Being able to read and write different kinds of texts in English is more important than ever, and previous research has shown that the latter of those two skills benefits from the former. The importance of reading is stressed in the curriculum for upper secondary education. The purpose of this study is to investigate the use of English literature at upper secondary school. Similarities and differences in attitudes towards literature among students in vocational and academic programs in the first year will be looked into. I wish to get an idea of how students experience literary studies in their English education. Further, I want to investigate the students’ own ideas on how to best make literary studies interesting and a good tool for learning. The results show that the academic program students read more often in their spare time, and also that they enjoy reading to a higher degree than the vocational program students. When it comes to practicing reading literature in English lessons in school, both groups think that they do this seldom and a slight majority of both groups are satisfied with this. However, nearly half of the academic program students and nearly a quarter of the vocational program students would like to read more in school. Moreover, it seems that academic program students see more advantages in literary studies for acquiring a second language, whereas the vocational program students do not know if literary studies are a good way of learning English or gaining knowledge of the English culture. Previous research has shown that students are not likely to find a task, such as reading literature, worth doing if they are not motivated in ways that make them understand the advantages that the task will provide. My conclusion is therefore that it is important that teachers strive to motivate their students in such a way. Further, it is important that teachers consider that even though students do not read a great deal in their spare time, they might still want to do so in school.

Syftet med denna studie är att synliggöra på vilket sätt lärare arbetar för att väcka elevernas läslust i och utanför skolan.  För att uppnå studiens syfte har två frågeställningar skapats. Dessa lyder ”I vilken utsträckning och på vilket sätt arbetar lärare för att främja elevernas intresse för läsning?” och ”Vilka utmaningar och möjligheter ser lärarna för elevernas läsutveckling i relation till läslust?”    För att samla in data till denna studie användes en kvalitativ datainsamlingsmetod eftersom det skulle samlas in information som beskriver lärarnas upplevelser, tillvägagångssätt och föreställningar. Observationer av verkligheten har således inte genomförts, men lärarna har fått dela sina upplevelser och sin verklighet kring ämnet, vilket förhoppningsvis leder närmare en förklaring till elevernas dalande läslust.    Av resultaten framkom det att elever är mer motiverade att läsa när läsuppgifterna och aktiviteterna är relevanta för deras liv, när de har tillgång till ett brett utbud av läsmaterial, när de har stora möjligheter att engagera sig i varaktig läsning och när de har möjligheter att göra val om vad de läser och hur de engagerar sig i och slutför läskunnighetsuppgifter. Resultaten påvisade även att elever är mer motiverade att läsa när de har möjligheter att socialt interagera med andra om texten de läser, när de har möjligheter att lyckas med utmanande texter och när incitament i klassrummet återspeglar värdet och vikten av att läsa. För att besvara frågeställningarna tog jag hjälp av en didaktisk-metodisk handlingskompetens avseende hur lärare skapar motivation att läsa hos sina eleverna och Gambrells (2011) sju principer om hur lärare arbetar för att främja elevernas lust till att läsa. / The purpose of this study is to make visible in what way and why teachers work to arouse students' desire to read in and out of school. To achieve the purpose of the study, two issues have been created. These read "To what extent and in what way do teachers work to promote students' interest in reading?" and "What challenges and opportunities do teachers see for students' reading development about the desire to read?" To collect data for this study, a qualitative data collection method was used because it would collect information that describes the teachers' experiences, approaches, and ideas. Observations of reality have thus not been carried out, but the teachers have had to share their experiences and their reality on the subject, which hopefully leads to a closer explanation for the students' declining desire to read.  The results showed that students are more motivated to read when the reading tasks and activities are relevant to their lives, when they have access to a wide range of reading materials, when they have great opportunities to engage in lasting reading and when they have opportunities to do choices about what they read and how they engage in and complete literacy tasks. The results also showed that students are more motivated to read when they have the opportunity to socially interact with others about the text they read, when they have the opportunity to succeed with challenging texts, and when incentives in the classroom reflect the value and importance of reading. To answer the questions, I took the help of a didactic-methodological action competence regarding how teachers create motivation to read in their students and Gambrell's (2011) seven principles on how teachers work to promote students' desire to read.

