This interview study presents 13 preschool class teachers’ experiences of assessing the language abilities of six year olds who speak other languages than Swedish at home. The classroom assessments were valued as a starting point but the teachers felt the need to vary their methods when assessing multilingual students.
The recent amendment to the Swedish Educational Act has placed further importance on assessments when striving for enhanced school achievements. From the students’ first semester at the age of six, the teacher assesses each student’s language abilities. One purpose is to identify students in need of support in reaching the curriculum goals for Swedish. The other purpose is formative in guiding the teachers’ planning. The aim of this study was to describe preschool class teachers’ experiences of assessing the language abilities of students who speak other languages in addition to speaking Swedish at home. The challenge when assessing multilingual students is to determine the reason for the student’s low scores. Historically this has led to an over representation of multilingual students in special educational programs. However, at the same time multilingual students with learning disabilities have not received the support they have needed because their difficulties have incorrectly been categorised as insufficient language abilities (Cummins, 1983; Sullivan, 2011). It is therefore important to investigate further the assessments of multilingual students in order to ensure that they receive adequate and appropriate support at an early stage. The study was comprised of four group interviews with a total of 13 preschool class teachers. Each video-recorded interviews was of 30 minutes duration. According to the preliminary findings from the content analysis, some teachers value the classroom assessments as a starting point in their planning. However, the teachers described the need to repeat the assessments and to use other methods to validate their assessments for those students who were multilingual. While the repetition of the assessment for multilingual learners may result in them receiving appropriate support, they will nonetheless be at a disadvantage in comparison with those monolingual students who received earlier appropriate additional support.
