The purpose of this study is to examine how the subject modern languages in 2022 is conceived by students and teachers in Swedish secondary school at present. This study makes use of a variety of motivational strategies and theories that together form the framework for the analysis of the participants’ answers. This study aims to provide recent research in the field of students’ motivation and how it is influenced by their surroundings and by intrinsic and extrinsic motivational factors. This investigation concludes that the status of the subject “modern languages” in 2022 does not differ much compared to what the Dannvik Duregård found in her article (2010). Modern language teachers perceive their subject as having low priority, and they wish for the subject to be non-replaceable to other languages in school such as Swedish and English. Students report that they would not work with the subject in other ways if the subject was not mandatory. Furthermore, the investigation shows that student motivation contingent upon the fact that the subject is replaceable and that they perceive the subject to be more difficult than other school subjects. Finally, the investigation also reports that students use the opportunity to drop out of language studies for other reasons than the need for more teaching in Swedish and English, which was the main purpose from the beginning.

This study looks at how six teachers work with English grammar with and without the use of ICT. The aim is to investigate how teachers use ICT in English grammar and compare it with a more traditional approach. The primary source of the case study is interviews conducted with five secondary teachers and one primary teacher in southern Sweden. The teachers work in three different schools with different approaches to ICT. One school has been using ICT for three years, the second school has recently started using it and the third school does not use ICT in English grammar teaching at all. The teachers’ experiences and thoughts on grammar teaching and on ICT are presented and discussed. The results show that only one of the teachers has a sound understanding of how to integrate ICT in English grammar teaching. All interviewed teachers are positive towards the use of ICT but most of them are not aware of the resources available or how to organise the teaching to make use of ICT in the best way. More and more Swedish schools provide laptops for all their pupils but it is clear that the teachers need more training to use ICT in English grammar teaching successfully.

Mathematical knowledge is often a prerequisite for students at Swedish upper secondary vocational programs to be able to study vocational courses, for example electricity courses in the Electricity Program. Electricity Program students study mathematics in their electricity courses as well as in their mathematics course. The mathematics in those two settings has a different character. A goal of this thesis is to investigate what constitutes that character. In this study three mathematics and five electricity teachers have been interviewed about how they would explain three mathematical electricity tasks to students on the Electricity Program. Teacher knowledge in both electricity and mathematics has been used in the analyses and has been compared between the different teacher groups. In addition to providing an overview analysis of all the teachers’ explanations, detailed analyses have been carried out, comparing pairs of teachers’ explanations. The teachers’ choices of explanations and their use of specific and general mathematical knowledge have been studied. Mathematics contains a wide range of subject areas but also a wide range of representations and methods that highlight different aspects of mathematics. This study shows that different teachers emphasize different aspects of mathematics in their explanations of the same tasks, even though intended to the same students, both in the their choices of explanation and in their use of mathematics. The electricity teachers drew upon their practical electrical knowledge when they connected their explanations of mathematics to vocational work. The electrical knowledge they used not only grounded the tasks in a, for them, well-known real-world environment. The electrical knowledge actually helped them to solve the tasks, albeit in a more concrete/specific way than the mathematics teachers. The electricity teachers drew upon more specific mathematical knowledge in their explanations of the interview tasks, whereas the mathematics teachers drew upon more general mathematical knowledge in their explanations.  The different explanations of mathematics from the two kinds of teachers are markedly different, depending on whether they have a more practical/vocational or a more general/algebraic approach. The solutions to the interview tasks turned out to be the same but the character of the solutions paths are substantially different. This raises questions regarding the students’ abilities to reconcile the different approaches. / Kunskap i matematik är ofta en förutsättning för att studenter på gymnasiets yrkesprogram ska klara av sina yrkeskurser, till exempel i ellärakurser på elprogrammet. Studenterna på elprogrammet möter matematik i både sina ellärakurser och i sin matematikkurs. Matematiken i de här två sammanhangen har olika karaktär. Ett mål med den här licentiatavhandlingen är att undersöka hur dessa karaktärer ser ut. I denna studie har tre matematik- och fem el-lärare intervjuats om hur de skulle förklara tre matematiska eluppgifter för studenter på elprogrammet. Lärarkunskaper i både matematik och ellära har använts i analyserna och jämförts mellan de båda lärargrupperna. Utöver översiktliga analyser av alla lärarnas förklaringar av varje uppgift, har dessutom detaljanalyser gjorts, med jämförelser av par av lärares förklaringar av matematik. Lärarnas val av förklaringar och användande av specifik och generell kunskap i matematik har studerats. Matematik innehåller ett flertal delområden och dessutom ett flertal representationer och metoder som belyser olika aspekter av matematiken. Denna studie visar att olika lärare betonar olika aspekter av matematik i sina förklaringar av samma slags uppgifter, trots att de är ämnade för samma slags elever. Lärarnas val av förklaringar och lärarnas användande av matematik visade sig vara olika. Ellärarna använde sig av praktisk elkunskap när de kopplade sina förklaringar av matematik till yrkeskunskaper inom elområdet. Den elkunskap de använde inte bara situerade uppgiften i för dem, en välkänd, verklig miljö. Dessutom hjälpte elkunskapen dem att lösa uppgifterna, om än på ett mer konkret/specifik sätt än matematiklärarna. Ellärarna använde mera specifika matematik-kunskaper i sina förklaringar av dessa intervjuuppgifter, medan matematiklärarna använde sig av generella matematikkunskaper i sina förklaringar av generell matematik. Matematiken i de två olika lärargruppernas förklaringar visade sig vara markant olika, beroende på om de har en mer praktisk/yrkesmässig eller en mer generell/algebraisk ansats. Lösningarna av intervjuuppgifterna var desamma, men karaktären av lösningarnas var markant olika. Detta leder till frågor om det är rimligt att förvänta sig att studenter ska förstå likheten i de olika ansatserna. / <p>This licentiate thesis is included in the serie: Studies in Science and Technology Education (FontD<em>) </em>The Swedish National Graduate School in Science and Technology Education, FontD, http://www.isv.liu.se/fontd, is hosted by the Department of Social and Welfare Studies and the Faculty of Educational Sciences (OSU) at Linköping University in collaboration with the Universities of Umeå, Stockholm, Karlstad, Mälardalen, Linköping (host), the Linneus University, and the University of Colleges of Malmö and Kristianstad. In addition, there are three associated Universities and University Colleges in the FontD network: the University Colleges of Halmstad and Gävle and the Mid Sweden University. FontD publishes the series Studies in Science and Technology Education.</p>

