This study has through observations and interviews studied how teachers work with classroom discourse in the lower ages. The focus has been on discussing teacher’s stance towards a dialogical classroom, as well as discovering how, and under which circumstances, the students communicate verbally. By contacting four different teachers and spending a day with each of them the study has found that most agree that a good verbal skill is beneficial for students. It helps them gain confidence as well as develop their understanding. However, the teachers do not reflect much about their own use of language. Through observations it was noticed that the way interactions are organized, as well as how the language is used, has impact on the student’s responses.

This papper i about trying en educational method called writing connected to dialog. This is tried on adult students studying to work in Swedish day care. The purpose was to see if this method could make a difference in classroom democracy. / Uppsatsen behandlar ett försök med en undervisningsmetod kortskrivande kopplad till samtal med vuxenelever på Barn- och fritidsprogrammet. Använd metod: Aktionslära, enkätundersökning, djupintervju.

The purpose of this essay is to investigate Year 5 pupils’ evaluation of their own abilities regarding spoken English and to see if this is reflected in an individual’s communicative activity and participation in the lesson. This essay also poses the question if it is possible to increase spoken communicative activity in the lesson through a three-week programme of interactive exercises designed to emulate the criteria of the syllabus and the National Test. A class of 24 pupils participated in the study. The material was collected through a pre-study questionnaire and a post-study evaluation, class logbook writing after each activity and my own active observations as teacher. Results show that although the majority of pupils at this age believe they can cope in a communicative situation in English, this is no guarantee of their active participation in classroom speaking activities. However, communicative activity can be increased with the establishment of the dialogical classroom characterised by genuine discourse, authentic questions and subjects relevant to the age group. At this stage, differences can be witnessed in pupils’ language skills with some able to use language strategies to achieve understanding whilst others rely on translation into their mother tongue. The study concludes that controlled practice helps those pupils with lower self confidence in the subject and pair- or group work maximises participation from all parties. It is essential that the teacher draws on the pupils’ enthusiasm for the subject in order to create a successful forum for language acquisition.