Häggblom's book—her dissertation—is an insightful and important ethnographic case study that reports on a 12-week-long experiment in which Häggblom, a teacher-researcher, taught English as a foreign language (EFL) through the medium of authentic multicultural children's literature. Although there is research on teaching multiculturalism and on teaching first language (L1) reading, few studies have looked into using multicultural literature as a means of teaching EFL. Häggblom takes the reader to her sixth-grade classroom in a Swedish-language school in Finland and allows us to follow the experiment throughout its various stages. The children read two books in English on multicultural topics; they write journal entries on their reading experience, engage in group discussions, answer reading comprehension questions, and act out scenes from the books. Children's written reactions are analyzed and group discussions are videotaped, transcribed, and analyzed.
Häggblom's students are already bilingual in Swedish and Finnish, but they live in a culturally homogenous environment in which encounters with visual minorities are still relatively rare. In such a setting, multicultural literature provides a venue to get acquainted with other cultures and ways of life—in this case, multicultural Britain. Simultaneously, the students learn English. Häggblom's approach aligns well with task-based and content-based language teaching.
Prior to her research, the students had studied English for only 3 years. The teacher thus had an important role in explaining new vocabulary and cultural concepts, prompting topics and guiding discussions, scaffolding, and monitoring. Over time, however, the children developed more independence in group work; they became “more reflective and talkative” (p. 116), and their collaborative skills developed. The use of the target language, English, was not obligatory, yet all students attempted to speak and write in English as they were discussing and reflecting on the contents of the books they were reading.
Häggblom's focus is that of a practitioner. She references vast amounts of relevant literature and theories on both reading and multicultural issues, yet her emphasis is clearly pedagogical and practical. This study is not only of interest to language teachers looking for innovative new approaches, but it is also of great value to anyone interested in EFL literacy and multicultural education in a primary school setting and beyond.
