English has been on the rise on the global stage for the last half century, and is now the most studied second language, being used regularly in international academia, social and mainstream media and international relations. In Sweden, the increase in the use of English is particularly noticeable in the country’s higher education system, with recent studies reporting a significant increase in English as the language of instruction. Although Sweden has a generally high proficiency in English, recent reports show a number of students feel insecure in using English at universities. A possible pedagogical method to address students' uncertainty is Content and Language Integrated Learning (CLIL). While there is much research regarding CLIL, the research is divided on its efficacy best practices, and research is limited in the Swedish context. Thus, the purpose of this study is to investigate the beliefs and practices of CLIL among upper secondary English teachers in Sweden in order to add to the body of knowledge surrounding CLIL use, especially in the Swedish context. Data collection was done with a survey sent out to 260 schools in Sweden. The results of the study are limited in scope and depth due to very low response rates (n=8), but tentative conclusions may be drawn from it that support earlier findings, such as the importance of certain contextual factors in the school. The study concludes that CLIL is indeed an appreciated tool among the teachers asked, and that any teacher who is considering using it should ensure that the school environment is one that facilitates CLIL rather than hinders it.

The question of the asset of early foreign language learning is a frequently discussed topic. Following prevailing opinion in society, that ‚the sooner, the better ', the beginning of compulsory foreign language learning is continually shifting in lower grades at primary school. A lot of children have already started with foreign language learning in kindergarten. Researches, which support the benefits of the approach, focus on a very narrow aspect of foreign language acquisition (pronunciation) or survey these facts with a specific group of inhabitants (immigrants). As experts point out, there is no significant benefit of early instructions ascertained in the Czech Republic. However, the research focused only on adults. We do not have any further evidence of the advantages of starting to learn a foreign language early. Therefore, the author focused on comparing the level of foreign language competences of two groups of pupils after their two-year compulsory instructions of English at primary school. The aim was to compare the level of their language competence in English and the learners' potential difficulties by the learners with early learning experience and by the learners without previous experience of foreign language learning before the beginning of compulsory learning at primary school....

One of the major challenges that persists in postsecondary foreign language (FL) education in the US today is how to implement a more integrated approach to language and literature instruction, that is, one that fosters critical awareness on multiple levels and prepares learners to be globally-connected and engaged citizens (MLA, 2007; Swaffar & Urlaub, 2014). Major contributions for achieving these goals have come from an array of pedagogical approaches that share in common their focus on language as a resource for making socially and symbolically rich meanings that do more than convey facts or express objectives. These include those designated as multiliteracies and genre-based approaches, as well as those that promote intercultural, symbolic and literary competencies as integral to the language learning experience. All of these frameworks acknowledge to some extent the fact that ambiguity-understood here as the multiplicity, indeterminacy, or destabilization of meaning-characterizes language itself and thus also our day-to-day and global communication, as well as the experience and process of FL learning. This dissertation, based on a qualitative classroom-based research study, considers how ambiguity can more be comprehensively integrated into FL learning and in particular into text-oriented teaching practices. The approach taken was a pedagogy that embraces ambiguity by providing learners and educators with strategies for navigating the moments of indeterminacy, uncertainty, and doubt that they will inevitably encounter in and out of the FL classroom. The study, set in an intermediate German language and culture course at a large public university, investigates 1) how to incorporate and assess moments of ambiguity more comprehensively across the curriculum and 2) how learners responded to various encounters with ambiguity, including ambiguity of genre, perspective, and silence. Data analysis revealed that purposeful integration of induced ambiguity can facilitate more comfort with those three dimensions and that it complements the principles of a multiliteracies-based FL pedagogy.