What is your thesis about?

The study examines multilingual students’ use of translanguaging and writing tools when writing in English. It is based on a classroom intervention consisting of six lessons: five dedicated to teaching essay writing with the help of various writing tools—both physical and psychological—and one final lesson devoted to individual writing.

Why did you become interested in this topic?

My interest stems from the noticeable differences in final grades after nine years of compulsory school between students who speak only Swedish at home and those who speak another language. In our society, languages have different levels of status, and the languages spoken by roughly a third of our students—such as Albanian and Bosnian—often have low status. For various reasons, these languages are rarely invited into the classroom, which prevents students from using them as tools when writing in English.
In the current English curriculum, teachers are expected to assess students’ use of functional strategies when writing, which the commentary to the syllabus defines as including the use of dictionaries and digital tools. To be able to assess students’ use of writing tools, these tools need to be included in assessment tasks. In this way, we can make writing tasks more authentic and bridge students’ out-of-school writing experiences with their school writing, making the teaching more relevant to their future. This study takes a step in that direction.

What are the main findings of your thesis?

When students were given the freedom to translanguage while completing a task in the English classroom, there was an immediate and noticeable shift in the classroom climate. Students suddenly became interested in which languages their classmates spoke. Swedish played a central role (58.5%) in the students’ translanguaging, followed by the target language, English (27.9%). Other home languages, such as Albanian and Bosnian, were used about as much as modern foreign languages (5.6% and 5.5%, respectively). The choice of language depended on whether conversation partners understood and could use the same language, which could have consequences for students who are the sole speakers of a language in the class.
Off-task talk was minimal (0.4% to 7.6%), always took place in the shared language Swedish, and concerned everyday matters in students’ lives. In their interaction, students engaged in what is known as exploratory talk—a type of dialogue that previous research has shown to support learning (Mercer, 2004).
According to students, translanguaging also extended beyond visible peer interaction and into what I call “silent translanguaging” in the form of inner speech, where multilingual students moved between the named languages in their repertoire to reason with themselves.
The writing tools introduced were adopted to varying degrees and in different ways. For example, most students reacted positively to mind mapping, but a few found it stressful. Similarly, most students were positive toward using their full linguistic repertoires as a writing tool, while a small number rejected previously learned languages for fear of mixing them up. A deeper analysis of students’ use of writing tools showed that the tools mediated different actions that affected essay writing in different ways—such as generating ideas for content, relieving working memory to allow more time for the writing process, and using linguistic awareness to solve writing problems.
An important finding was that several writing tools mediated affirmation, which in turn influenced students’ self-efficacy beliefs. The study shows that access to writing tools—and the opportunity to know the writing topic in advance—affects students’ feelings and confidence when completing high-stakes tasks, such as national tests.

How did you conduct your study?

The study takes a sociocultural perspective on knowledge and consists of a six-lesson intervention designed and carried out together with an experienced lead teacher in English. The intervention was based on the Curriculum Cycle (Derewianka, 1991), a genre-based teaching method designed to provide adequate scaffolding and preparation for independent writing.
Background information for each student was collected through a questionnaire before the intervention, and a second questionnaire was used to document students’ experiences afterward. The lessons were video recorded, and audio recordings captured students’ group interactions. A selection of students (12 out of 48) took part in focus group interviews after the intervention, and the lead teacher was interviewed both before and after the project.

What new questions does your study raise?

Given the findings—and the fact that the national Swedish test allows students to use writing tools such as spellcheckers and dictionaries—I wonder whether we should reconsider allowing similar tools in the national English test.
Another question is whether the occurrence of exploratory talk would increase if it were explicitly taught, and whether its use together with translanguaging could influence student outcomes.
It would also be interesting to examine how allowing writing tools might affect students’ results by recording their computer screens while writing and having independent teachers assess the final products. Finally, involving an AI-based writing tool could open possibilities for exploring whether students can learn from the tool to improve their own writing.

Was there anything that surprised you?

One thing that surprised me was that students reported using the writing tools less than expected. According to them, simply knowing the tools were available gave them a sense of security that increased their confidence to the point where they no longer needed them.
Another surprise was the immediate impact on classroom climate when students were allowed to translanguage to complete a task. They quickly began to acknowledge each other’s language skills, and the status differences between languages faded away.

Would you recommend that other teachers take time away from teaching to do research? Why?

As a teacher, you build a special relationship with your students. You learn to see and hear how different students work and where they might encounter difficulties in their learning. Teachers’ insights and experiences are crucial for the development of educational research—so that our teaching can be strengthened and, most importantly, so we can support our students in the best possible way.
On top of that, it’s genuinely enjoyable to take on the researcher role and, through scientific methods, learn from students about how they learn best.