This study was carried out in a secondary school in Sweden and was written by one student becoming a teacher of English. The aim of this thesis is to find out how well the flipped classroom method would work in an English class in Sweden and what one needs to bear in mind when implementing the method. The following research questions guided this thesis: How did the students and teacher experience the flipped classroom as a teaching approach? What elements are important to bear in mind when implementing the flipped classroom? The main findings of this study showed that both the students and the teacher were positive towards implementing some aspects of the flipped classroom such as using video clips, as it was more student-centred and provided more variety to their English classes. Furthermore, this thesis, as well as previous studies, highlights certain aspects one needs to bear in mind when implementing the flipped classroom. Firstly, finding suitable materials is very time consuming initially when one either records or searches for suitable materials to flip that are well-adjusted to the students’ level. Secondly, one needs to understand that homework is essential for the method and one needs routines to make it efficient. Lastly, the essence of the flipped classroom is to free more time in the classroom. Therefore, one needs to construct a well-planned follow-up lesson in order to help the students’ process as to what they learn at a deeper level.

In this study, I investigate how foreign language anxiety affects students’ performance during oral presentations. The study also explores how secondary school teachers in Sweden work with anxious students before, during and after an oral presentation and what approaches and exercises they find effective to use when doing so. Foreign language anxiety is a relatively new subject within language education and impacts language learning in various, mostly negative, ways. The data is collected from interviews with secondary school teachers in Sweden. The result show how these teachers identify FLA and what effects they believe it has on their students. The result also gives insight into how the teachers approach all three stages of an oral presentation to reduce symptoms that lead to increased anxiety. The study concludes by comparing the teachers’ choices to theories within language teaching to establish a pattern of what strategies are effective when dealing with FLA. In this study, I highlight the benefits of using oral presentations based on research and why every student should be given help to overcome their anxiety, so that they are prepared to use their English in high-pressure situations, such as during an oral presentation.

This   thesis was carried out with data collected from a school in the south of India and written by two students becoming teachers of English. The aim of   this thesis is to find out how a teacher can foster and develop student’s   oral communication skills so that they have the ability, willingness and   confidence to speak English. The thesis is based upon the following research   questions: What   factors, according to the students and teachers, are important for developing   and fostering oral communication skills? What speaking activities did the students   and teacher find important for developing and fostering oral communication skills? The main findings of this study showed that the teachers found a comfortable environment,   expansion of vocabulary, letting students choose their own topics and importance of good communication skills important when fostering students’ oral communication skills. The students in this study expressed that choosing topics and feeling comfortable in natural communicative situations was important for the development of their oral communication skills: This study, as well as previous studies, found that a teacher can in fact help students increase both their motivation and confidence by planning lessons revolving around topics that are of interest to students, as well as give them the scope to choose their own topics when practicing oral communication activities. Furthermore, the result for the second research question showed that there were several speaking activities that the teachers and students found important for developing and fostering oral communication skills. Some of these were everyday activities which increased their vocabulary, carrying out speeches that allowed the students to choose topics and role-play, such as debates.

AbstractEven though developing speaking skills is the essential key to achieving proficiency in a target language, there are some pupils (grades 4-6) who do not participate in communication tasks in English classroom. Thus, the purpose of this literature overview is to investigate the reasons for the unwillingness of some young learners to speak and interact in English. In addition, a variety of effective teaching strategies will be observed and analyzed. The used methods were different electronic databases, such as ERC, ERIC and Google Scholar, to access relevant peer-reviewed journal articles to our research questions. The observed and analyzed articles showed that there are some pupils who do not interact because English teachers often focus too much on reading and writing skills rather than on speaking skills. The limitation of communication tasks and large classroom sizes are other mitigating factors. In addition, teachers often using the first language in class resulted in pupils doing the same. This contributes to a lack of motivation and confidence in speaking English for some learners. This study identifies teaching strategies and activities that can be used by the teacher to raise motivation and confidence in speaking English. Results have indicated that the use of Vygotsky's sociocultural learning theory was very useful to involve every pupil in authentic communication tasks, which also provided a supportive communicative environment. Task-based and theme-based learning, such as stories, songs, games, project work and pair work is shown to be beneficial to increase pupils’ motivation towards speaking.

Den här uppsatsen behandlar det kommunikativa klassrummet och vad det har för eventuella fördelar. Uppsatsen utreder begreppen bundet och fritt tal och hur de påverkar elevers lärande. En annan punkt som utreds är talångest och vilken påverkan det kan ha på eleverna i det kommunikativa klassrummet. Resultatet visar vilka fördelar ett kommunikativt klassrum har. Genom det kommunikativa klassrummet blir eleverna mer aktiva och motiverade. Fokus ligger på eleverna eftersom klassrummet blir mer elevstyrt. Det fria talet, som låte releverna styra talet, är bättre för elevers lärande än det bundna där läraren styr. Ett problem som kan förhindra elevers lärande i det kommunikativa klassrummet är elevers talångest. Talångest påverkas av olika faktorer såsom rädslan att göra fel, dåligt självförtroende, kulturella faktorer och lärarens påverkan på eleverna. Detta kan motarbetas genom att läraren inte hakar upp sig på elevers misstag och att läraren kan skapa ett tryggt klassrum för eleverna.Genom att arbeta med ett kommunikativt klassrum öppnas nya vägar upp för eleven och fokus läggs mer på elevernas tal än på att läsa och skriva.

This study investigates how a group of English teachers in Sweden teach and assess pronunciation to ninth graders as a part of oral skills. The method applied in the study is qualitative semi-structured interviews with six teachers from different cities and schools in Sweden. The results show that teaching English pronunciation is included in different speaking and listening contexts and is not taught separately. However, the teachers do formative pronunciation assessments in almost every lesson, but summative assessment is rarely given in each semester. This case study views how the participants teach English pronunciation to ninth graders and concludes that communicative language teaching methods have an overwhelming role in the teaching of pronunciation, as pronunciation is included in other language skills and happens mostly without direct focus, which is typical in a communicative approach.

The aim of this study is to investigate how the transition into remote education in Swedish upper-secondary schools due to the COVID-19 pandemic has affected the implementation of communicative tasks during lessons in English as a foreign language, and its consequences on students’ willingness to speak. For this purpose, the following three research questions were posed: 1. In which ways have communicative classroom activities in Swedish upper-secondary schools been affected by remote education according to English as a foreign language learners? 2. According to English as a foreign language learners, in which ways have their willingness to speak English been affected by remote education in Swedish upper-secondary schools? 3. What are some aspects that have influenced English as a foreign language learners’ willingness to speak English during remote education in Swedish upper-secondary schools? A total of 128 students from different upper-secondary schools and regions in Sweden were surveyed, after which three of them were interviewed. The data were then analyzed using a univariate and content analysis method. The results of the study suggest that remote education has entailed an immense impact on the communicative classroom. All studied communicative activities decreased in amount, as did the students’ willingness to speak English. This is a consequence of aspects such as technical complications, difficulties in reading others’ body language, locational restraints, and learning objectives.