I am a lecturer in English education focusing mostly on young learners, aged 6-13. I am also involved in teaching practicum and student thesis supervision.

My research interests involve ways of promoting oral classroom interaction, teaching in mixed-ability classrooms, using literature in language teaching, and teacher education.

Presentationer

• Child Foreign Language Learning, Krakow, Poland, April 2016: “Learner beliefs and foreign language anxiety - a study in two Swedish primary classrooms”.
• Young Language Learner Symposium, Oxford, Great Britain, July 2016: “Investigating learner beliefs and foreign language anxiety in primary classroom”.
• AAAL, Portland, Oregon, USA, March 2017: “Foreign language anxiety and target language use in early language education”.
• AILA world congress, Rio de Janeiro, Brasil, July 2017: “Learner beliefs in the primary foreign language classroom”.
• Early Language Learning: Multiple Perspectives – Diverse Voices, AILA ELL ReN, Rykjavik, Iceland, June 2018:“Attitude, effort and other resources – agency in the primary foreign language classroom”.
• Shanghai Centre for Research in Early Language Education (SCRELE) Conference, Shanghai, September 2019: “Target language use in primary language classrooms: The perspectives of anxious young learners in Sweden”.
• AILA world congress, Groeningen, The Netherlands, August 2021: “Foreign language anxiety among future language teachers – dilemmas and possibilities”.
• TAL – Teaching for Active Learning, Copenhagen, Denmark, November 2021: ”Daring to speak! Boosting confidence and engagement in the language classroom”.
• Second Language Teacher Education, Vienna, Septemer 2022: “Acknowledging foreign language anxiety among student teachers: preparing them for their classrooms”.
• Multilingualism in Language Teaching and Learning, Kristiansand, Norway, September 2023: “Evidence-based support for effective classroom interaction and language use in foreign language teaching”.
• SMS, One school – many languages, Bolzano, Italy, December 2023: “I think I believe it’s a problem, that English takes over”.
• ELE, Exploring Language Education, Vasa, Finland, May 2024: “It’s a teacher’s dream to have something this engaging”: English picturebook read-alouds in upper primary school”.
• ELE, Exploring Language Education, Vasa, Finland, May 2024. Together with Sara Snoder: “I think that I believe it’s a problem, that English takes over” – teachers’ concerns about learners’ language choices in a multilingual primary school context.

A selection from Stockholm University publication database

• “It’s a teacher’s dream to have something this engaging”: English picturebook read-alouds in upper primary school

  2024. Maria Nilsson. Language Teaching for Young Learners

  Article

  Scholars in the field of primary English teaching advocate the use ofauthentic picturebooks, for reasons related to language development andmore holistic goals of primary education. Picturebook read-alouds facilitatejoint meaning-making and interactions around interesting content thatmotivate young learners to learn about themselves and others. Nevertheless,picturebooks are rarely used in early English instruction. To address thisdiscrepancy, the current study illuminates the perspectives of primaryteachers of English and their experiences of picturebook read-alouds. Threeteachers, who were not used to working with authentic multimodalnarratives in class, chose two titles each to use with their respective groupsin school year 5 in Sweden, with learners aged 11/12. Interviews wereconducted after each read-aloud. Findings reveal that the teachers werepositive about the potential of picturebook read-alouds, and the analysisgenerated four categories illustrating these benefits: (1) learner engagementand motivation, (2) authenticity, (3) catering to various needs in mixedability groups, and (4) target language learning and use. Issues related toclassroom management and control were also addressed. The findings offervaluable insight into the potential of picturebook read-alouds, and carryimplications for the advancement of pedagogy in early language education. 

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• Challenges and Teaching Materials in English for Young Learners in Sweden

  2024. Maria Nilsson. Educare (3), 1-29

  Article

  Recent European studies in the field of primary English education identify a number of challenges related to language development, motivation, and diversity of proficiency levels among learners. Nevertheless, early language instruction remains under-researched. The current study investigates challenges perceived by Swedish primary teachers of English and their thoughts and experiences regarding teaching materials. The study takes a special interest in picturebooks because they are often foregrounded as useful resources for promoting both motivation and language learning. Quantitative and qualitative data were collected through an online questionnaire with 109 Swedish teachers for school years F–6. The findings reveal that the substantial heterogeneity of proficiency levels among learners is the biggest challenge facing teachers. In addition, the teachers reported challenges related to this diversity, such as a shortage of teaching materials to cater to varying needs and difficulties in engaging all learners in oral language production. Teaching materials used often comprise downloaded resources, coursebooks, or YouTube clips. Although many teachers are positive toward the potential of picturebooks as an instructional resource, most reported not using them. Thefindings are discussed in relation to the goals of early English instruction, the current understanding of young language learners, and communicative language teaching.

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• Sense of agency among frequently anxious learners of English in Swedish primary school: Mismatching beliefs and experiences

  2021. Maria Nilsson. Acta Didactica Norden 15 (2)

  Article

  Instilling a sense of agency (SoA) in young learners is an important aspect of foreign language instruction, as is the counteracting of emergent foreign language anxiety (FLA). Focusing on learners who frequently experience FLA, this study explores young learners’ beliefs and classroom experiences in relation to teaching and learning of English, in order to highlight the way they perceive their own agency, that is, their situated SoA. Together in small groups, learners from seven Swedish classrooms, across years 2–5, were prompted with open questions to discuss target language use, oral interaction, instructional work mode and the role of the teacher and the learners. The present study is based on discussions among 31 of those learners. Qualitative content analysis of the recorded discussions reveals conflicting beliefs and experiences. These frequently anxious learners stressed the importance of extensive input in English and of learners engaging and speaking the target language. However, they also expressed that they felt insecure about oral instructions and prompts, and combined with fear of embarrassment, they refrained from volunteering or asking questions. Their FLA and the mismatches that they accounted for apparently hampered their SoA, and illustrate the interrelated nature of beliefs, emotional experiences and agency. Implications for primary language teaching are discussed.

