Recent reports have indicated that students’ motivation is declining, and that students in vocational programs show particularly low motivation. However, studies show that motivation and Self-Regulated Learning (SRL) strategies are closely intertwined, where motivation is depicted as an instigating and maintaining force that fuels a learner’s efforts toward a goal, and SRL-strategies are the actions that learners use to solve different tasks and structure their own learning processes. The result of these studies infer that vocational students’ struggle may not only be explained through having low motivation, but perhaps also through having few and/or ineffective learning strategies. To gain insight into this matter, this study  aims to research what vocational- and general academic program students in upper secondary school report on their motivation and use of SRL-strategies when solving individual assignments in English class, and whether there are any tangible differences between the two programs. The study uses a quantitative method, where a questionnaire was used to elicit 22 vocational program students’, and 29 academic program students’ self-perceived positions in regard to different statements related to motivation and SLR-strategy use. The statements were answered through a seven-point Likert scale. The study found that academic program students report higher for all types of motivation and SRL-strategy use, although vocational students only report slightly lower in comparison. The more tangible differences were that vocational program students reported for significantly higher anxiety, less sense of responsibility, and use of fewer socio-affective strategies. This study’s results show that there are some tangible differences between the two groups. The study can therefore be used as a stepping-stone for future studies on how to help students in becoming more capable.

Denna studie ämnade ge en inblick i hur lärare använder sig av läroplanen i litteraturundervisningen i ämnet svenska och deras åsikter om detta. Studien samlade in data via en enkät och intervjuer med lärare som arbetar som svensklärare i den svenska gymnasieskolan. Studien var kvalitativ och resultatet jämfördes med läroplanens innehåll i syfte att avgöra om lärarna följer läroplanens innehåll och riktlinjer. Studien fann ett antal tydliga problem som förekommer i litteraturundervisningen såsom elevers bristande läsvana och motivation till läsning av mer komplicerade texter. Resultatet är viktigt då det beskriver hur läroplanen ses av lärarna som använder sig av den och hur detta kan påverka litteraturundervisningen. / This study looks at providing insight into how teachers use the curriculum in literature education in the Swedish subject and their opinions surrounding it. The study collected data using a survey and interviews with teachers that are currently working as Swedish teachers in Swedish upper secondary school. The study is qualitative, and the results were compared to the curriculum’s guidance in order to determine whether the teachers were following the advice correctly. The study found that the teachers mostly followed the guidance of the curriculum however some more distinctive issues were found in literature education such as students' lack of ability and motivation to read more complicated texts. The results are important because they outline how the curriculum is viewed by teachers using it and how it could potentially impact education.

This study aims to investigate both teachers’ and students’ attitudes toward classic literature in English language classrooms. The importance of the canon in education is also examined in the study. The research was conducted in a Swedish upper secondary school and included a sample of 30 students who were studying the advanced English 6 and 7 courses and two English teachers. The research methods consisted of an online questionnaire with the students and interviews with the teachers. The data suggests that while teachers generally have positive opinions of classic literature, some students have neutral or even negative attitudes. Both teachers and students acknowledge that many students do not find classic literature interesting because they do not perceive its relevance to their lives, not because of the language, as is commonly thought. However, students and teachers agree that students think classic literature is valuable to learn about because of historical and cultural reasons.  Finally, the study discusses the need for teachers to recognize that students have different attitudes and interests, and not all of them may see the relevance of classic literature in today's classrooms.

The diploma thesis deals with leading discussions in English lessons at upper-secondary schools. In the theoretical part, procedures ensuring effective discussions are described based on previous research findings. The empirical part of the thesis explores how teachers tackle starting, conducting and concluding discussions in real classes and how students evaluate their teachers' efforts. The research is conducted by observing teachers and their classes, by interviewing teachers and by collecting feedback from students in questionnaires. Results comparing the theory with the in-class practice are provided. The conclusion summarizes the common tendencies and differences between the lessons, and the effectiveness of the approaches observed. Key words: discussion, lesson, effectiveness, upper-secondary, leading

