This study is based on my work as a teacher of Swedish language and literature to upper secondary school students, and my interest in developing the teaching of literature by using both new criticism theories and theories of literary perception focusing on reader response. The purpose of the study is to examine the learning process in trying to develop literary competence and to find out how to describe the competence shown by the students. My starting-point is a discussion about literary competence and the theory and model of literary competence by Örjan Torell. In examining literary competence, by how students use their constitutional competence as well as performance and literary transfer competences, Torell´s model shows the possibility and the need for both knowledge of literature and personal reception by focusing on the dialogue between author and reader. The method is qualitative and the empirics are material collected in one senior high school class in the Social Science programme during their second and third year. The material contains written reading logs, written answers to tasks and transcribed recordings of discussions of literature. The analysis shows a variety among the literary competence shown and developed by the students and points to the complexity of understanding the concept of literary competence. The model proves to be useful in focusing the teaching and learning of literature and the results indicate that teaching of literature by combining learning of epochs, genres, ideas and conceptions with personal reading is a valuable approach. Keywords: literary competence, literary teaching, literary reception, discussions of literature, reading logs, literary repertoire, text competence.

<p>This study is based on my work as a teacher of Swedish language and literature to upper secondary school students, and my interest in developing the teaching of literature by using both new criticism theories and theories of literary perception focusing on reader response. The purpose of the study is to examine the learning process in trying to develop literary competence and to find out how to describe the competence shown by the students. My starting-point is a discussion about literary competence and the theory and model of literary competence by Örjan Torell. In examining literary competence, by how students use their constitutional competence as well as performance and literary transfer competences, Torell´s model shows the possibility and the need for both knowledge of literature and personal reception by focusing on the dialogue between author and reader.</p><p>The method is qualitative and the empirics are material collected in one senior high school class in the Social Science programme during their second and third year. The material contains written reading logs, written answers to tasks and transcribed recordings of discussions of literature.</p><p>The analysis shows a variety among the literary competence shown and developed by the students and points to the complexity of understanding the concept of literary competence. The model proves to be useful in focusing the teaching and learning of literature and the results indicate that teaching of literature by combining learning of epochs, genres, ideas and conceptions with personal reading is a valuable approach.</p><p>Keywords: literary competence, literary teaching, literary reception, discussions of literature, reading logs, literary repertoire, text competence.</p>

This dissertation examines young people’s reading of fiction in the digital age, with a special focus on the aspects of attitude and competence. The literary reading of respondents in their upper teens is considered from several perspectives—especially those of the respondents themselves. The discussion is based on three larger empirical studies of the reading attitudes and practices of 18-year-olds. These studies build on and complement each other in relation to the overarching research questions through a triangulating process combining qualitative and quantitative methods. The studies are, however, freestanding and were conducted using different empirical methods. The first study is diachronic in that it compares national test essays on the topic of reading from the year 2000 with essays written according to the same instructions twelve years later. The main aim of this study is to reveal possible differences between the two generations in terms of attitudes and approaches to reading fiction, and to relate them to issues of literary legitimization and competence. The second study consists of a questionnaire about a short story read by the respondents, as well as about their general reading and media habits. A connection is drawn between media habits and reading frequency, on the one hand, and the results of the essay study, on the other. The respondents’ reception and understanding of the story is analyzed separately. A summary of the first two studies reveals several complex issues with contradictory patterns. The third study, which examines these issues more closely, was conducted through focus-group interviews. All three studies have been carried out among groups of pupils in the third year of upper secondary school in Sweden. The final part of the dissertation summarizes the results of the three studies, applying a pedagogical perspective to literature pedagogy within the subject of Swedish at the upper secondary level. This discussion points out several opportunities for literature teachers today.

Denna systematiska litteraturstudie ägnas åt att undersöker vad dagens tillgängliga forskning belyser om litteraturundervisning i skolans mellanår samt om forskningen lyfter något om litteraturundervisning som kan vara fruktbar för högpresterande elever. Tidigare forskning visar att undervisningen behöver stärkas när det gäller att stimulera och utmana högpresterande elever. Samtidigt lyfter vissa studier fram undervisningsformer som kan vara användbara inom ramarna för den ordinarie undervisningen och som kan leda till att inga elever behöver falla mellan stolarna.

