We are very proud to present a new textbook specifically developed for our younger Swedish beginners. Our teacher, Maria Diemar, has developed this textbook alongside her work as the course coordinator for all beginner Swedish courses at the SMUL Academy. Maria has worked as a teacher at the SMUL Academy since 2017 and lived abroad in both Australia and the USA for 15 years, where she also worked with the Swedish School in Melbourne and the Swedish School in Dallas. Early on, Maria realized that there was a lack of suitable material for Swedish students abroad at the beginner level. A few years ago, she therefore began developing her own material in collaboration with the SMUL Academy.
This year, the Association of Swedish Beyond Borders – SMUL is finally able to present the new material. It is the first educational resource developed specifically for children with a Swedish background who are growing up outside of Sweden and wish to start learning the language from scratch or develop their passive knowledge.
Maria, who has many years of experience teaching supplementary Swedish, has been assisted by illustrator Ella Quesnel to create an engaging educational resource with colorful illustrations, stories, and exercises. With a total of 148 pages, the book constitutes a substantial resource and, hopefully, an inspiring and structured start for children between the ages of 7 and 10.
“As a teacher, I have for many years met children with a Swedish background who, for various reasons, have not had the opportunity to develop their language. This book is a response to that need – and the result of a close dialogue with both students and parents,” says Maria. We are very pleased that, with this material, we can provide students all over the world with the opportunity to study, explore, wonder, and develop their Swedish.
And that is not all. We want to make the material accessible to everyone, including parents, international schools, and all non-profit school associations. We share the material digitally in the form of a PDF, which you can choose to work with digitally or print out. If you wish to access the textbook, you must initially send an email to (info@svenskautomlands.org) and we will send it via WeTransfer; however, the book will also be available for download via the website shortly.
Thank you, Maria and Ella, for this wonderful educational resource!