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Communicative Language Teaching (CLT) is regarded as an effective approach to teaching foreign languages because it focuses on students' engagement and communicative competence. In the realm of educational psychology, researchers have identified many teaching strategies that can have positive effects on students' motivation and engagement. Jones (2009, 2015) synthesized these strategies and created the MUSIC® Model of Motivation. MUSIC is an acronym for the strategies related to eMpowerment, Usefulness, Success, Interest and Caring. The MUSIC model can be used to help instructors to redesign their instruction to motivate and engage their students in learning activities. The purpose of this research was to examine the effectiveness of incorporating the MUSIC model strategies into CLT classes at a university in China. I used a self-report survey comprised of seven subscales (representing five motivation-related variables and two engagement variables) to collect data on students' course perceptions and their engagement in a college English class. The participants were first year college students at a university in central China (n = 259). Independent samples t-tests, regression, and correlation were used to answer the following two research questions: 1. Is there a difference in students' motivation and achievement in traditional lecture classes versus CLT classes that incorporate MUSIC model strategies? 2. To what extent do students' MUSIC model perceptions relate to their engagement and achievement? The results indicated that there was a significant difference between the traditional lecture class and the CLT classes incorporating MUSIC model strategies. Students in CLT classes perceived more control in the class, found the course to be more useful, were more interested, and perceived more caring from their teacher. As a result, students in CLT classes put forth more effort and achieved higher scores on a standardized English test. In addition, the results revealed that students' MUSIC model perceptions predicted their engagement both in CLT classes and the traditional classes. However, the results showed that the MUSIC model components did not significantly predict student achievement. These findings suggest that the MUSIC model and the MUSIC Inventory are ideal tools for Chinese college English teachers to use when they design instruction. / Ph. D.

Denna studie syftar till att undersöka hur några lärare i årskurs 4–6 i Mälardalsregionen kan möjliggöra att elever utvecklar sin muntliga kommunikationsförmåga i engelska. Med hjälp av observationer och samtalsanalyser har vi undersökt hur och i vilken omfattning lärare använder sig av metoder som gynnar elevers muntliga kommunikationsförmåga. Detta har genererat data av både kvantitativ och kvalitativ karaktär. Resultatet visar att lärarna i denna studie i relativt hög grad använder sig av positiv respons och låter eleverna få ganska stort talutrymme. Dock visar resultatet att förekomsten av IRE-mönster, som av forskning ses som negativt, är relativt hög. Vår förhoppning med studien är att inspirera lärarstudenter och befintliga lärare att utveckla den muntliga kommunikationsundervisningen i engelska.

Improving the teaching of English as a foreign language in public schools is a high priority for the Dominican administration elected in 2004. Consequently, the government’s plan of action includes a pilot project that integrates language teaching strategies and methods already found in the country’s private, K-12, foreign language programs. The purpose of this naturalistic inquiry was to investigate English teaching through case studies at two private schools in hopes of guiding the country’s educational policy. The schools were selected based on their contrasting methods of foreign language instruction. One school, Imersão, follows a structured immersion program where most academic subjects are taught in English. The second school, Cervantina, teaches all subjects in Spanish, the students’ first language, and provides one hour a day of English instruction. The research process included repeated observations of classroom activities, interviews with administrators, staff and students, and reviewing teachers’ lesson plans and student products in English. The study found that effective English language teaching can be accomplished through varying methods, as elements that promote language learning were seen in each of the schools. The programs were observed to be similar in the importance placed on meeting the academic needs of students with differing abilities, as well as cultural and linguistic backgrounds, by having language classes emphasize the importance of grammar and vocabulary alongside culturally relevant authentic communication opportunities. Even though students at both schools are able to communicate orally and in writing in English, Imersão students appear better equipped to contend with complex academic situations in the second language. However, in order to concentrate almost entirely on the teaching of English, Imersão falls short of the immersion objective of concomitantly developing the primary language at age-appropriate levels. The results also suggest that encouraging students to analyze, deduce, and think in the foreign language while learning subject content in English is advantageous. Future research into this topic should explore where the threshold of optimum exposure to the foreign language inside and outside of the classroom might be in order to achieve language proficiency, therefore allowing the administration to maximize the use of limited education resources.

In this essay, the published ELT coursebook ECHO 6 is critically examined. The focus of the examination is the communicative opportunities within ECHO 6. These opportunities are analyzed and concretized with help from the Swedish Curriculum for English 6. In the results section, the communicative opportunities within five selected chapters are explored in depth. Later, these chapters are discussed and contrasted with relevant literature about English teaching in general as well as communicative language teaching. Our conclusion is that ECHO 6 does provide students with several opportunities to communicate and develop communicative skills in English. However, there are essential parts missing in order for the textbook to be completely communicative.   Key words: Language teaching, ECHO 6, communication, communicative language teaching (CLT), students, teacher, language skills and language systems.

The purpose of this dissertation is to explore what underlying factors play into students´ motivation towards participating in verbal communication in the classroom. The first aim is to find out what the students themselves express and believe motivates them to learn spoken English, and the second aim is to find out what the students feel hinders them from engaging in verbal communication in the classroom. This qualitative study is based on questionnaires followed by group interviews with students who were selected as a result of the survey. The study was carried out at an upper secondary school in southern Sweden in the courses English A and B. The results show that the students are motivated both by the relevance of English for their future studies and professions as well as the will to identify with English speaking cultures, thus showing a combination of instrumental and integrative motivation. The students also express elements such as speaking anxiety and group size to be a hindrance in their language learning. In addition, several points were made regarding how the teacher might help the students participate more in oral communication through for example arranging smaller groups, only allowing English and having more speaking exercises in class.

The following dissertation aims to scrutinize amongst other things, some English teachers’ beliefs and thoughts concerning communicative language teaching at two schools in Sweden and France. Since the steering documents of both countries clearly promote a communicative approach to language teaching, we wanted to see how it could be applied in these two different contexts as well as how it was interpreted by some teachers. With the information obtained from qualitative interviews and classroom observations, we juxtapose what the teachers have said with the steering documents for both countries, their implementations of CLT and the teaching methods adopted in general. In order to do this, an analysis and comparison of the two syllabuses for English was necessary and we also needed to set a foundation by discussing the theories and possible complexities of CLT and teacher beliefs. This discussion could not be valid without also taking into account the status and influences of the English language in Sweden and France.The analysis of the two steering documents showed similar ideas about language teaching. However, Sweden has a separate syllabus for English, whilst France has a joint one for foreign languages. Furthermore, from our interviews and classroom observations we found that all teachers taught grammar in their native language. We also found the French school to be more traditional in that the lessons were often teacher-centered and that the teachers did not allow for any errors in the spoken language. The difference in discipline between the schools was another finding which we found surprising. Finally, our results also indicate occasional discordance between the teachers’ thoughts and ideals and their actions in the classroom.

I denna kvalitativa intervjustudie har fyra gymnasielärare delat med sig av sina uppfattningar om användningen av skrivande och skriftlig korrigerande feedback som ett sätt att utveckla elevers grammatiska korrekthet. Studien visar att deltagarna anser att det är viktigt att integrera grammatikundervisningen med skrivande då det bland annat möjliggör individualisering. Vidare framkommer det att det finns ett större fokus på att rätta lokala fel än globala, och att omfattningen av feedback bör baseras på elevers kunskapsnivå. Lärarnas feedbackstrategier påverkas också av elevers kunskapsnivåer, men även felets komplexitet. Slutligen betonar lärarna att för att den skriftliga korrigerande feedbacken ska vara effektiv behöver eleverna få tid till att bearbeta den.

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