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The Multilingual Cities Project – Göteborg, Sweden, One of Six EU Cities Lilian Nygren, Senior Lecturer at the Humanities Faculty of Gothenburg University, Sweden In the years 2001-2002, the Multilingual Cities Project was carried out in six European countries, each represented in the study by a multiethnic city. In Sweden, the city was Göteborg, or Gothenburg as it is more commonly known in English, the country's second largest city and the industrial hub of the Swedish economy. It has the largest port of Scandinavia, and its population is made up of around 30% first and second generation immigrants. Approximately one hundred different languages are reportedly spoken in Gothenburg today. The aim of the project was to survey the languages used by school children aged 6 to 12 in all of Gothenburg, including areas perceived as being inhabited exclusively by Swedes. A questionnaire, in Swedish, was used to collect the data and was filled out individually, either by the students themselves or with the help of an adult, if needed. Both in and out of school environments were covered in the survey, and the pupils were asked with whom they spoke what language(s) including family members as well as friends. Skills in the various languages were also inquired about, as were the children's interest in learning other languages than the one(s) they already knew. All data were collected anonymously, and around 60% of all pupils in the targeted age group in all of Gothenburg's schools participated in the study. The results point to a higher than expected proportion of the children, compared to school data, using at least one language other than Swedish in the home, exclusively or together with Swedish. An additional outcome of the investigation is that the languages offered to majority language children as school subjects should perhaps widen in scope to include some non-European languages, usually not taught within the school system except as minority home languages. This curriculum perspective is based on the answers provided by the pupils that took part in the Multilingual Cities Project in Gothenburg. The language survey data were also used to calculate the so-called vitality of the various languages represented in the subject population as expressed in terms of language proficiency, language choice, language dominance, and language preference. This information can serve a useful purpose in language education planning, as it indicates what languages are well established in the community and what languages may be threatened by a generational language shift. Issues concerning language status and linguistic pride can be investigated using the data collected in this study and be used to predict the multilingual skills of the next generation. Language distribution across the different areas of Gothenburg can be seen in the questionnaire answers, which can help establish the possible existence of language dominance, other than Swedish, in certain parts of the city. Such information can be helpful in, for example, the recruiting of personnel in schools, health and social services, and administration. |
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