Boglárka Straszer is Professor of Swedish as a Second Language and Head of the School of Language, Literatures and Learning at Dalarna University, Sweden. She has over 25 years of experience teaching foreign languages, second languages, mother tongue and sociolinguistics. Her research interests include the sociology of language; multilingualism; linguistic ethnography; translanguaging; language attitudes and identity; linguistic schoolscaping; and education in various immigrant and minority language settings. She is the Vice-Chair of ASLA, the Swedish branch of the international association of applied linguistics, AILA, and the founder and leader of the research network NatMin, the Swedish Research Network for National and Other Minority languages.
My research interests lie within applied linguistics, with a focus on multilingualism at the individual, family, and societal levels. My main interest is directed toward individuals' access to language, where state-governed language and education policies, linguistic hierarchies in society, and language attitudes in the immediate environment play a significant role.
An important part of my academic work revolves around questions concerning the individual's relationship to language, as well as linguistic rights and pedagogy in relation to children’s and students’ language, knowledge, and identity development in preschool and school. Mother tongue instruction, national minority languages, translanguaging as a theory, approach, and practice, as well as language biographical narratives, are particularly close to my heart.
I am the vice chair of the Swedish Association of Applied Linguistics (ASLA – Association suédoise de linguistique appliquée) and coordinate the national research network NatMin (Research Network for National and Other Minority Languages). I represent Dalarna University in the national FoU network (Research and Development Network for Educational Institutions Facing Major Challenges) and serve as a member of AFinLA’s international editorial group.