The study’s intention is to research the questions of how authentic assessment could benefit EFL students’ speaking skills in Swedish upper secondary school and what some advantages and disadvantages were of doing so. To this end secondary sources were used to gather information to be able to answer the research questions. The results showed that the benefits of authentic assessment could help students’ speaking skills in improving their accuracy and fluency, their conversational skills and grammar use for communicative competency. Results also showed that authentic assessment promotes learning style diversity. Both skill and materialistic issues were found as some advantages and disadvantages of using authentic assessment when assessing EFL students’ speaking skills. Examples of advantages were authentic assessment helping students develop skills such as critical and logical thinking, interactional skills and combining cognitive objectives with attitudes and social skills. No disadvantages in favour of the students were found. However, the teacher’s lack of possible knowledge needed to use authentic assessment was noted. A final discussion expressed that authentic assessment, like any other type of assessment, has its value when used in the right context.

The purpose of this thesis is to investigate how teachers at upper secondary school view their profession; how different parameters within the school affect what teaching roles are available for the actor and how this is expressed in the teachers' everyday lives. The material consists of ten qualitative interviews and five supplementary questionnaires. The interviews are about teachers' view of the teacher's role, and their experiences of their profession. I have analyzed these with the help of Erving Goffman's metaphors in dramaturgy, and the concepts of identity and performativity. The thesis analyzes the experience of upper secondary school teachers about their daily lives at work and how they take on different roles at school, as well as how different schools enable different roles. Furthermore, it analyzes how teachers create different strategies for teaching, attracting students' interest in subjects they normally don’t find interesting and at the same time having fun at work. During the process I’ve noticed that the informants have a unified idea about how a good teacher "should be”, but that different aspects within the ideas are prioritized. I’ve also noticed different limitations within the teacher role. I also discuss how the teaching profession is perceived by the teachers, and how it’s made into a stage profession where clothes and other props – such as the classroom, the whiteboard and other school material – are used to portray a teacher. I also examine the fine line between teachers on stage and behind the scenes. The thesis also highlights the many demands and versatility of the teaching profession. How complex it is and that teachers as a professional group are often overlooked in research that focus on school as the students are the primary reason why schools exists.

This study investigates reading comprehension strategies amongst 298 Swedish ESL students in upper-secondary school, possible relationships between high motivation to learn and high strategy use, and whether more experienced readers tend to use reading strategies more frequently than lesser experienced readers. Data was collected through online surveys, and the findings were analysed using quantitative analysis. The results of the study showed that experienced readers tend to use reading strategies more often than less experienced readers, but that the most employed strategies amongst students seem to be naturally occurring rather than metacognitive and self-regulated ones, indicating that the participating Swedish upper-secondary students lack sufficient knowledge of other reading strategies. The data regarding the possible relationships between high levels of motivation and a more varied use of reading strategies do not indicate a strong correlation. One possible conclusion of the study is that even if students seem to perceive themselves as strategy users, the strategies deemed most important by researchers still end up amongst the least used strategies, indicating that students still need to receive more explicit training in the use and functions of such strategies.

Respons från såväl lärare till elev som från elev till elev kan vara en möjlighet att utveckla elevers skrivande men kan även begränsa elevers skrivande om den inte ges på ett konstruktivt sätt. Vi fann det intressant för vår kommande yrkesroll att ta reda på vad det finns för möjligheter och fallgropar vid kamratrespons. Med det valda problemområdet vill vi fördjupa våra kunskaper i hur elevers skrivutveckling kan påverkas av kamratrespons, det vill säga hur den kan stärka eller hämma elevers skrivutveckling i en pågående skrivprocess. I gymnasieskolans kursplan för svenska 1 är ett av målen för skrivutveckling att elever ska utveckla en språkriktighet, där kamratresponsen utgör en viktig del för skrivutvecklingen (Skolverket, 2011). Till denna kunskapsöversikt har artiklar genom databassökning samlats in. Sedan har vi tillsammans granskat och valt ut relevant material. Vi har noggrant diskuterat varje artikels relevans kopplat till vår frågeställning. Resultatet av valda artiklar visar att responsen ska ges på ett konstruktivt sätt, att den som ger respons måste vara medveten om uppgiftens syfte och att det råder delade meningar om lärarrespons eller kamratrespons är mest effektivt för elevers skrivutveckling. Slutligen kan vi konstatera att dialogen utgör en central del av responsen oavsett för den som tar emot eller ger responsen samt att elever tillsammans kan överkomma uppgifters svårigheter.

This study focuses on social class in Swedish EFL coursebooks. The aim is to investigate what different social classes are represented and how much space they are given, as well as how they are portrayed in three Swedish EFL coursebooks aimed at English 5 for upper secondary school. The selected coursebooks Viewpoints 1, Blueprint A 3.0, and Pioneer 1 have been analyzed using qualitative content analysis, focusing on texts and images presented in the materials. The analysis emanates from Neo-Marxist theory in order to point to different social class conditions. The results show lower-, middle-, and upper-class representation to various degrees. Mostly the lower class and upper class are visible, while the middle class is underrepresented. The lower class, in most cases, is shown together with the upper class in exploitative circumstances. This is made apparent through the lower class, in most cases, lacking the ability to decide for themselves in relation to their upper-class counterparts. Further, this indicates that the upper class rules the world on behalf of the lower class. Meanwhile, when the middle class is shown, they are mainly depicted through overconsumption, and as victims of upper-class dominance. Despite previous research showing the importance of social class on a global, European and Swedish scale, the coursebooks somewhat disregard its importance in different texts and images.

The use of translanguaging in ELT classrooms can have significant benefits for multilingual students. This study investigates how students with background languages other than Swedish perceive the use of translanguaging in ELT classes. The study aims to answer questions about how these students perceive teachers' use of it, their perception of their own use of it, and in which classroom activities they report a need to use it. Data was collected through a questionnaire that was carried out in three Swedish as a second language classrooms in two separate upper-secondary schools in southern Sweden. Generally, the findings showed a predominantly positive attitude towards the teachers' use of translanguaging in the ELT classroom, but some students did not find it helpful. The majority of students reported that their background languages helped them understand and develop their English language skills. Translanguaging was also supportive in various classroom activities, such as reading comprehension. The study concludes by pedagogical implications for translanguaging use in the ELT classroom in Sweden.

The Swedish upper secondary school is becoming more digitalized, and the use of digital teaching materials is being questioned and debated by many, including the Swedish school minister. Therefore, with this study, we aim to investigate how upper secondary students experience the use of digital teaching materials in the subject of Swedish. We also aim to study the challenges and possibilities students are experiencing connected to the use of digital teaching material. The theoretical framework of this study investigates the students’ experiences with a phenomenological approach with the theoretical concepts ”digital literacy” and ”spatial stability”. Seven upper secondary students participated in semi-structured interviews, then a thematic analysis was conducted. The findings of the study show that upper secondary students have varied experiences with digital teaching material, and that digital teaching material has both positive and negative implications. In the study, it became evident that both the students and the digital teaching material is engaged in, and interacting within a digital ecology. This digital ecology is created and navigated by the teacher, which furthermore could lead to challenges for the students’ digital literacy development. Some students are also experiencing spatial instability due to the teaching material’s fragmentary form. Lastly, the study shows that while working with digital teaching material, students sometimes experience challenges with digital distractions. Some students have developed a strategy of ”digital pauses” to encounter these distractions.

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.