With the rising societal awareness of inclusivity and accurate representation in films and other forms of media, it has become increasingly important that cultural and sexual diversity are not neglected in the material used in education, especially in English Language Teaching (ELT) where the chosen material is supposed to represent the whole English-speaking world. Previous research often focuses on the difference between national and international textbooks and compares the results between them. While some studies have focused on either cultural or sexual diversity, none have included both and there are not many studies that focus on Swedish ELT. Four textbooks were analysed in this study; Short Cuts to English 1 (2001), Streams 1 (2004), Pick & Mix 1 (2013), and Blueprint A (2017). Inclusivity and representation of cultural and sexual diversity were analysed using three models. Analytical methods focused on the aesthetic and sociological senses of culture, the circles of countries, and the levels of heteronormativity in the textbooks. Ourfindings show that there is a lack of inclusivity and representation of sexualities other than heterosexuality, and that even for culture there is a lack of inclusivity outside of English-speaking countries. Results indicate that the four textbooks used in this study did not display a high level of inclusivity regarding sexual diversity. Although still small, levels of inclusivity and representation of different cultures were greater.

This study focuses on civics teachers’ opinions and experiences of subject-integratedteaching. The study aims to learn more about teachers’ autonomy and how it affects theirchoice to teach subject-integrated or not. More specifically, the study is concerned withteachers’ way of interpreting the national steering documents and how it affects their choiceof methods, but also which aspects, circumstances, and conditions – in this study calledframework factors - teachers find as either opportunities or obstacles for subject-integration.The findings of this work are based on interviews with five teachers who teach civics at thesame upper secondary school in the north of Sweden.The study shows that teachers have different interpretations of the national steeringdocuments, which results in how and to what extent subject-integration is conducted varies.At the same time subject-integrated teaching seems to be regarded as a teaching methodwhere a lot of planning and preparatory work is required. Moreover, teachers emphasize that astrong consensus between the teachers is necessary for cooperation to function well. Inaddition, teachers must be willing to relinquish some of their autonomy when workingsubject-integrated, which many of them think is a problem. Teachers want a large amount ofautonomy and they do not want anything or anyone to limit it. They want to choose thecontent and methods that they think fit best and at the same time they want to be able toredirect their teaching based on what is happening in the world. All these reasons combinedresult in teachers not teaching subject-integrated to a particularly large extent.

Psychological factors and their appearance in upper secondary English education are the focus of this study to collect knowledge regarding the effects on written and oral language production among upper secondary students. Three specific factors are mainly covered, videlicet depression, stress, and anxiety. This issue was selected because of personal interest, furthermore, to collect knowledge and didactic tools regarding the area. The psychological factors are explained in the study and thereafter explored in the context of upper secondary students, specifically in their English language production. The study targets upper secondary students and the psychological factors affecting their language production in English, therefore the survey research had this specific age group as correspondents. The survey included was constructed to collect the quantitative data necessary to answer the research questions. The study involves suggestions for didactical improvements for teachers to consider in future education to be able to support the students suffering from psychological factors. The results observed a presence of psychological factors in the majority of cases and severe effects of it during language production in English.

The aim of this essay has been to investigate the role of language awareness (LA), from a teacher’s perspective in today’s Swedish upper secondary school, related to foreign language learning (with the emphasis on the cognitive aspects), and to investigate why it is important to give more attention to LA as a concept in order to enhance language acquisition. The investigation has been carried out through qualitative in-depth interviews with six foreign language teachers. The result shows that the teachers’ views of the concept do not cover all aspects of LA and that there are theoretical and practical ambiguities in the views concerning the cognitive aspects. The conclusion points to the necessity of clarification of LA and that LA ought to be explicitly mentioned and developed in the curriculum. Finally, the conclusion underlines the need of LA methodology in order to facilitate teaching in the aim of improving language learning through pupils’ metacognition.

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.

The aim of this paper is to report on students´ attitudes and their awareness towards different English accents. With changes in the latest Swedish syllabus for English (Lgr11), the aim is no longer to sound in a specific way by speaking with a certain accent. This has been the case since 2000, but the Nativeness principle is still powerful. However, we discuss that a clear pronunciation is important for students and teachers a requisite for being understood and avoiding confusion. Students in four different schools, secondary and upper secondary schools, took part in our research by answering a questionnaire. We found that many students were aware of different accents, but also that students preferred the Inner Circle accents with AmE and BrE being the most popular ones. Also, we found a difference between secondary and upper secondary students where teacher influence was more important to the former and personal preferences to the latter.Keywords: Accent, pronunciation, comprehension, intelligibility, ESL, EIL, EFL, ELF, English as a Global Language