El presente trabajo se enfoca en el papel que juega la motivación para el desarrollo de la CL en español como lengua extranjera. El objetivo principal del presente trabajo es explorar cómo los diferentes componentes de un curso de lectura literaria afectan la motivación para desarrollar la CL. Para ello, se hizo un estudio de caso de dos estudiantes suecos de español como lengua extranjera en una escuela secundaria situada en Sollentuna, Suecia. La investigación se basó en los portafolios de los estudiantes, así como cuestionarios y entrevistas semi-estructuradas realizadas con los mismos participantes. En los análisis de los datos se aplicó una combinación del método cualitativo, interpretativo y el cuantitativo para tratar de entender mejor y explicar los conceptos en cuestión desde el punto de vista de la totalidad del contexto de aprendizaje. Los resultados del estudio sugieren que el desarrollo de la CL está en correlación con la motivación resultativa e intrínseca, mientras que la predominante orientación motivacional del alumno no tenía un papel significativo para los resultados de aprendizaje en nuestros participantes. Por otra parte, tales elementos del curso como la posibilidad de elegir la tarea o el material, el uso de textos multimodales, la integración de las destrezas y una continua  retroalimentación tuvieron un efecto positivo en la motivación para desarrollar la CL. Los resultados del presente estudio pueden contribuir a una mejor comprensión de lo que crea la motivación, y como tal, servir como base para sugerencias para la enseñanza de literatura en L2. En las conclusiones se marcan posibles líneas de investigación futuras. / The present research paper focuses on the role of motivation of the L2 learners for the development of literary competence (LC). The overall aim of this investigation is to explore how different components of a literary reading course can influence the students´ motivation to develop the LC. The present paper is a case study of two Swedish students of Spanish as a foreign language in a secondary school situated in Sollentuna, Sweden. The investigation uses a combination of qualitative, interpretive and quantitative methods and attempts to understand the concepts under analysis within the learning context in its entirety. The materials to be analysed are the student reader’s portfolios, as well as questionnaires and semi-structured interviews carried out with the same participants. The results of the study suggest that the development of the LC is in correlation with the resultative and the intrinsic types of motivation, whereas the predominant motivational orientation of the learner was not found to play a significant role for the learning results of the participants. On the other hand, the motivation to develop the LC was positively affected by such course elements as a possibility to select a task or material, the use of multi-modal texts, integration of language skills and a regular individual feedback. The findings of this study add to the understanding of what creates the learner’s motivation, and also may serve as a base for suggestions for a competence-based literature teaching in a foreign language classroom. In the conclusions of this dissertation, possible directions for future research are outlined.

This is a professionalizing study that aims to analyse how “short-short stories” promote the development of literary competence in the learning of Spanish as a foreign language. The study was conducted with two different groups of undergraduate students from Stockholm University who are exposed to a sixty-minute session where this literary text guides the teaching process. A survey is applied at the end of the lesson and a focal interview is carried out after one week time in order to gather data to know how students experienced working with “short-short stories”.The results show that “short-short stories” encouraged the use of the four main skills and students benefited from an intense interpretative and analytical process. Literary contents such as authors, genres and styles were enhanced throughout the session which indicates that this type of literary text might support the teaching of literature in the classroom. Finally, students’ attitude towards the text was very positive and their interest was increased, so that we might assume that the use of “short-short stories” could be implemented with the same expectations and results as other literary texts. / Éste es un estudio profesionalizador que busca analizar cómo el microrrelato promueve el desarrollo de la competencia literaria en la enseñanza del español como lengua extranjera. El estudio fue llevado a cabo con dos grupos diferentes de estudiantes de pregrado de la Universidad de Estocolmo, quienes fueron expuestos a una sesión de sesenta minutos donde este género guío el proceso de enseñanza. Una encuesta es aplicada al finalizar la sesión de clase y una entrevista de grupos focales llevada a cabo una semana después de la sesión, permitió recolectar datos que permitieron conocer la percepción de los estudiantes al trabajar con microrrelatos.Los resultados muestran que el microrrelato promovió el uso de las cuatro habilidades y los estudiantes se beneficiaron de un intenso proceso analítico e interpretativo. Contenidos literarios, tales como autores, géneros y estilos fueron incentivados a través de la sesión, lo cual indica que éste tipo de género podría apoyar la educación literaria en el aula de clases. Finalmente, la actitud de los estudiantes hacia el texto fue muy positiva y su interés se vio incrementado, así que podríamos asumir que el uso del microrrelato podría ser implementado con los mismos resultados que otros textos literarios.

The subject of this dissertation is Swedish upper secondary pupils’ reception of novels read as part of their literature instruction. The main purpose is to study and compare the reading of female pupils with that of male pupils and to analyze to what extent attention is paid to their private reading experiences in the literary teaching. What strategies do the students use to interpret and discuss fiction? And what is the relationship between their private reading habits and the way fiction is studied at school? Consequently, the subject field of this qualitative study concerns not only teenagers’ private reading habits, but also gender related issues, school adjusted reading routines and didactic matters. Reading at school differs in many ways from the pupils’ private reading habits, but there are also differences regarding the students’ attitudes towards reading as such. There proved to be certain diversities between the reading habits of boys and girls. The boys read in general less than the girls, and many boys were interested in reading adventurous and exciting stories. The girls were more into reading realistic novels, and to them it was important that they could identify with the characters. Many pupils responded personally to their reading. Instead of reflecting on the meaning of a text and comparing it to other texts or phenomena of the surrounding world, their reception confined itself to categories like “boring” or “exciting”. Merely a few students included a more profound literary analysis in their responses. An important aim of literature instruction must be to broaden the pupils’ literary repertoires and to make them improve their reading skills. This study shows that to achieve these improvements the students must feel involved, which means that literature instruction must be adapted to the literary cultures of both boys and girls.

