The aim of this study was to show whether there was a correlation between teachers’ opinions on the use of English in the EFL classroom and the students’ grades. The participants were four classes consisting of 75 students and four teachers from two Swedish upper secondary schools. A mixed-method was used consisting of two questionnaires and the students’ final grades from their English 5 course. The questionnaires were self-administrated and distributed via Google drive. Findings from this study indicate that there was no relationship between the teachers’ opinions and the students’ grades, but that Extramural English seems to affect the students’ grades. The extent of this has, however, not been established in this study. Further research within this area is needed.

With the digitalisation of the world, digital literacy is a vital skill. This study investigates how the Swedish upper secondary school incorporates digital literacy in the course English 5 and if the schools have an IT plan. Previous studies have shown that Sweden does not include the competence levels of the European Union for citizens in the steering documents of the upper secondary school or English 5 Syllabus. A survey and the question of participating in an interview were sent out to 1,300 upper secondary schools in Sweden. Information was obtained through an online survey aimed at English 5 teachers. The survey had 33 respondents which resulted in semi-structured interviews with five teachers. The results showed that teachers teach digital literacy in English 5 according to the Swedish steering documents but not according to the European areas of competence. The results also showed that not all Swedish schools have an IT plan on how to educate students in digital literacy.

This paper is the result of a case study of learner responsibility in English language teaching at an upper secondary school. With the implementation of Gy11, the new curriculum for the upper secondary school in Sweden, learner responsibility has been introduced as an obligatory goal. However, in the steering documents the concept is not clearly defined. As a result the implementation of learner responsibility is dependent on the interpretation done by the schools. The purpose of this project was to explore how some students, teachers and head teachers perceive learner responsibility in relation to teaching and learning. The empirical study consists of observations and interviews with two head teachers, two teachers and eight students. Our results show that both students and teachers are happy with the opportunities for learner responsibility provided.Furthermore, they highlight it as something important. Both the head teachers and theteachers emphasise the importance to view the implementation of learner responsibility as an on-going process which the teachers are responsible for. In addition the students express that they are more motivated in their English studies as a result of being allowed more influence over their learning process. Lastly, the head teachers highlightmotivation and understanding as key factors for learner responsibility.

I studien har rektorer, lärare i engelska och elever på en gymnasieskola blivit intervjuade med utgångspunkt i arbetet med det centrala innehållet och kunskapskraven i kursen engelska 5. Rektorerna och lärarna har beskrivit hur de ser på arbetet med styrdokumenten, ansvaret och betydelsen för eleverna. Eleverna har beskrivit hur de uppfattat arbetet, sin egen insats och vikten av detsamma för deras resultat. Studiens syfte var att synliggöra hur rektorer och gymnasielärare beskriver sitt arbete med att förmedla innehållet i det centrala innehållet och kunskapskraven för engelska 5 och hur elever tolkar och förstår innebörden av dessa, deras användning och betydelse. Semistrukturerade intervjuer har genomförts och dessa har analyserats från ett fenomenografisk perspektiv för att uppdaga hur individerna förstått uppdraget. I analysen framställdes översikter av de olika grupperna vilka belyste både likheter och olikheter mellan individerna i gruppen. Rektorerna lyfte fram betydelsen av detta arbete för elevernas kunskapsutveckling och för elevinflytande men förlitade sig helt på lärares profession vad gäller genomförandet. Trots att lärarna kämpade med att förklara innehållet och begreppen i kunskapskraven för eleverna kunde de alla se nyttan av dessa för kunskapsutveckling. Eleverna förstod dock inte alltid betydelsen eller hur de kunde dra nytta av dessa. Eleverna kände till begreppen i kunskapskraven och deras innebörd i varierande grad men de hade inte förståelse för deras betydelse för den egna kunskapsutvecklingen i kursen. Sammanfattningsvis visar resultatet att trots att lärarna är medvetna om svårigheterna med att arbeta med styrdokumenten finns det fortfarande en diskrepans mellan lärares försök att förmedla innehållet och begreppen och elevernas förståelse av hur detta kan appliceras på deras eget lärande. Rektorerna tycktes inte se någon anledning att träda emellan och stötta lärarna. Sammanfattningsvis är det väsentligt att poängtera vikten av att lärare ges möjligheter till samarbete för att utveckla detta arbete och därmed höja kvaliteten på undervisningen. / In this study Heads, English teachers and pupils, at an upper secondary school, have been interviewed regarding how the syllabus in English 5 is taught, made comprehensible, perceived and its use and importance for student performance. The main purpose of this study was to highlight how heads and upper secondary school teachers understand the task of communicating the core content and the knowledge requirements for English 5 and how the pupils interpret and understand the meaning, use and significance of this activity. Semi-structured interviews were conducted, and the transcripts were analysed from a phenomenographic perspective to reveal how both individuals understood the task. In the analysis, group overviews of Heads, teachers and pupils were presented, highlighting commonalties as well as differences between members of the group. The Heads emphasised the implications of this work for learning as well as the importance regarding pupils’ participation in decision-making. The Heads rely solely on teachers’ professionalism. Even though the teachers struggle to make the wording of the assessment criteria clear to the pupils, they all recognised its usefulness for learning. The pupils clearly did not always apprehend its meaning or use. The pupils had a general sense of what the expressions used for the knowledge requirements meant, although there was considerable variation. They were not aware of the full potential of using the criteria to support their progress and the outcome their studies. The study concludes that although the teachers are aware of the difficulties with teaching the content and meaning of the syllabus there is still a discrepancy between the teachers’ attempts to communicate and the pupils’ comprehension of how that knowledge could be able applied to their own learning. Heads do not appear to see a need to intervene or support teachers. The study concludes by arguing that teachers need the opportunities to collaborate in order to advance this work and thus further the quality of their teaching.

