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Article published In:
Journal of Immersion and Content-Based Language Education
Vol. 4:1 (2016) ► pp.108–128

English-medium instruction in Sweden

Perspectives and practices in two upper secondary schools

| Stockholm University

This article presents a multi-site and multi-method doctoral dissertation study of English-medium instruction (EMI) in the Swedish context, focusing on perspectives and practices in two upper secondary schools. The research explores the status of EMI, reasons schools offer EMI, beliefs about EMI, and implementation of EMI in classrooms. The educational context is studied from an ecological perspective using methods based in linguistic ethnography. The results indicate that the few Swedish schools teaching content through another language tend to offer EMI — not content and language integrated learning (CLIL). Neither language learning nor 100% English instruction are the main goals of the schools. Translanguaging is abundant, affording both pedagogic and non-pedagogic functions. The study concludes that a development of definitions and practices of both EMI and CLIL in Sweden is needed, especially in relation to language policy and language hierarchy.

Keywords: English-medium instruction, language policy, English in Sweden, content and language integrated learning, language hierarchy, academic language, translanguaging
Published online: 11 March 2016
DOI logo
https://doi.org/10.1075/jicb.4.1.05pau
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