. 5.2.3. Interferences with other languages as a challenge • The demographics show that many of the participants speak multiple languages. This poses a challenge to many of the participants especially those who speak English. • Resemblance between English and Swedish is a hindrance especially in spellings and pronunciations. Those who learnt English before starting to learn Swedish tend to pronounce words like English when they try to speak Swedish. • They also write the English spellings of the words instead of Swedish. One of the participants who wrote a comment in this section, “I think it is difficult to communicate in different languages. It makes you get confused in speaking and writing.” (P17). • Another participant puts it more succinctly, “The major problem one faces while studying a new language (like I do) is that of linguistic interference.” (P11)

23. 5.2.4. IndividualResponsibility: Many of the participants perceive that they have the individual responsibility to learn the language. • They agree that the program is quite helpful but not sufficient to learn the language. One needs to immerse oneself in the language through watching programs presented in Swedish on television and radio, watching movies made in Swedish, reading books written in Swedish as well as attend events where the language is Swedish. • Some of the participants admit that this is often difficult as one can hardly understand the Swedish speakers much. The result is that they do not practice these as often as they should yet they think that these will help even if for hearing the sounds of the language only.

24. 5.2.5. Prejudices against native Swedes • Many of the participants complained that they do not have opportunities to listen to real life native speakers so they feel discouraged. They claim that Swedes do not mix with immigrants at the same time the government set up the program in order to assist immigrants integrate into the society. This perceived attitude both motivates and de-motivates immigrants learning the language. • For those who are desperate and do not speak English (which is also spoken by almost all native Swedes), they need to learn the language at least to be able to find a job becomes more overarching than their prejudice. • However, for the participants who have higher education from their home lands especially from other EU nations who also speak English, they think that the native Swedes are not ready to accept immigrants and the lack of knowledge of Swedish is just a lame excuse to further their unfriendly attitude. For example one of the participants who works as an English language teacher wrote in the comment: • I may never need to do my job in Swedish but I am learning the language because I intend to live here. I think that the Swedish language teachers treat all in the classroom as illiterates who need the language to find menial jobs. I have reached the highest level of education in my chosen profession so I feel frustrated and resent the language when it is used as a measure of my intelligence. I also feel frustrated when my colleagues who all teach English try to insist that meetings are held in Swedish! That to me is unnecessary language egoism! (P15)

25. CONCLUSION • The research has attempted to discover the perspectives of immigrants enrolled in two levels of the Swedish language program for immigrants. The participants in the study are from thirteen different nationalities and all put together speak a variety of more than fifteen different languages. • It was discovered that individuals think they have a responsibility to study the language because they want to improve their economic status through getting more education. They think that studying Swedish is a short road to their dream life. Thus these reasons enhance their prospects of language acquisition in spite of whatever difficulty they face. • It was also discovered that the content and teaching methodologies pose a challenge and can impede the ability of the immigrants to learn the language faster. The attitudes of native Swedes also pose a challenge as there is a resentment of the language egoism on the part of the Swedes at the same time that they seem to expect a perfect ‘Swedish’ from immigrants. • The researcher hopes that the challenges faced in new language acquisition from the perspectives of the immigrants can be mitigated thereby reinforcing the prospects in learning a new language and integration for which the language program was initiated

26. LIMITATION • A study such as this cannot claim to be conclusive as the debate about SFI language program and its desired goal for integration of immigrants will continue to go on for a while to come. Moreover, depending on the distribution of participants in every study, there will be different results. • As stated at the beginning of the paper, this study is conducted with the intention of assisting policy makers, teachers and immigrants themselves to come to an awareness of expectations and challenges that affect immigrants’ ability to acquire the Swedish language and possibly attempt to find solutions. • It is limited in the number of participants and the time frame within which it was conducted. However, the researcher hopes that this study will contribute some perspective to the immigration, language and integration debate.

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