Milana Usorac and Judith Osasere Agbonifo participate in a unique project that will teach the newly arrived young people English much faster than usual. They have lived in Sweden for a few months and wears now with all the new and difficult words. Both of their dream is to become a doctor.
” I understand better and better, but it is difficult to pronounce and to write. At home, I talk Swedish a little bit with my younger sister. I know of no one who is born in Sweden, ” says Judith.
nor does the Milana has the opportunity to speak Swedish with someone who is born in this country. She thinks it is boring.
– to become better you have to talk quite a lot, ” she says.
the study centres in Södertälje, sweden offers young people an opportunity to gain access to the upper secondary vocational programmes, and to any college preparatory programs or to directly be able to get a job. Almost all of the approximately 270 students are from any other country than Sweden.
Judith is originally from Nigeria and Milana from Serbia. The hope for a bright future here, and both want to study to become a doctor. Both know it’s a long trip there. Both medical fackord and the “common” English words must be plugged in.
“I have an uncle who is a medical doctor,” says Milana.
– I, fills the Judith in.
She is 16 years old, while Milana age of 17. Both are sorry that they did not have the opportunity to socialize with peers who have Swedish as their mother tongue.
Morabergs study centres, which started in 2013, is located in an industrial area in the north of Södertälje.
since the beginning of the fall semester in the project “intensive Swedish”, as the Inside told me about yesterday (2/1). It’s goal is to develop a model for effective teaching in the Swedish language and other topics for newly arrived young people.
the Principal Susanne Jedenborg is very pleased with the results so far:
– Many of the young people who came here in connection with the great flyktingvågen three years ago is between 16 and 19 years. They do not have time to acquire grundskolekompens and is therefore at risk of completely falling outside the labour market.
It is therefore so important that they quickly learn English to be able to go further in life. When we started operations here last fall, however, there were nothing we could lean against in order to achieve this.
Susanne Jedenborg is the principal of the Morabergs study centres. Photo: Fredrik Funck
says that the tuition in Swedish for newly arrived young otherwise is quite rättsosäker in the day. Teaching students may differ between different municipalities and between different schools.
– The individual headteachers have considerable power and national guidelines are lacking, ” she says.
Hesna Köhler is a teacher at the Morabergs learning and teaching in Arabic, French and English. At a seminar in the autumn of 2017, she got to hear about the development project in order to quickly teach newcomers English. There was already a school in Nacka and Stockholm.
Instantly thought of Hesna, who himself was born in Morocco, that there was something also for her school – and she managed to get a hearing for their idea.
when she says to Södertälje would be able to become a new Toronto. The canadian city has eighty ethnic belongings and over a hundred different languages – which makes it one of the most multicultural cities in the world.
– By a good structured teaching in order to teach students English, we would be able to take advantage of their curiosity, joy of discovery and desire. This is the same force that developed Toronto.
But newly arrived young people are a vulnerable group as it is not spent so much on. They are not children, but not adults. And it is no for their cause. For me it is a question of justice and democracy that these young people have access to the knowledge they have the right to.
So says Hesna Köhler that many students have a hard time learning compound words, type lunch or lucia. Powered rituals with electricity, and should not be you pack the food in a bag when on the excursion?
Hesna Köhler is a teacher at the Morabergs learning and teaching in Arabic, French and English. Photo: Fredrik Funck
the vocabulary size have a strong correlation with the ability to read and success in school. A student should be able to between 10 000 and 15 000 words, to be able to absorb the teaching at the middle school and in high school.
the Project “intensive Swedish” is, inter alia, to develop methods and approaches for strengthening students ‘ vocabulary. Among other things, has the “ordläxor” each week. Then it’s a matter of learning some new Swedish words used in the teaching.
When school days start on Monday, students get a bundle with “flash cards”. On one side they write the English word or phrase and on the reverse a translation in their own language. Sometimes, it facilitates the students drawing a picture that shows the English word. Words or phrases select the teachers out and they are always taken from the texts the students work with a given week.
good when it handar on the noun, as a house or car. It becomes more difficult when it comes to abstract words such as function, well-being, the climate crisis.
Anders Gustafsson teaches, inter alia, in geography. During his lessons, he uses, of course, technical terms for example, to explain how a map is built, but then there are all the “luckord” that binds together the language.
– It can be words that are not used often, but are important to understand a context, ” he says.
Ninve Isik is a teacher in Swedish as a second language. She says that her teaching is often based on what the teachers in other subjects, ranging from mathematics to the latter.
– the Word pollution is a subject-specific words that the teacher can explain, but the word change has a bearing in so many different contexts and is, therefore, important to understand. Such words might with advantage be taken up on a flash cards.
” We are talking about an equal school, but it has not been in the past. The new arrivals have not received instruction in the subjects in the same way as their peers, ” says Ninve Isik.
Milana Usorac and Judith Osasere Agbonifo has lived in Sweden for a few months and wear now with all the new and difficult words. Both of their dream is to become a doctor. Photo: Fredrik Funck
many of the students who come to Morabergs study centres have good subject knowledge with you in your backpack, but these are lost long time without using them.
” Now may our students teaching in biology, math, English, geography, chemistry, physical and so on. Several of the students want to become doctors, engineers, lawyers … they are motivated to study and lose now not as easy desire.
Aree Bahow, teacher of mathematics and physics, came to Sweden as twelve. He therefore has personal experience of the difficulty of learning a new language from scratch, and agree with how important it is that students get a context.
” I got myself to read Swedish, but that there was any link to the other topics. It was worthless. Here I work with teachers who teach in Swedish as a second language and it helps both them and me.
” By being involved in the project “intensive Swedish” I have received access to which targets should be achieved in my subjects and what methods work.
