Despite the importance of the speech act as an analytic category, a general comprehensive definition of it that allows for methodical definitions of particular acts has not been provided. As a consequence, large areas of language use are often treated inadequately, both in learning research and in course planning. Among other problems, applied linguists presuppose different dimensions in discourse and their codings of utterances are insufficiently reliable. Therefore, valid comparisons regarding their empirical results or their design proposals are often impossible. The lack of definitions ESOL work requires is intimately associated to a defective understanding of the nature of acts. Existing classifications separate akin acts and group diverse ones together. To clarify the confusions, it is necessary to distinguish sharply acts which make present, create or modify knowledge from acts that set deontic conditions, ie acts like defining, classifying and generalizing from acts like ordering, requesting and inviting. The first kind, which are referred to here as dissertation acts, are not a subtype of illocutionary acts, as has previously been considered. Rather, they constitute a category at the same hierarchical leveL The distinction is shown to be fundamental following the same approaches that Strawson, Austin, Searle and Widdowson used to establish the sentence, the proposition and the speech act as independent units. The discussion leads to two general definitions of illocutionary and dissertation acts, which postulate a fixed number of parameters for each. Sets of conceivable values for every parameter are also delimited. Hence, a given combination of values determines a particular act, and all possible acts are determinable. The systematic framework thus produced suggests spiral research and teaching programmes which, at different stages, focus on speech act elements, speech acts and speech act combinations. These would allow analysts and students to discern the global organization of a discourse from its final results. They might also lead to a better understanding of its linguistic realization.

Syftet med studien är att ge en inblick i hur engelsklärare för årskurs 4–6 anpassar undervisningen utifrån elevernas nivåskillnader. I den här kvalitativa intervjustudie har nio engelsklärare i årskurs 4-6 från Sverige beskrivit sina upplevelser kring hur de upplever nivåskillnader inom muntlig kommunikation i det engelska klassrummet samt hur de anpassar sin undervisning utifrån nivåskillnaderna. Intervjuerna har sedan transkriberats och analyserats med hjälp av en tematisk analys och därefter sammankopplats med tidigare forskning och teorier. Resultatet visar att nivåskillnaderna gör undervisningen utmanande men rolig för lärarna. Gällande anpassningar ansåg läroboken kunna nyttjas som grund men för att kunna utmana och inkludera alla elever behöver de använda sig av differentierade uppgifter. Orsaken till nivåskillnaderna ligger i hur elever interagerar med språket på deras fritid. De elever som ägnar sig åt internet, läser engelska på fritiden eller har föräldrar som är bekväma med att använda engelska är ofta på en högre nivå än de andra. / The purpose of the study is to provide an insight into how English teachers for grades 4–6 adapt the teaching based on the students' level differences. In this qualitative interview study, nine English teachers in grades 4-6 from Sweden have described their experiences of how they experience level differences in oral communication in the English classroom and how they adapt their teaching based on the level differences. The interviews were then transcribed and analyzed using a thematic analysis and then linked to previous research and theories. The results show that the level differences make the teaching challenging but fun for the teachers. Current adaptations were considered by the textbook to be used as a basis, but in order to be able to challenge and include all students, they need to use differentiated tasks. The reason for the level differences lies in how students interact with the language in their free time. Students who engage with the Internet, read English in their spare time, or have parents who are comfortable using English are often at a higher level than the others.

In this paper we explore language learning in relation to motivation. The correlation between teachers' didactic choices and their relation with the learners is crucial to create motivation. When we did our research of how these things correlated, we mainly focused on the effects that CLIL (Content and Language Integrated Learning) and CBI (Content Based Instruction) had on motivation among learners. We used the database ERIC and searched for articles relating to CLIL, CBI, ESL (English as a Second Language) and motivation. We discovered that CLIL and CBI are teaching methods that allow the teacher to find subjects that are interesting to the students and use these to build motivation among the learners. Motivation grows by interactions and an understanding about the subject. We found a wide range of research that supported the approach of implementing CLIL and CBI in language learning. As a result of our findings we propose greater consideration in Swedish schools regarding the use of CLIL and CBI.