This study regards the central content and knowledge requirements for the subject of English 5 in the Swedish upper secondary school system. The study is based on an analytical reading of the documents and is complemented by a questionnaire that was answered by upper secondary school teachers. The aim of the study was to investigate what parts of the documents lack clarity, from a new teacher’s perspective. The study finds a few examples of terms that are likely to confuse new teachers when grading students. Furthermore, questions were raised regarding the course in general, such as how to give the students confidence to speak English, when to use Swedish in the classroom and which English speech communities and cultures teachers should focus on. The questionnaire provided answers that could be helpful to newly graduated English teachers who are preparing to work in the Swedish upper secondary school system.

The purpose of this essay is to identify effective ways of teaching English vocabulary at upper secondary level in Sweden. We have answered three research questions: -  In what ways do local English teachers at the upper secondary level teach vocabulary? -  How do local students at the upper secondary level perceive their acquisition and learning of English vocabulary? -  According to research regarding vocabulary acquisition, what is necessary to include when constructing an effective module for teaching vocabulary?  We gathered the data needed to answer the research questions by conducting interviews with both teachers and students as well as an independent study. The independent study investigated which of six pre picked vocabulary teaching methods gave the best results in a single English 6 class and was the most preferred by those students. The interviews as well as the independent study indicated that one of the most effective ways of teaching vocabulary is through context-based exercises. Our conclusion is that the students’ retention of new vocabulary may be directly connected to the amount of context in which the words are taught. Based on our findings, we have constructed frameworks for a series of lessons which focus on teaching vocabulary.

English is the most widespread language in our society and is realised and represented through language teachers in classrooms all over the world. The content of the subject is concretised through a document called syllabus. As all other languages, English consists of language rules which we call grammar, however, in the Swedish syllabus for English as a second language in upper secondary school, there are no directives that requests or specify grammatical competence for the students. This study aimed to establish an indication of how the notion of grammar is realised into the process of learning English as a foreign language by interview teachers. The study found that teachers in general are more fond of inductive methods when it comes to incorporate grammar during English classes, however, there were numerous suggestions among the teachers that a mixture between inductive and deductive should be present during EFL context. Students previous knowledge and conditions did affect teachers choice of approach in terms of how they apply and teach grammatical aspects.

Religious education teachers in modern secular countries like Sweden are faced with many challenges. For example: how do the teachers encourage students to talk about religion when religion is largely understood as a private matter? Kittelmann Flensner found in her 2015 study that Swedish schools operate under what she calls a secularist discourse. This paper aims to examine that claim by analysing interviews with active Swedish religious education teachers. By applying Systematic text condensation to four transcribed interviews and analysing the results, this paper looks at what traces of a secularist discourse that can be found. Furthermore, the paper aims to answer how teachers relate to a secularist discourse and what didactic choices they make to encourage their students to talk about religion.To analyse these questions Kittelmann Flensner’s term secularist discourse is used along with Shiner and Casanova’s views on secularism. In terms of the didactic perspective, Hartman’s presentation of the didactic questions is used to analyse some of the methods teachers describe in the material. In short, my results show that Kittelmann Flensner might have generalized her results when it comes to viewing religion as a private matter in the classroom. Additionally, Casanova’s view on secularisation can explain only a few instances of public religion in the classroom. My conclusion is that the secularist discourse may be present in many classrooms but with exceptions in some multi-religious classes. My conclusion regarding the didactic analysis is that religious education teachers who want their students to talk more about religion need to do mainly three things; get to know their students well, spark interest among the students and bridge the gap between talking about religion in private and in public.

This study is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. In order to support or discard the hypothesis that high-functioning, autistic upper secondary school students speak more freely in English than in their native language Swedish, an experiment with a narrative format was conducted with students both within and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Measurements of lexical density, hesitations and long pauses in the narrative were applied to assess the quality of produced speech. A questionnaire survey for teachers of this age category of students was also carried out. The analyses of the results are primarily quantitative, but a portion of the questionnaire is also thematically analysed. The study shows that there is initial support for the hypothesis. / Denna studie är båda kvantitativ och kvalitativ i sin natur. För att stödja eller förkasta hypotesen att högfungerande, autistiska gymnasieelever talar engelska mer obehindrat än deras modersmål svenska, genomfördes ett experiment med ett berättande format med studenter både inom och utanför Autismspektrumtillstånd (AST). Mått på lexikalisk täthet, tvekan och långa pauser i berättandet användes för att utvärdera kvalitén av producerat tal. En enkätundersökning för lärare av denna ålderskategori av elever genomfördes också. Analyserna av resultaten är primärt kvantitativa, men en del av enkäten är också tematiskt analyserad. Studien visar att det föreligger ett initialt stöd för hypotesen.