This study regards the central content and knowledge requirements for the subject of English 5 in the Swedish upper secondary school system. The study is based on an analytical reading of the documents and is complemented by a questionnaire that was answered by upper secondary school teachers. The aim of the study was to investigate what parts of the documents lack clarity, from a new teacher’s perspective. The study finds a few examples of terms that are likely to confuse new teachers when grading students. Furthermore, questions were raised regarding the course in general, such as how to give the students confidence to speak English, when to use Swedish in the classroom and which English speech communities and cultures teachers should focus on. The questionnaire provided answers that could be helpful to newly graduated English teachers who are preparing to work in the Swedish upper secondary school system.

The aim of this study was to find out how Utbildningsverket’s (UR) pedagogical material, belonging to two miniseries aimed at upper secondary school, use top-down- and bottom-up strategies to teach listening comprehension. For this purpose, a case study method was used where the materials worked as the case to be studied. Furthermore, the approaches that were used for this study were based on taxonomies established by previous research: First, a taxonomy of strategies for listening comprehension illustrated by Graham and Santos (2015). Secondly, a taxonomy relating to listening types, illustrated by Field (2009). With these taxonomies and the English 5 syllabus, the materials were studied as a qualitative case study. The results show that the two criteria in the English 5 syllabus, which relate to strategies, are addressed within the teacher’s guide of both miniseries. Moreover, My English Mistakes and The Great Debate, both implicitly instruct students to use various strategies. The results also show that the top-down strategies are overrepresented in frequency but less varied in listening type variation. However, the strategies that are instructed are not explained or motivated in the materials.

Grammar is an essential part of language learning. Thus, it is important that teachers know how to efficiently teach grammar to students, and with what approach - explicitly orimplicitly as well as through Focus on Forms (FoFs), Focus on Form (FoF) or Focus onMeaning (FoM). Furthermore, the common use of textbooks in English education in Sweden makes it essential to explore how these present grammar. Therefore, to make teachers aware of what grammar teaching approach a textbook has, this degree project intends to examine how and to what degree English textbooks used in Swedish upper secondary schools can be seen to exhibit an overall explicit or implicit approach to grammar teaching. The aim is to analyze three English 5 textbooks that are currently used in classrooms in Sweden, through the use of relevant research regarding grammar teaching as well as the steering documents for English 5 in Swedish upper secondary school. The analysis was carried out with the help of a framework developed by means of research on explicit and implicit grammar teaching as well as the three grammar teaching approaches FoFs, FoF and FoM. Thus, through the textbook analysis, we set out to investigate whether the textbooks present grammar instruction explicitly or implicitly and through FoFs, FoF or FoM. After having collected research on the topic of how to teach grammar, it became apparent that researchers on grammar teaching agree that FoF is the most beneficial out of the three above mentioned approaches, and thus, we decided to take a stand for this approach throughout the project. The results of this study showed that two out of three textbooks used overall implicit grammar teaching through FoM. Moreover, one out of the three textbooks used overall explicit grammar teaching through an FoF approach.