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• Young learners' perspectives on English classroom interaction

  2020. Maria Nilsson (et al.).

  Thesis (Doc)

  This thesis explores young language learners’ experiences of classroom interaction in English instruction, focusing on foreign language anxiety (FLA), sense of agency and learner beliefs, aiming to inform and problematize language pedagogy for young learners. Learners from ten classrooms in years 2–5 participated. Study I focused on levels and triggers of FLA, by means of a learners’ questionnaire about common language classroom practices. Findings revealed that 18% of learners frequently felt anxious during English lessons and that these negative emotions centered on speaking in class. With this study serving as a baseline, the following two studies investigated learners’ beliefs about language learning and teaching, as well as their actual experiences of classroom communication during English lessons, using recorded group discussions among learners with similar levels of FLA. Study II compared learners in one year 3 classroom, with many frequently anxious learners, whereas study III centered on learners with recurrent anxiety across seven classrooms, in years 2–5. 

  Together, the studies illustrate young language learners’ beliefs, and how they perceive and position themselves in relation to English instruction. In general, learners expressed positive attitudes to the English subject and the teaching. Regardless of anxiety levels, learners stressed the importance of extensive English input and for learners to guess and dare to speak. Learners who experienced recurrent FLA were confronted with three dilemmas that reduced their sense of agency. Incomprehensible English input made it difficult for them to follow instructions and understand what they were expected to say or respond to. Furthermore, the fear of social exposure and negative reactions made them prefer to remain silent and refrain from speaking or pose questions. Nevertheless, these learners favored whole class instruction, as they relied heavily on teacher support, and feared falling behind during individual work, although this setting sparked FLA. 

  The findings foreground the interaction of social, cognitive and emotional processes of language learning and the development of learners’ sense of agency in the classroom. The strong consensus and many recurrent themes expressed across classrooms, related to language use, instructions and organization, suggest that the findings may have bearing beyond these ten specific classroom contexts. The perspectives of primary school learners themselves are valuable in the development of age-appropriate language teaching that strives to foster motivation and a sense of agency, while counteracting the development of FLA. The thesis hopes to inspire academic and professional discussion about how to best organize English instruction that benefits all young learners, with varying language proficiencies in the same classroom.

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• Beliefs and experiences in the English classroom

  2020. Maria Nilsson. Studies in second language language teaching and learning 10 (2), 257-281

  Article

  This study investigates how Swedish learners make sense of and perceive English instruction and the process of foreign language learning in a target language-only primary school classroom. In small group discussions, 26 learners aged 9-10 were audio recorded while discussing questions related to their language learner beliefs and their classroom experiences. Learners expressed a strong consensus about the importance of both the teacher’s extensive target language input and the learners’ oral engagement, in alignment with the beliefs of the teacher. However, the analysis identified three mismatches among high anxiety learners in this context, related to incomprehensible teacher talk, social fear of making mistakes and classroom organization. As their voiced beliefs were at odds with their emotionally guided behavior of refraining from asking questions or volunteering to speak, their sense of agency was reduced. In this context, the target language-only approach appeared to have a negative impact on the emotional, organizational and instructional dimensions of foreign language instruction for many of the young learners. The findings illustrate the interrelated dynamics of beliefs, emotions and classroom context, and contribute to our understanding of learners’ foreign language anxiety and sense of agency in the primary foreign language classroom.

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• Foreign language anxiety

  2019. Maria Nilsson. Apples - Journal of Applied Language Studies 13 (2), 1-21

  Article

  Although foreign language anxiety is a widely studied construct assumed to develop from negative experiences of language instruction, few researchers have focused on young learners in this regard. This multiple case study investigates levels and triggers of language anxiety in Swedish primary classrooms under rather favorable learning conditions with a supportive, non-competitive atmosphere, and without formal knowledge requirements or grades. A total of 225 learners, aged 8–12, studying English as their first foreign language completed a self-report questionnaire, a modified version of the Foreign Language Classroom Anxiety Scale (Horwitz, Horwitz, & Cope, 1986), eliciting learners’ reactions to oral classroom participation. Foreign language anxiety was found along a continuum among learners. To investigate similarities and differences among students of differing anxiety levels, they were grouped into three categories: low, medium and high anxiety. The high anxiety group included 18.2% of learners, and for most of them, this anxiety was situation-specific and closely related to their own oral performance during English lessons. However, many classroom situations triggered language anxiety in other learners as well. It may therefore be advisable for teachers to reflect on common classroom practices that induce anxiety, rather than viewing language anxiety as a disadvantageous characteristic of individual learners. The results call for in-depth studies of classroom contexts where language anxiety develops. Moreover, the study’s contribution encompass new perspectives on research methodology with respect to young learners and in relation to foreign language anxiety.

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Show all publications by Maria Nilsson at Stockholm University