Adult Monolingual Policy Becomes Children's Bilingual Practice: Code-Alternation among Children and Staff in an English-Medium Preschool in Sweden.

The purpose of this study is to investigate the local bilingual practice among children and adults in a Swedish preschool with an English language profile, in which the teachers primarily speak English to the children. The study examines how the children interact with each other and with the teachers, and how the children use their language skills in a monolingual (English) preschool.

Overall, the authors find that the teachers follow the preschool's language policy by primarily speaking English to the children. Only in a few cases do the teachers use interjections in Swedish, for example "ja" (yes) and "nej" (no), and the teachers rarely engage in a bilingual practice by speaking both English and Swedish to the children.

The study shows that the children's use of language differs from that of the teachers. More often, the children use a bilingual practice, despite the fact that they are in a distinctly monolingual setting. The children use code alternation, for example, by alternating between Swedish and English words in the same sentence such as "Can I have the lim (glue)". The children also alternate between Swedish and English by conjugating English words in Swedish such as "vi skal squeeza den (we must squeeza it)”. The English verb ”squeeze” is thus conjugated in Swedish. However, the children were aware of speaking English to the teachers, even though they were playing a game in which they spoke Swedish to another child. The teachers did not correct the children's choice of language, but helped the children fill in the "gaps" when they spoke English.

The authors conclude that the preschool's monolingual policy in practice became a bilingual approach, in which the children learned to manage their bilingualism in a preschool context.

Data was collected from a preschool with an English language profile with a total of 25 3-4-year-old children from homes in which several languages are spoken. Data was collected over a period of two years and consists of 12 hours of video footage of spontaneous interaction in the preschool and in the playground, for example interaction between children during snack time, free play and when they were picked up by their parents. Data also consists of semi-structured interviews with five teachers and three sets of parents.

Boyd, S. & Ottesjö, C. (2016). Adult Monolingual Policy Becomes Children's Bilingual Practice: Code-Alternation among Children and Staff in an English-Medium Preschool in Sweden. International Journal of Bilingual Education and Bilingualism 19(6), 631-648.