Since 2011 The Swedish Curriculum for the compulsory school from 2011 (revised2018) states that different types of text that should be taught in EFL classrooms inSweden are “Literature and other fiction” (Skolverket 37). In my essay, I examine theuse of novels in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) classroom in a few Swedishsecondary schools. What types of novels are used and what kinds of assignments aregiven to the pupils during a reading project? Are there any differences in how teachersuse novels in their classroom depending on previous experience? To find out why andhow one may use literature in the EFL classroom I made a literature review, and inorder to answer my questions about how novels are used in a few Swedish EFLclassrooms, I made a survey, consisting of a questionnaire, for EFL teachers. In my literature review I find that researchers and teacher manualspropose the use of either authentic novels or Graded Readers in the EFL classroom.The respondents of my survey agree with this as the majority of them use Young Adultnovels and Graded Readers. Most common among the respondents of the study is tolet the students talk about the novel they read together in groups, a type of assignmentthat is supported by research and teacher manuals. In my study I cannot find any solidsupport that previous experience affect the use of novels in class. / I den svenska kursplanen för engelska står det att ”skönlitteratur och annan fiktion”(Skolverket 2018, 36) ska användas i undervisningen på högstadiet. I den häruppsatsen undersöker jag hur romaner används i engelskaundervisningen på någrasvenska högstadieskolor. Vilken typ av romaner används och vilken sorts uppgifter fåreleverna arbeta med under ett läsprojekt? Finns det några skillnader i hur mananvänder romaner i undervisningen baserat på tidigare erfarenheter? För att ta redapå varför och hur man ska använda skönlitteratur i undervisningen gör jag enlitteraturgenomgång. För att besvara mina övriga frågor genomför jag en studie medhjälp av en enkät för engelskalärare.I min litteraturgenomgång visar det sig att forskare och handböcker framhålleratt autentiska romaner och s.k. Graded Readers är vad som bör användas. Min studievisar att respondenterna använde just autentiska ungdomsromaner och GradedReaders i sin undervisning. Dessutom lät majoriteten av lärarna i studien sina eleverjobba med litteraturen genom att samtala i grupper, vilket framhävdes som ettfördelaktigt arbetssätt även i litteraturgenomgången. I studien fann jag inget stöd föratt tidigare erfarenhet påverkar hur man använder romaner i sin undervisning.

The aim of this paper is to highlight and analyze the attitude towards and expectations of ICT and digital tools amongst Swedish EFL teachers in secondary/upper secondary school. In addition, this paper also contains results and analysis of how teachers most commonly acquire new digital learning tools, as well as what they consider to be most important when incorporating ICT in the classroom. Another contributing factor behind conducting this study is the upcoming changes to the current curriculum, as the Swedish Government (Regeringskansliet) decided that changes shall be made in order to ensure and enhance the digital competence amongst Swedish students (Regeringskansliet 2017). The results and analysis are based on a questionnaire sent out through Facebook and Google Forms, targeting two different groups with the purpose of serving as networks for teachers of English within the Swedish educational system. Combining their answers as well as comparing to previous research, this study identifies, and argues for, two key aspects responsible for improving the ICT competence amongst Swedish EFL teachers in secondary/upper secondary school; high quality digital learning tools and the ability to identify your ICT skill and pick digital tools accordingly. Moreover, this study reinforces the claim made in previous studies that the attitudes towards ICT and digital learning tools amongst Swedish EFL teachers are overwhelmingly positive. However, the study also shows a lack of quality concerning in-service teacher training, resulting in a majority of teachers learning ICT and digital learning tools on their own. Finally, answers show a juxtaposition regarding what teachers actually wish for in order to facilitate the work with ICT and digital learning tools.

Pragmatic competence has become an essential component of L2 (second language) proficiency. The purpose of this case study is to investigate how pragmatic competence in English is taught in a public Swedish secondary and upper secondary school. The aim with this study is to reach an in-depth understanding of how the teachers in this specific school view, value and teach pragmatic competence. The study has a qualitative approach and was conducted through semi-structured interviews with two teachers. In addition to the interviews, an analysis of the pedagogic material used in the classroom was made. The most significant findings of the study show that pragmatic competence and cultural knowledge are teachable and are indeed being taught in the studied school. Different types of oral activities are the mostly used pedagogical practices to teach different aspects of pragmatic competence. The aspects of pragmatic competence that are in focus, in both secondary and upper secondary school, are formal and informal language, adaptation of the language and politeness.