This essay aims to explore the dialect use in speech and writing in different school contexts among pupils in grade three in Värmland, Sweden and their teacher’s attitude to dialect usage in the classroom. The methods used for the survey are structured observations, collected documents and qualitative semi- structured interviews with both pupils and their teacher. The purpose of using three different methods is to get as complete a survey and credible result as possible as the methods in this case complement each other in an advantageous way. The result shows that a majority of the participating pupils use their dialect in most of the different speech situation with the exception of oral presentations and presentation of today´s date and lunch during morning assemblies. In these situation the dialect is often modified. As for the pupils´ writing in dialect, the result shows, however, that it seldom occurs at all. The pupils generally do not see themselves as dialect speakers while their teacher argues that everyone in the class speaks the local dialect. Furthermore, the results of the teacher interview shows that the teacher is sympathetic to the use of dialect in general and sees no problem with dialect in speech, but does not accept dialect use in school writing. / Min studie syftar till att undersöka värmländska elevers dialektanvändning i såväl tal som i skrift i olika skolsammanhang samt att ta reda på deras lärares inställning till dialektanvändning i klassrummet. Metoderna som legat till grund för undersökningen är strukturerade observationer, insamlade dokument samt kvalitativa semistrukturerade elev- och lärarintervjuer. Avsikten med att använda tre olika metoder är att få en så fullständig undersökning och trovärdigt resultat som möjligt då metoderna i detta fall kompletterar varandra på ett fördelaktigt sätt. Resultatet av undersökningen visar att majoriteten av de medverkande eleverna använder sig av sin värmländska dialekt i de flesta talsituationer, med undantag för muntliga framställningar och presentation av dagens datum och lunch under morgonsamlingar. Vid dessa tillfällen modifieras ofta dialekten. Vad gäller elevernas skrivande på dialekt visar resultatet däremot att det nästan inte förekommer alls. Eleverna själva anser sig överlag inte heller tala värmländska medan deras lärare hävdar att alla i klassen talar dialektalt. Vidare visar resultatet från lärarintervjun att läraren är positivt inställd till dialektanvändning generellt och ser inga problem med dialekt i tal, men accepterar inte dialektal användning i skrift i skolsammanhang.

To explore how children use dialect, and whether the dialectal language develops during growth might be of interest from a speech language pathologist’s point of view as the dialect could influence the child’s speech. Previous research is often based on older material and/or examines the speech of adults.  In the present study, everyday language in groups of south- eastern Swedish speaking children was investigated. The aim of the present study was to examine to what extent typically developed children of the ages of  5, 8 and 11 years use dialectal language. A further purpose was to discover which dialectal characteristics that were present in the different age groups, and how they differed. The children were video- and audiorecorded during group sessions in everyday settings. The collected material was transcribed according to principles of conversation analysis, and key portions were chosen for deeper analysis. The identified dialectal characteristics were diphthongal, distinctly open or closed vowels and regarding consonants retroflex flap [ɭ] and posterior /r/ were encountered. In prosody a final tonal raise in phrases was observed. Dialectal words and phrases and discourse markers were also documented.   The results of the present study showed that the children use dialectal language as early as by the age of 5, but that older children had a more distinguishable dialect. Throughout all age groups, the vowels were dialectally influenced. Most distinctive was a much closed /i/ with a diphthong, and characteristically open <ä> and <ö>. The characteristic final tonal raise in phrases was encountered in all age groups. Furthermore, a variation regarding dialectal use has been observed between children but also within the same child. Discourse markers were found primarily in the school-aged children, assumingly due to the increased desire of belonging to a group. The results of the present study may contribute to the ability to determine whether phonology, lexicon and/or grammar in a child is deviant or in fact reflected by the south-eastern Swedish characteristics. Also from a diagnostic perspective it might be of value to know when to expect hearing dialectal characteristics in the child’s speech.