Abstract :
In this presentation, we will describe a form of educational support offered to newcomers in the Swedish school system called Study Guidance in Mother Tongues/Strongest School Language (SGMT/SSL). We will also present results of an on-going study investigating how meaning is made during translanguaging in SGMT/SSL. The study uses the concept of semiotic assemblages (Pennycook, 2017) as way of conceptualizing and analyzing how different linguistic and semiotic resources are drawn on during SGMT/SSL to help students reach the learning goals of subjects in the Swedish curriculum. Data comprises 20 classroom observations of MSG (5 video-recorded), field notes and semi-structured interviews with an MSG tutor, 4 teachers, and the principal of the language-introduction program. Moment analysis (Li Wei, 2011) is used to analyse moments during SGMT/SSL when tutors assist students with exercises in different school subjects. The results of this analysis and qualitative content analysis of interviews inform each other and allow exploration of connections and disjunctions between meaning making during SGMT/SSL and the perspectives of informants. Preliminary results indicate that during MSG, semiotic assemblages vary depending on the subject in focus and the form in which SGMT/LSSL is organized. Opportunities for learning are however believed to be heavily impacted by circumstances beyond the classroom, including homelessness, uncertain legal status and economic vulnerability.Li, W. (2011). Moment Analysis and translanguaging space: Discursive construction of identities by multilingual Chinese youth in Britain. Journal of Pragmatics, 43(5), 1222-1235. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.pragma.2010.07.035Norton, B., & Toohey, K. (2011). Identity, language learning, and social change. Language Teaching, 44(August 2011), 412-446. https://doi.org/10.1017/S0261444811000309Pennycook, A. (2017). Translanguaging and semiotic assemblages. International Journal of Multilingualism, 14(3), 269-282. https://doi.org/10.1080/14790718.2017.1315810
