Det engelska språket har fått en större roll vårt samhälle. I kursplanen för engelska beskrivs det att elever ska kunna förstå och tolka engelskt textinnehåll, samt att de ska kunna använda strategier för att skapa förståelse för text. Syftet med studien var att undersöka vilka lässtrategier mellanstadieelever på en svensk skola menar sig använda vid läsning av engelska texter. Även vilka strategier de faktiskt använder vid ett utfört läsförståelsetest undersöks, samt hur dessa strategier eventuellt skiljer sig från de strategier eleverna tycker sig använda. Resultatet visar att eleverna främst tycker sig använda kognitiva strategier som att läsa om när texten blir svår eller att fokusera ytterligare när texten blir svår. Vid läsförståelsetestet framhävs däremot metakognitiva strategier som till exempel att skaffa sig överblick av texten, men även socio-affektiva strategier som att fråga om hjälp, samt avkodningsprocessen visa sig viktig för elevernasförståelse för textinnehållet.

This study aims to examine the potential of reading dramatic scripts in the Swedish EFL classroom, using the play Top Girls by Carol Churchill as an example. In particular, it focuses on how literary theory and different aspects of feminism can be taught through the use of the play. The study is conducted through a textual analysis of the play’s main characters and the Swedish National Syllabus. The results show that there is a great potential in working with dramatic literature in the EFL classrooms. Using drama is effective in the way it covers several aspects of the core content of English in upper secondary school, and may be used to develop language skills, cultural understanding and critical thinking. The play contains complex ideas about different types of feminism, and the two main characters Joyce and Marlene represent two ways of striving for equality between men and women. These ideas are, in other words, represented by and embodied in the two main characters, which could make the ideas easier for students to understand.

Under de senaste decennierna har translanguaging fått mycket intresse inom SLA-sfären (SecondLanguage Learning). Samtida migration och den ständigt ökandeglobaliseringen har lett till en omvärdering av tvåspråkighet och flerspråkighet. Medan forskningavsett de lätt observerbara metoderna hos lärare och studenter har fått mycket uppmärksamhet, har det material som valts av lärare inte. Således är målet med denna studie att undersöka omoch hur translanguaging-metoder främjas inom ett urval av vanliga engelska läroböcker. För att uppnå detta använde studien innehållsanalys för att identifiera möjliga översättningsmetoder inom läroböckernas uppgifter. Resultaten av studien visar att översättningsmetoder kunde identifieras i alla utvalda läroböcker. Den vanligast identifierade transspråkliga uppgiften var översättning, både när det gäller översättning av ord samt meningar och fraser. Det analyserade materialet indikerade dock en trend att användningen av svenska som undervisningsspråk helt enkelt var ett pragmatiskt verktyg som användes för att kompensera för elevernas bristande språkkunskaper. Detta gjorde det svårt att bedöma om identifierade uppgifter faktiskt kunde karakteriseras som pedagogiskt translanguaging material (PTM). För framtida forskning skulle nästa logiska steg vara att observera om de identifierade typerna oftasks faktiskt leder till translanguaging praxis i klassrummet samt genomföra forskning om mer varierat klassrumsmaterial.

Tidigare forskning visar att tillämpning av skönlitteratur i andraspråksundervisningen inte bara är gynnsam för elevers språkinlärning utan även för utvecklingen av sociala färdigheter och interkulturell kompetens. Rådande studie syftar till att bringa klarhet i hur verksamma lärare tillämpar skönlitteratur i engelskundervisningen i årskurserna 4–6, samt vilka möjligheter och utmaningar som man anser att tillämpningen av skönlitteratur medför. Studien genomfördes med metodansatsen grundad teori som utgångspunkt. Metodvalet för datainsamlingen var intervjuer med sex verksamma lärare från olika delar av Sverige. Under intervjuerna fick lärarna berätta om sina arbetsmetoder, tankar och åsikter om användningen av skönlitteratur i engelskundervisningen. Studien visar att lärare ofta tillämpar skönlitteratur på ett varierat sätt med utgångspunkt i sociala aktiviteter. Resultatet visar även att lärare upplever stora möjligheter vid tillämpning av skönlitteratur i engelskundervisning både i utveckling av sociala förmågor såväl som språklig kunskapsutveckling. Det framkom även att lärarna upplevde utmaningar i form av resursbrist, tidsbrist och individuella anpassningar.

Digital media has found its natural place in schools all around the world. Especially for its capacity to vary the teaching and to increase students' motivation. This small-scale national study aimed to investigate if and how Swedish primary school teachers use digital tools in form of motion media in their EFL teaching. It also investigates the teachers’ motives for using this kind of teaching asset. A mixed method approach was applied to gather information for this paper, in which interviews and an online questionnaire was conducted by participants from all around Sweden. 40 teachers responded to the questionnaire, and five teachers were interviewed. The results show that Swedish primary school teachers are frequent users of motion media in their EFL teaching, and that YouTube is a popular source for media. Their motives for using this form of teaching are that it is fun for the students, it brings variation to the lessons, and it provides models of authentic language to the classroom. The study also shows some drawbacks and challenges with the use of motion media in language teaching, for example choosing proper materials. However, more research in the area is needed, particularly in Sweden’s lower grades.

