1. Introduction and key concepts

In an increasingly diverse Nordic region, the capacity to promote strong language development among children and young people from various linguistic and cultural backgrounds is emerging as a crucial factor for inclusion and integration. How do schools across the Nordic countries support second language learning of the local Nordic languages? What measures are currently in place? How can these systems be further developed to better promote inclusion and integration?

This report seeks to give some answers and Nordic perspectives to these questions from recent academic and policy-oriented studies. The report draws on a Nordic study as well as presentations given by key researchers and experts at the webinar in October 2025 ‘The role of language for inclusion: How can we strengthen language development in the Nordic languages among students from migrant backgrounds?’. The webinar was organised by the Nordic Welfare Centre in collaboration with the Nordic Network for Education for Newly Arrived Students. The report also includes a unique concluding chapter from a network of civil servants from different Nordic countries.

The report focuses on educational systems and policy measures to support second language development of children and young people in primary and lower secondary school. Students from migrant backgrounds possess multilingual skills, which benefit both individuals and societies. However, the students often have limited skills in the local Nordic languages. Weak proficiency in the local language can hinder access to society by restricting participation, learning, and social integration. There is a need for effective measures to facilitate second-language learning in this group. The Nordic countries have similar educational systems, but they still differ in how they approach their students – both monolingual and multilingual. This makes the exchange of knowledge and results from different models and policies especially valuable.

The ambition of the Nordic countries is that all children and youth have the opportunity to receive a good education. The number of children with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds has increased significantly in all the Nordic countries in the last few decades. Yet, even despite great heterogeneity among them, students with foreign-language backgrounds – and refugee children in particular – achieve lower educational outcomes compared to native-born children. Learning the local Nordic languages is fundamental for thriving and actively participating in new societies.

Chapter two in this report summarises the results from a research review on the policies and programmes that the Nordic countries use to support the learning of local Nordic languages. The following three chapters builds on insights presented at the webinar by leading Nordic researchers in the field: Professor Nihad Bunar, Sweden, Senior University Lecturer Maria Ahlholm, Finland, and Associate Professor Renata Emilsson Pesková, Iceland. In the last chapter, the Nordic Network for Education for Newly Arrived Students highlights key learnings to enhance the quality of education in the Nordics, specifically second-language learning.

A useful cross-Nordic overview of the policies was compiled in 2025 by the research network Nordic Languages as Second Languages. The overview highlights significant features of the educational policy in each Nordic country, and also in Scotland. The overview is available at the website of the National Centre of Multicultural Education (NAFO) at OsloMet University.

The table below outlines some key concepts used in the report.

Table 1. Key terminology as used in the report

Effect of a programme on second language learning	Effect is used in a broader sense as consequences for second-language learning as a result of a programme or measure. Not only in relation to causal studies.
First Language (L1)	Refers to the child’s mother tongue or first learned language.
First-language instruction (L1)	Describes teaching and instruction carried out in the child’s first language. First-language instruction and mother-tongue instruction are interchangeable terms.
Heritage language	Heritage language speakers are individuals raised in homes where a non‑societal language is spoken and who are to some degree bilingual in that language and the dominant language (Valdés 2001).
Second language (L2)	Pupils’ second language is the native Nordic language in the area they live – Danish, Finnish, Icelandic, Norwegian, or Swedish.
Immigrant population	The population living in the Nordic countries born outside of the Nordic countries.
Students with foreign language background	Students who have another language than the native country language as their first language.
Students with migrant background	This term is used to describe students who are born outside of the Nordic country of residency.
Language acquisition	Refers here primarily to the acquisition of pupils’ second language.
Newly arrived students	Students with a foreign language background and a short residence in the country of arrival
Policy, second-language policy	Refers here to statements and declarations on, for example, Nordic national laws and policy documents on second-language learning and students with foreign-language background (see, e.g., Shohamy, 2006).
Programme, second-language programme	Here understood as a concrete plan to achieve educational goals.
Effect studies	Effect studies are here defined as studies with experimental design and quasi-experimental design, i.e., studies with a type of control group. Examples of methods used in these studies are randomised controlled trials and studies with difference-in-difference design.
Translanguaging/multilingualism	Translanguaging is the process of making meaning, shaping experiences, gaining understanding and knowledge through the use of two languages (Baker, 2011, p. 288). The students can use their full linguistic repertoire as a resource for learning.

The table is compiled by Sabine Wollscheid, NIFU, and The Nordic Welfare Centre.