One of the major challenges that persists in postsecondary foreign language (FL) education in the US today is how to implement a more integrated approach to language and literature instruction, that is, one that fosters critical awareness on multiple levels and prepares learners to be globally-connected and engaged citizens (MLA, 2007; Swaffar & Urlaub, 2014). Major contributions for achieving these goals have come from an array of pedagogical approaches that share in common their focus on language as a resource for making socially and symbolically rich meanings that do more than convey facts or express objectives. These include those designated as multiliteracies and genre-based approaches, as well as those that promote intercultural, symbolic and literary competencies as integral to the language learning experience. All of these frameworks acknowledge to some extent the fact that ambiguity-understood here as the multiplicity, indeterminacy, or destabilization of meaning-characterizes language itself and thus also our day-to-day and global communication, as well as the experience and process of FL learning. This dissertation, based on a qualitative classroom-based research study, considers how ambiguity can more be comprehensively integrated into FL learning and in particular into text-oriented teaching practices. The approach taken was a pedagogy that embraces ambiguity by providing learners and educators with strategies for navigating the moments of indeterminacy, uncertainty, and doubt that they will inevitably encounter in and out of the FL classroom. The study, set in an intermediate German language and culture course at a large public university, investigates 1) how to incorporate and assess moments of ambiguity more comprehensively across the curriculum and 2) how learners responded to various encounters with ambiguity, including ambiguity of genre, perspective, and silence. Data analysis revealed that purposeful integration of induced ambiguity can facilitate more comfort with those three dimensions and that it complements the principles of a multiliteracies-based FL pedagogy.

I denna uppsats analyseras Markus Suzaks Jokern och Jeanette Wintersons Fyrväktaren utifrån Northrop Fryes arketypanalys. Inledningsvis görs separata analyser av de båda verken som sedan får ligga till grund för att jämföra de återkommande dragen som kunnat identifieras i de skilda texterna. Syftet är att utreda metodens användbarhet som analysverktyg med målet att avgöra om den kan användas för att främja textnära tolkningar och elevers litterära kompetens i litteraturundervisningen i gymnasieskolan. Resultatet visar att metoden kan användas för att göra textnära litteraturanalyser. Man kan även observera att karaktärer som i berättandet fyller liknande funktioner återkommer i båda verken trots att de skiljer sig åt både till form och innehåll. Analysen visar dock att denna form av arketypanalys inte kan betraktas som en komplett metod dåden inte berör alla aspekter av texten, vilket tyder på att metoden med fördel kan kompletteras med andra litteraturvetenskapliga metoder.

This study, based on interviews with seven teachers of Swedish, investigates how they define the concept of text interpretation and how they assess pupils’ ability to interpret text. The results show that the teachers define text interpretation as an ability to perceive hidden messages in text and an ability that is closely connected to reading comprehension. This description agrees with the way text interpretation is explained in previous research but not with the description in the curriculum. This is a defect, since teachers ought to know what they are supposed to assess, based on the steering documents they are expected to follow in their professional practice. Here, however, the teachers’ assessment skills are shown to be an asset. When teaching literature the teachers say that they normally use dialogue and written assignments in which pupils reason on the basis of the content of the text and their personal experience. The forms of assessment are summative and formal, although it seems difficult to use fixed answer templates for reasoning in contexts like this where it is not clear what can be said to be right or wrong. Summative assessment, however, seems more reliable and credible than formative assessment. A picture thus emerges of the difficulty of assessing text interpretation which is simultaneously multivalent and reliable. / Denna studie är grundad på intervjuer av 7 svensklärare i syfte att undersöka hur de definierar begreppet texttolkning och hur de bedömer elevers förmåga att tolka text. I resultatet framgår att lärarna definierar texttolkning som en förmåga att uppfatta dolda budskap i text och en förmåga som är nära sammankopplad med läsförståelse. Denna beskrivning stämmer väl överens med hur texttolkning förklaras i tidigare forskning men inte med den beskrivning som framkommer i läroplanen. Detta är en brist då lärare bör veta vad de ska bedöma, utifrån styrdokument de ska utgå från i sin yrkesutövning. Här framstår dock lärares bedömningsfärdighet som en tillgång. Vid litteraturundervisning säger lärarna att de vanligen tillämpar dialog och skriftliga inlämningsuppgifter, med resonemang utifrån både textens innehåll och personliga erfarenheter. Bedömningsformerna är summativa och formella, även om fasta svarsmallar ter sig svåra att använda vid resonemang, då det i dessa sammanhang inte tydligt framgår något som med säkerhet kan sägas vara rätt eller fel. Summativ bedömning ter sig dock mer tillförlitlig och trovärdig vid en bedömningssituation, jämfört med formativ. Här framkommer således en bild av att det är svårt att bedöma texttolkning som på samma gång är flertydig och tillförlitlig.