Fake news is nowadays part of our everyday lives, especially for those who are exposed to social media. As 8 out of 10 Swedish teenagers mainly read news on social media, this study was conducted to investigate to what extent students are taught to deal with fake news. This was done by examining exercises in English workbooks currently used at the upper secondary level. Skolverket (2021) clearly states that it is part of Swedish teachers’ mission to educate students so that they can orientate and act in a complex reality with a large flow of information, increased digitization and a rapid pace of change. Accordingly, the aim of this study is to examine how and to what extent workbooks in the Swedish EFL classroom provide students with tasks which can be said to further skills related to source criticism and critical thinking. It also aims to address the possible prevalence of insufficient skills of the above-mentioned kind and its potentially harmful consequences. This was done by investigating how exercises in workbooks can be said to promote an improvement of source criticism and critical thinking. The method of the presented study emanates from the theoretical framework of critical literacy from a pragmatic perspective. The study is qualitative as the examined material is limited. The results show that the workbooks vary in how they enable the ability to detect bias and critical thinking and that the workbooks rely on teachers to elaborate instructions. This indicates that the exercises in the workbooks may not be sufficient to fulfil the mission stated by Skolverket (2021).

The purpose of this paper is to investigate several potential indicators of successful academic writing and their connection to assignment grades as a possible path toward better teaching of academic writing at the upper secondary level in Sweden. These indicators are referencing (REF), academic vocabulary (AV), and reporting verbs (RV). Our research questions were to examine to what extent the final grades on independent research synthesis papers at Malmö University relate to the use of these three indicators. To that end, we quantitatively assessed the indicators’ relationship to grades (U/G/VG) on 28 4th-year teaching students’ independent research synthesis papers. We examined REF from two perspectives: quality of sources and source integration. AV was assessed by examining the percentage of words in student texts that appeared in the Academic Vocabulary List (AVL). We assessed RV as an indicator by calculating the frequency of RVs in student texts and which types of RVs they favored, as measured by the ARGUE/SHOW/FIND/THINK framework of RV usage. We found very small positive connections between AV percentage, RV frequency, and grades, but small negative connections between measures of reference quality and grades, and found that there were no meaningful differences in RV usage between the three different groups. However, we found that measures of source integration related strongly to the grades on the papers. Numerous factors could explain our findings, notably the small sample size, our unique RV master list, and the rigorous supervision process of these papers at Malmö University. To establish any conclusive results, further research is required.

This study aims to examine how upper secondary English teachers work with foundationalvalues and controversial topics through fictional works in order to discuss the function of valuesand the civic mission in the EFL-classroom. The study was conducted using a qualitativeapproach through semi structured interviews, interviewing seven currently active uppersecondary English teachers. To structure the data from the interviews a thematic analysis wasapplied, and the theoretical approaches used for analysing the data were transformativepotential and narrative imagination.The results of this study show that the participants have an interest in using fictional workscontaining controversial issues for discussing foundational values in the classroom. The studyalso shows that there are both common challenges and advantages of teaching controversialissues through fiction. All participants had similar opinions about the advantages which werethe emergence of expanding worldviews and perspectives among pupils. The challengesmentioned among the participants were: reading in a second language, giving the pupils enoughpre-knowledge and knowing which position to take as a teacher during discussions aboutcontroversial topics. Noticeable differences in the teachers’ opinions were due to their lengthof work experience. Finally, the civic mission in the EFL-classroom could be distinguished inthe teachers’ arguments of why they implement fictional works with controversial topics intheir teaching.

The present study aims to investigate the possible impact that extramural English (EE) has on students’ foreign language anxiety (FLA) in the Swedish EFL classroom. The focus lies specifically on speaking anxiety and its relation to EE, if certain EE activities have a greater importance than others, and if there are gender differences in EE activities and levels of speaking anxiety. The study was carried out in a secondary school in Stockholm, Sweden. The 142 participants attended the last term of ninth grade when the study was carried out. Quantitative data was collected through a questionnaire and results demonstrated that the more extramural English the participants engaged in, the lower their levels of speaking anxiety were. Results also showed that productive EE activities seemed to have a greater impact than receptive activities on FLA. Finally, the study also revealed gender differences in preferred EE activities as well as in levels of speaking anxiety. The participating girls, as a group, had higher levels of speaking anxiety than the boys and were more involved in receptive EE activities than the participating boys. Additionally, the boys spent more time on activities involving video games than girls.

This research examines the low proficiency in English as a Foreign Language (EFL) and the effectiveness, or rather lack thereof, of English studies in Chinese urban middle schools. While most Chinese students learn English in middle school, very few are able to speak functional English. Even the surprisingly high marks for English tests and examinations are misleading, as these do not reflect the true ability of these students to use the English language. Possible factors contributing to this problem are highlighted, such as the inappropriate nature of university entrance examinations, ineffective teaching and learning methods as well as the teaching material used, overcrowded classrooms, lack of meaningful exposure to English, and learner’s heavy study burden. Aspects of learning and teaching English – the skills required (such as speaking, reading and writing) as well as the various teaching methods – are discussed. Learning a language involves grammatical, textual, functional and sociolinguistic knowledge, yet Chinese English language learners appear to develop organisational competence rather than pragmatic competence. This suggests that there is a possible flaw or shortfall in the teaching methodology and pedagogy behind teaching English and questions the effectiveness of English studies currently implemented at urban Chinese middle schools. In the light of this problem an in-depth look at language knowledge, the nature of language and proficiency levels, as well as the verbal communication process and language acquisition is taken. Furthermore, the differences between NLA, SLA and FLA are explained with a view to theories about how human beings learn a language. This involves various teaching methods, highlighting communicative language teaching and, at the same time characteristics of effective teaching as well as the textbooks used in a Chinese context for teaching English. The questionnaire methodology is applied in this research, and has been used to investigate and find reasons for this problem. Finally, recommendations are put forward regarding the following aspects: adding value to the present syllabus, improving the setting of assessments, providing more teaching materials, improving the language proficiency and teaching abilities of English teachers, and letting students have more time and opportunity to be exposed to the English language. Copyright / Dissertation (MA)--University of Pretoria, 2007. / Afrikaans / unrestricted