This essay deals with the communicative approach towards learning English. The aim is to investigate how and why form and/or function are stressed in course plans in the subject of English intended for the first year of upper secondary school and how the content of these plans are mirrored in teaching materials. This will be done within a small historical frame from the 70’s until today. Based on a background of the school’s development and the research in the field of education and language studies, the investigation is carried out by firstly analyzing the course plans respectively before weighing them against each other, and secondly by examining each teaching material before comparing their content to the relevant course plan as well as to each other. The focus in these analyses is on the language’s function in contrast to form and on how communicating competence is stressed and exercised. The results show that the course plans are vastly different. The older plan emphasises form to a large extent but it does also contain hints of function. The recent plan, on the other hand, is permeated by function and it has communication as the foremost goal. Both teaching materials correspond quite well to the relevant course plan. The older material exercises mainly form and correctness in individual tasks while the newer material promotes group work and features exercises that practically always require interaction and train the pupils’ communicative abilities. The conclusion that is drawn from this investigation is that there is an obvious shift from a prominence of form to a dominion of function in both the course plans and teaching materials studied in this essay.

The purpose of this degree project is to investigate in what types of situations and to what extent some upper secondary students write in English in their spare time, what reasons they have for doing so and what text types and genres are represented in their writing. Qualitative interviews were carried out with a group of six students in year two in an upper secondary school in the southern part of Sweden, three with MVG as a final grade and three with VG as a final grade in English A.The results show that all of the students write in English each day in instant text messages on MSN messenger. However, they mostly use English in the form of abbreviations, single words, phrases and sentences. Longer pieces of text, like poems and other literary pieces, written in English were created only by the three students with MVG.

The purpose of this dissertation is to examine how some English teachers in secondary and upper secondary school approach using the Internet as a source for information in their profession. The focus of the investigation is to find out how the teachers perceive the concept of source evaluation and information literacy and what their attitudes are towards teaching it to their students. The aim was to learn about the teachers’ thoughts and views on the possibilities as well as trials and tribulations with using Internet-based information sources in the classroom. Qualitative interviews with three secondary school teachers and three upper secondary school teachers were carried out. The semi-structured interviews we conducted contained guiding questions concerning information literacy, criteria for source evaluation and attitudes. Our results show that all the informants have a positive attitude towards incorporating the use of the Internet when they design tasks. However the respondents indicate several difficulties regarding the teaching of information literacy skills.

The purpose of this essay was to investigate how teachers’ assessments in the SwedishUpper Secondary School are affected by the national tests in English language courses.By conducting a qualitative investigation in the shape of interviews with six teachers, Iaimed to show how the teachers feel that their profession is affected by the nationaltesting, whether it is positive or negative. This was done whilst also examining thenational tests within the context of school-developmental theory and assessment theory.The Swedish School Inspectorate have shown repeatedly in reports that there is a greatdiscrepancy regarding how students are assessed on a school-to-school basis which issomething that they wish to inhibit, as the Swedish school-system encouragesequivalency-based assessment. The national tests also tend to add stress both due to theadditional workload that the teachers experience, but also for the students who feelpressured to perform well under difficult testing situations.Since national testing in English is an annual assessment in Sweden teachers arecontinuously exposed to an additional workload at the end of each school year, whilststill being expected to handle their regular workload. To investigate how teachers feelabout the national tests in regards to how they perform their final assessments cantherefore be of importance, as it can provide us with an additional viewpoint as toexplain how or why national testing is or is not working in its current state.The results of the study show that although teachers find the national tests helpful sinceit provides them with additional material for assessment, the stress and additionalworkload does not outweigh the positives. There is also a tendency expressed that thenational tests tend to confirm what previous material has already shown regardingstudents. One suggestion for how the national tests can be bettered is to centralizemarking, as that would allow teachers to focus on teaching rather than worry aboutmarking. Overall, the results therefore show a negative impact on the teachers’ work.

