Making appropriate use of the students’ home languages (HLs) has been one of the greatest challenges English as an additional language (EAL) teachers face in linguistically diverse classrooms (Flores & Aneja, 2017; Hall & Cook, 2012). Because of the lack of research on HL use in Nordic contexts, but also because the topic is rarely discussed in teacher training programs, teachers often assume that students prefer an environment that makes little to no use of their HL (Haukås et al., 2021; Shin et al., 2020). Research undertaken thus far in Norwegian settings illustrates that while HL use is quite prevalent as the medium of instruction, teachers feel guilty about its presence (Neokleous & Ofte, 2020). However, with classrooms becoming increasingly multilingual and multicultural, students along with their teachers do not seem to share a common language and are encouraged to adopt a multilingual approach to teaching with HLs being actively present (García & Wei, 2014; Lin & He, 2017). The updated Norwegian curriculum for the subject of English in primary education (Norwegian Directorate of Education & Training, 2020) states that the students’ HL should have a role in the classroom particularly in identifying linguistic similarities and differences between two languages. However, it does not state the classroom purposes and functions it should serve. As a result, Neokleous and Krulatz (2018) argued that this dearth of more specific guidelines can prompt teachers to adopt an approach that favours almost-exclusive usage of the TL (Neokleous & Krulatz, 2018). Trying to unearth Norwegian teacher attitudes towards HL usage in the classroom, Neokleous and Ofte’s (2020) study revealed that while the four teacher participants acknowledged the potential of HL usage, they also felt guilty about making recourse to Norwegian, particularly since their reported use did not always reflect their classroom behaviours. 

The lack of empirical studies that would shed light on how teachers should foster multilingual approaches has left teachers confused as to whether they should use the majority language in the classroom or not and for what purposes (Singleton & Aronin, 2019). The purpose of this presentation is to broaden the research lens by focusing on the perception of EAL in-service teachers and students on HL use and the pivotal role teachers could serve in adopting multilingual pedagogies. Thus far, studies venturing to explore the topic in Norwegian settings primarily focused on the teacher perspective through surveys and questionnaires (Haukås et al., 2021; Krulatz, et al., 2016; Neokleous & Krulatz, 2018).  Neokleous and Ofte’s (2020) study was the first study that brought classroom and interview data together to explore how in-service teachers perceived HL integration, compared this perception to their actual practice, and also how they interpreted the lack of clear teaching guidelines in the curriculum. This presentation delves deeper into the teacher perspectives on the topic but also explore the student voice. The study explores the attitudes of four teachers and their students in EAL classrooms situated in geographically different parts of Norway. Trying to elicit the views of in-service EAL teachers and young EAL learners in Norway, the purpose of this article is to address the following questions: a) What do students think of the general presence but also their teachers’ use of the HL in the classroom? b) What is the value of using the HL as a resource for learning English as seen by the participants? c) How do in-service EAL teachers in multilingual environments address the presence of different HLs in the classroom? Do they make recourse to the students’ HLs? If so, when?

To answer the research questions, a qualitative approach was adopted. Data were collected through classroom observations and the use of semi-structured interviews. The participants were four in-service EAL teachers and their students in three different schools situated in geographically disparate areas of the whole of Norway. The four teacher participants were EAL instructors at the upper primary education level in grades 5-10 and have been teaching English for over five years in public schools. The six classrooms were observed four times during an entire academic year. To maintain a clearer and sharper focus on the observations, as the sessions were not recorded, an observational protocol was developed based on Neokleous’ and Ofte’s (2020) study. At the end of the academic year, the six teachers and fifty-seven students of these classes were individually interviewed: thirteen students from Emilie’s (9) class, nine students from Astrid’s (9) class, twelve students from Sigurd’s (10) class, eleven students from Morten’s (8) class and twelve students from Ingrid’s (8) class. Notes taken during the observations were later written up as field notes and constituted the third data collection strategy. The observations assisted the researchers in pinpointing instances during which teachers but also students indulged in HL usage and gather an understanding as to how the teachers address the presence of different HLs in the classroom, which was the third research questions of the study. The interviews enabled the teacher and student participants to delve deeper into their general attitudes towards HL usage in the classroom, which was the focus of the first and the second research questions. As interviews with the teachers and students were semi-structured in nature, based on the notes gathered during the observations, additional questions were formulated that enabled the teacher and the student interviewees to elaborate on HL classroom practices and strategies that the researchers deemed worthy of discussing. An interpretational approach was adopted to answer the research questions. Abiding by the interpretational guidelines, the individual interviews with the teacher and student participants were transcribed and coded using Saldaña’s (2009) two coding cycle methods. The objective was to unravel in-service teacher and student attitudes towards HL use in the classroom along with their beliefs as to what are the advantages associated with its use as well as the strategies and techniques the teachers adopted in their classrooms.

The results of the study indicated that both the teacher and the student participants displayed a positive stance towards HL use in the classroom. For both groups, the greatest benefit associated with its use is its ability to ensure understanding. Relatedly, teachers also felt that its integration in the classroom sustains motivation while it also serves as a time-saving strategy. On the other hand, along with increasing their TL understanding, students also felt that making recourse to the HL allows them to maintain a conversation in the TL while it also assists struggling students in coping with learning the TL. Despite acknowledging the value of HL integration, the teacher participants held strong views about the importance of using the TL in the classroom. The four teachers believed that strong reliance on HL could have a detrimental effect both on the students but also the teachers. As the results also indicated, integrating the HL still triggers feelings of guilt with teachers stressing the need to justify this classroom practice either for fear of practicing an incorrect classroom strategy or of having students believe that their command of English is limited. On the other hand, students were adamant about the importance of employing Norwegian to clarify and exemplify questions that could potentially arise during the course of the lesson. They also, however, cautioned about the overreliance that could lead to “an English class being transformed into a Norwegian class”. With multilingual classrooms becoming the norm, it is of paramount importance that future research would contribute toward ensuring a school environment that embraces students’ diverse cultural and linguistic backgrounds. Further, teacher education must ensure that future teachers feel confident to make use of their students' cultural and linguistic diversities in the EAL classroom.

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