This paper presents a systematic literature review of studies about the starting age of formal L2 English language teaching world-wide ("L2" = English as a foreign, second, third etc. language). Like other systematic reviews, the aim is to provide a synthesis "of the state of knowledge in a field" (Page et al., 2021,  p. 1) by mapping empirical research on starting age and understanding the grounds of policy decisions regarding starting age of L2 English teaching. Included studies were about a) educational policy on starting age, or b) empirical studies about L2 English language learning aiming to inform policy on starting age, or both. Initial searches revealed that existing systematic reviews of L2 English teaching in schools (e.g., Butler, 2015; Liang et al., 2024; Porto et al., 2021) are restricted geographically and do not focus on starting age in formal education. This, coupled with increasing expectations that educational policy be evidence-based (Baker & Wright, 2021), led to three research questions (RQs): 1) What parts of the world are covered in published studies on the starting age of formal L2 English language teaching?; 2) What is the reported starting age of L2 English in formal education in contexts studied?; and 3) What do the studies inform us about policy and its relation to empirical evidence? Relying on the Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic reviews and Meta-Analysis (PRISMA) guidelines (Page et al., 2021), five data bases were searched around the domains of English as a second/foreign language instruction AND education* policy AND start* age OR early start*, resulting in 1,097 records, reduced to 92 following removals of duplicates and off-topic records. Addressing the RQs requires content analysis (Bryman, 2016) of selected studies, using deductive analysis for RQs 1 and 2, and inductive analysis for RQ3. Analysis is currently ongoing and results pertaining to the RQs form the focus of the presentation.

This presentation is part of a larger project that aims to gain an in-depth understanding of disciplinary literacy in primaryschool teacher education in Sweden, including for example teacher educators’ beliefs about literacy practices. In thepresentation we will discuss the results from a sub-study of three teacher educators’ talk about literacy in relation totheir teaching practice and about students’ writing in their respective discipline, namely biology, Swedish (comparativeliterature) and mathematics. Nexus analysis, based on mediated discourse theory (Scollon & Scollon 2004), is used asthe analytic framework focusing on the concepts of ‘social action’, ‘historical body’ and ‘discourse in place’. Drawingon dialogical interviewing principles (Way et al. 2015), semi-structured interviews were conducted on Zoom at auniversity in the south of Sweden. Analysis revealed clashes between the historical body of the participants and thediscourses in place due to the intricate web of literacies and interdisciplinary fields that teacher educators need tonavigate. We argue that this type of meta-methodological perspective, in which the social actions of the participantscome to the fore, can clarify the complex connections inherent in literacy practices as opposed to common proceduresin the field such as think-aloud protocols and expert-novice distinctions.

References

Way, A., Kanak Zwier, R., & Tracy, S. J. (2015). Dialogic Interviewing and Flickers of Transformation: An Examination and Delineation of Interactional Strategies That Promote Participant Self-Reflexivity. Qualitative Inquiry,21(8), 720–731.

Scollon, R. & Scollon, S.W. (2004). Nexus Analysis. Discourse and the Emerging Internet. London & New York:Routledge Taylor & Francis Group.

An increasingly globalised world has led to great language diversity in institutional settings. Sweden is no exception; 3 of 10 students in compulsory school have a migrant background. Increased diversity may result in challenges, e.g. knowing how to balance the use of the target language with other languages represented among the students to facilitate learning and interaction. As educational policy documents for Swedish schools offer little guidance, teachers of English as a foreign/second language (L2) are left to their own devices regarding what language(s) to draw on in instruction. With the aim of developing an empirical knowledge base about teacher beliefs and practices in multilingual L2 English classrooms in Sweden, a web-based questionnaire was distributed to a stratified random sample representative of secondary-school teachers (N = 139). The questionnaire was designed to target six salient constructs related to multilingual teaching/learning conditions. Quantitative data analyses revealed that although multilingualism is perceived as a resource, there was greater variation in teachers’ perceptions of the role of students’ L1s in learning and teaching, and whether to exclusively use English when teaching. Furthermore, the participants strongly support the Swedish policy of offering mother-tongue instruction at school, which has been in place over the past five decades.

Vocabulary experts recommend first language (L1) translation equivalents for establishing form–meaning mappings for new second language (L2) words, especially for lower proficiency learners. Empirical evidence to date speaks in favor of L1 translation equivalents over L2 meaning definitions, but most studies have investigated bi- rather than multilingual learners. In our study, we investigated instructed English vocabulary learning through an intervention study in six language-diverse secondary school English classrooms in Sweden (N = 74) involving three conditions for presentation of word meanings: (a) definitions in the L2 (English), (b) translation equivalents in the shared school and majority language (Swedish), and (c) translation equivalents in the shared school and majority language plus other prior languages among the learners (Swedish and other). Based on overall weighted mean effect sizes and mixed-effects modeling, the results showed that conditions that involved L1 translation equivalents yielded higher scores than did target language definitions in immediate posttests with a small effect size but no differences in delayed posttests.