Syftet med detta examensarbete är att belysa hur elever på en gymnasieskola uppfattar lärandet inom idrott och hälsa A. Vår teoretiska ingång är kroppens fenomenologi vilket kontraheras med dualismens filosofi. Vi analyserar vårt resultat utifrån det fenomenologiskt bundna begreppet kroppslig kompetens kontra fysisk aktivitet som präglas av ett dualistiskt perspektiv. Vi har använt oss av en kvalitativ metod, då vi har intervjuat 17 elever på en gymnasieskola i södra Sverige. Resultatet visar att eleverna först och främst inte har fått möjlighet att reflektera, diskutera och formulera sig kring den egna läroprocessen. Eleverna uttrycker exempelvis att de tycker att ämnet är roligt men det saknas vidare reflektion utifrån den egna upplevelsen. Även om det bara är ett fåtal som anser att de inte tar med sig någon som helst kunskap från idrott och hälsa A så har nästintill alla stora problem att resonera kring det egna lärandet. Det framkommer att det är viktigare att vara fysisk aktiv än det är att belysa lärandeprocessen genom exempelvis diskussion. Vår studie påvisar även att flertalet elever inte får den helhetsuppfattning som krävs för att individen skall ha möjligheten att utveckla kroppslig kompetens. Fysisk aktivitet står i centrum och eleverna ges inte möjligheten att koppla samman ämnets olika moment till en sammanhängande helhet. Ämnet delas upp i teori och praktik vilket blir problematiskt då eleverna tycks ha svårigheter att koppla de teoretiska begreppen till de praktiska momenten. Vid de praktiska momenten ligger fokus på aktivitet, inställning och engagemang. Detta innebär att den reflektion som krävs för kroppslig kompetens uteblir eftersom den fysiska aktiviteten blir det centrala i undervisningen. Eleverna koncentrerar sig således på att vara aktiva genom rörelse, engagemang och rätt inställning vilket innebär att undervisningen koncentrerar på ett görande istället för ett reflekterande lärande. Att eleven ska vara fysiskt aktiv värdesätts högt av eleverna vilket resulterar i att den reflektion som är nödvändig för kroppslig kompetens uteblir. / The purpose of this paper is to illuminate how students in an upper secondary school concept learning within the course Physical Education and Health A. The theoretical view that we use is to examine the learning from the viewpoints of physical activity and physical literacy. We have used a qualitative method, as we have interviewed 17 students from an upper secondary school in southern Sweden. The result shows that the students in our survey do not get the opportunity to reflect, discuss and formulate themselves around their own learning processes. For instance, the students express that the subject is “fun”, however, further reflection based on personal experience is lacking. Even though only a few students explicitly state that they do not acquire any knowledge from the course Physical Education and Health A (PEH), almost all students have major problems reflecting upon their own learning verbally. This indicates that the students have not had the opportunity to pause and reflect during their own learning process. We find that it seems students deem it more important to be physically active than it is to highlight the learning process through discussion. On this basis, we believe that students do not get the chance to develop physical literacy because this is breached as physical activity is valued higher. Our study also shows that students lack the complete picture needed to ensure that individuals have the opportunity to develop physical literacy. Physical activity is at the center of attention and the students are unable to link together the essential parts of different elements into a coherent whole. The course is divided into theory and practice, which becomes problematic when students seem to have difficulty linking the theoretical concepts to the practical parts. Regarding the practical parts, the focus is on activity, attitude and commitment. This means that the reflection required for physical literacy fails because the physical activity becomes the focus of teaching. Students concentrate on being active with commitment and the right attitude instead of reflectively learning. In conclusion, it seems that being physically active is highly valued by the students at the cost of the individual’s own personal reflection that is necessary to develop physical literacy.

The aim of this study is to examine if English textbooks offer a cultural perspective of the English-speaking world in accordance with Swedish ordinances and recent research. The research question is: How is the English-speaking world culturally represented in English textbooks for Swedish upper secondary school course A in terms of ethnicity and national identity? The study comprises four textbooks from 2000 or later. The analysis is carried out within the framework of post-colonial theory. Four aspects are focused on: the ideological point of view, the representation of ethnicity, the representation of national identity and how these issues correspond to the ordinances. The results display that the books contain almost no biased stereotypes and that they fulfil several, if not always all, of the requirements of the English syllabus. All books include texts that provide balanced information about the ways of living, the cultural traditions and the historical conditions of a few selected countries. There are also exercises and activities that encourage intercultural understanding. However, the focus is mainly on the West and the view of culture is remarkably often based on national and monolithic assumptions. In particular, the positive values of cultural and ethnic diversity are still not fully acknowledged. In order to develop international solidarity and greater understanding and tolerance of other people, a higher degree of post-colonial and diasporic writing is needed. Above all, cultural issues have to be allowed to imbue the entire material.

