This paper considers the current situation in Europe for multilingual pupils, with particular reference to recent Swedish research into children’s writing and its implications for teacher education. Background information will be offered on the educational philosophy that underpins provision in Sweden, which acknowledges the many languages of the child both metaphorically and, in the case of ethnic minorities, literally. National curriculum requirements place language teaching within a range of competences and subject knowledge that initial teacher education seeks to inculcate, but there is also an expectation that teachers will respond to cultural change by acquiring a deepening knowledge of the importance of the language used in instruction and the linguistic basis of teaching. The paper draws on research examining vocabulary, genre and argumentation in examples of children’s writing in the multilingual science classroom. Based primarily on discourse analysis, it will draw practical conclusions as well as facilitate a mutual interrogation of theory and practice. One issue raised will be whether new teacher education legislation in Sweden (expected Spring 2010) constitutes a following wind or a constraint from the standpoint of EUCIM-TE. This is an important question for the management of changes being conducted simultaneously on a national and pan-European basis.