För att eleverna ska utveckla språket och ordförrådet samt förstå det lästa är högläsning med språkutvecklande strategier en bra metod. Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur lärare i årskurs 1–3 upplever att de arbetar med högläsning av skönlitteratur och hur de anser att deras arbete utvecklar elevens ordförråd och språkutveckling.  Undersökningens teoretiska utgångspunkt utgår från det sociokulturella perspektivet. Vilket innebär ett lärande där interaktionen mellan människor är det viktigaste redskapet för att lärande ska kunna ske. En intervjustudie genomfördes med fem legitimerade svensklärare som undervisar på lågstadiet. Resultatet visar att samtliga lärare anser sig använda högläsning i sin undervisning, för att främja elevers språkutveckling och ordförråd. Alla fem lärarna framhåller att de använder sig av en eller flera språkutvecklande metoder, de metoder som framkom var En läsande klass och Reading to Learn. Dessa metoder används på olika sätt beroende på syfte, och lärarna framhåller att de också inspireras av metoderna för att utveckla dem till ett eget arbetssätt. Lärarna upplever att högläsning av skönlitteratur bidrar till positiva effekter på elevernas ordförråd och språkutveckling. / Reading aloud with language development strategies is a method to develop pupils language and vocabulary, as well as to understand the read text. The object of this study is to examine how teachers experience reading fiction aloud for pupils, and how their work develops the vocabulary and language development of their pupils. The theoretical approach of the study is based on the socio-cultural perspective. Meaning that the interaction between people are the most important tool for learning. An interview study was conducted with five legitimized teachers of the Swedish language who teach at the lower level, grade 1-3. The result shows that all teachers say that they are reading aloud as part of their teaching. All five teachers stress that they are using one or more language development methods, the methods that emerged were “En Läsande Klass” and “Reading to Learn”. These methods are used in different ways depending on the purpose, and the teachers point out that they are often taking bits and pieces from them to develop and use in their teaching. The teachers experience that reading fiction aloud are contributing factors for the pupils development of vocabulary and language development.

This licentitate thesis is a study of Upper-Secondary School stu-dents’ approach towards reading fiction in the school subject of Swedish from a socio-cultural perspective. Furthermore, the social context and its importance for the students’ reading situation has been mapped. The students participating in the study are all first-graders and boys, studying the Construction Programme. The empirical material consists primarily of oral statements made by the students concerning their perception of how to read fiction in school. Using the construct of Pierre Bourdieu and with the reception model of Kathleen McCormick as a point of departure, the repertoirs of the students are described and analyzed. This study shows that the students bring different representa-tions of their group belonging, which effect their approach to rea-ding fiction. It also shows that the students’ idea of what a reader is and their own reading ability create their approach to reading. Ad-ditionally, the students have problems to see the actual purpose of reading fiction in a school situation. The results of the study show that in order to read fiction success-fully in a classroom situation, the school has to discuss and chal-lenge the students’ views of group belonging. Furthermore the school must improve when it comes to illustrating the more precise purpose and meaning of reading fiction in the school subject of Swedish. The study shows that because of the students’ different approa-ches to reading fiction, they tend to do two types of reading, one in-dividual and one for the school . In the latter, the students are incli-ned to limit their reading potential. And this is the real challenge for the subject of Swedish, but also ultimately the school, to challenge the students to use their full reading potential. Finally, the results of the study is discussed in relation to the new curriculum of the subject of Swedish, as it is presented in the sylla-bus ”Gy 11”. ”Gy 11” has been implemented since the autumn of 2011. Additionally, the consequences of the decreased number of hours for the subject of Swedish is considered. There are, however, stil good possibilities for the Swedish school to enable the students to reach their full reading potential in a class-room sitution.