Syftet var att studera elevernas uppfattningar inom Naturbruksprogrammets hästinriktning om sambandet mellan ryttarens kroppsfysik och ridningen. Följande frågor har ställts:•Vilken betydelse ansåg eleverna att en god kroppsfysik hade för ridningen? •Hur uppfattade eleverna olika pedagogiska metoders betydelse för ridningen? •Hur uppfattade eleverna olika pedagogiska metoders betydelse för kroppsfysiken?•Hade eleverna förstått att ridningen påverkades av deras fysiska hälsa?För att besvara frågeställningar har jag använt mig av en enkät. De elever som besvarade enkäten deltog i ett projekt, som genomfördes med hjälp av olika didaktiska metoder och övningar samt observationer. Projektets avsikt var att förbättra ryttarens kroppsfysik samt dess inverkan på hästen. Resultatet visade att eleverna ansåg att det främst var videofilmningen som gynnade ridningen och att de fysiska övningarna förbättrade konditionen och smidigheten. De som red regelbundet hade en bättre kroppsfysik. Sammanfattningsvis kan sägas att eleverna hade förstått sambandet av en god kroppsfysik och ridningen.

Several decades of research into the effectiveness of corrective feedback on ESL writing have resulted in the emergence of a consensus on a number of best practices. This study aims to investigate what recommendations the Swedish National Agency for Education provides upper secondary English teachers to use when responding to students’ writing, and if these recommendations are aligned with current research on corrective feedback. Through a content analysis, I examine four support resource materials from the Swedish National Agency for Education explicitly aimed at helping teachers with using feedback. The findings of this study show that the four resources from Skolverket depict a unified perception of what type of feedback teachers should provide: the feedback needs to be didactically considered, taking the learning goals of the syllabus, the individual student’s learning needs, and the level of detail it should contain in consideration both before and during the responding. It also needs to be indirect so that it does not constrain students’ writing style, yet it needs to provide constructive explanations so the students are not left confused by the feedback. The findings further show that for the most part, the four resources and the research are aligned when it comes to the content and the focus of the feedback, however, they differ in areas regarding how extensive and explanatory the feedback needs to be.

Syftet med studien är att undersöka hur svenska som andraspråkslärare inom språkintroduktionsprogram arbetar för att stödja nyanlända elever som lider av posttraumatisk stress (PTSD) för att främja deras andraspråksinlärning. För att uppnå studiens syfte valdes en kvalitativ ansats och semistrukturerade intervjuer som metod. Informanterna utgörs av sex lärare i svenska som andraspråk som alla arbetar med nyanlända elever på språkintroduktionsprogram (både på gymnasiet och i grundskola). Resultatet visar att lärarna är överens om att PTSD kan ha en påverkan på andraspråksinlärningen och inlärning generellt. Detta är något som även tidigare forskning visar på stämmer. Det framkommer även att lärarnas kunskaper om PTSD hos elever ser olika ut beroende på vilken kommun de arbetar i. Studiens slutsats landar i att lärarna ser PTSD som en diagnos som hämmar andraspråksinlärningen. Trots detta tycks lärares kompetens i frågan om undervisning av elever med PTSD generellt sett vara låg. Lärarna menar att de gärna hade sett större satsningar på att fortbilda lärare i hur man kan arbeta med dessa elever, i syfte att gynna deras andraspråksinlärning.

The aim of this study was to investigate Swedish upper secondary school students’ attitudes toward English in school as well as to identify in what ways and to what extent they interact with English outside of school. An online questionnaire was used to collect data. The participants were three groups consisting of a total of 31 students at a school in northern Sweden. Findings from this study indicate that although the attitudes differ significantly within and between the different groups, the consensus was that English is a moderately difficult subject where they learn as much as or less than they learn outside of school. Additionally, all groups were shown to spend a lot of time engaging in a variety of different English activities outside of school, among which listening to music, using social media and watching different kinds of online visual media were the most prevalent.