Denna uppsats handlar om vilka olika kunskapsformer som testas i skriftliga prov i geografi på gymnasiet och om hur detta förhåller sig till betygskriterierna. För att besvara detta har tio geografilärares prov analyserats med hjälp av Blooms reviderade taxonomi. Tidigare forskning visar att prov i SO-ämnen nästan enbart testar minneskunskaper. Denna studie bekräftar delvis detta då de analyserade proven domineras av frågor som testar att minnas. Samtidigt finns det en variation i vilka kunskapsformer som testas. Även om lärarna främst testar att minnas fakta- och begreppskunskap, testar också andra kunskapsformer, om än i varierande grad. Det handlar främst om uppgifter som testar att förstå fakta- och begreppskunskap, men även att tillämpa, analysera och värdera begreppskunskap testas, liksom att tillämpa procedurkunskap.   Det finns en viss överensstämmelse mellan lärarnas prov och betygskriterierna, men en tydlig skillnad är att lärarna i studien i högre utsträckning testar att minnas än vad som uttrycks i betygskriterierna. Detta gäller särskilt för de högre betygen. Det är inte heller alla lärare som testar de högre kognitiva processerna, som att tillämpa, analysera och värdera, vilka uttrycks för de högre betygen. Detta innebär en variation mellan lärarna i vad deras prov testar och också att validiteten i proven varierar. En del lärares prov testar ganska väl kunskaper motsvarande betygskriterierna medan andras gör det i mindre grad. Eftersom prov används som underlag för betygsättningen innebär det också att eleverna bedöms på olika grunder.   Det kan finnas olika förklaringar till betoningen på minnesfrågor i proven. Tidigare forskning pekar på svårigheter att tolka kriterierna eller på traditionen. En annan förklaring är bristen på tid, lärarna behöver tid för att utforma prov med mer komplexa frågor och för att rätta dem.

Denna studie syftar till att se vilka skillnader som går att urskilja mellan tre olika svenska översättningar av Arthur Conan Doyles A study in scarlet. Vidare syftar studien också till att se hur dessa skillnader förhåller sig till den så kallade nyöversättningshypotesen, som menar att varje ny översättning blir allt mer lik källtexten, samt de olika översättningsideal som varit norm under respektive tillkomsttid. Genom dels en kvantitativ analys och dels kvalitativ närläsning studeras språkliga, kulturella och övriga faktorer. Studien visar att nyöversättningshypotesen främst går att verifiera gällande språkliga faktorer och att samtliga översättningar till stor del speglar sina respektive samtiders översättningsideal. Det gör att lärare i de flesta fall kan välja översättningar efter hur bra deras respektive samtidsideal passar läsningens didaktiska syfte. Studien visar också på olika aspekter i A study in scarlet som i översättning försvårar läsarens förståelse av texten, vilket också är nyttigt för lärare att vara medvetna om i val av utgåva.

The importance of extensive literature reading in the English as a Foreign Language (EFL) context has been given increasing attention in recent research. Literature reading is also a required part of the national syllabi of the (EFL) courses offered to both adolescents and adults at Upper Secondary level in Sweden. This thesis aims to investigate the teachers’ process of making literature choices for extensive reading in upper secondary EFL courses in Sweden. Eight teachers of three different student groups took part in the study, representing adolescent university preparatory programs and vocational programs, as well as programs for adult students. Questionnaires were used and the data was analyzed for patterns revealing three main factors affecting teachers’ literature choice: language proficiency, reading experience and contextual factors. These three factors were fitted into the theoretical framework of psycholinguistic and sociolinguistic reading models, with the addition of a perspective of motivational research. The results of this survey underline the importance of extensive reading, according to teachers, and that motivation for literature choice can be primarily related to factors associated with psycholinguistic reading models. The survey also points to the need for further investigating of teachers’ own experiences of literature reading, searching for deeper motivational factors which influence teaching choices. Another future field of research is the choice of reading activities assigned together with the chosen literature, which probably also influence teachers’ choices in the Swedish EFL classroom.

Even though English should mainly be used in the EFL-classroom according to the Swedish national curriculum, some recent scholars have argued that a judicious use of the students’ L1 by the teachers in some particular situations may benefit the learning environment there. From this context, this thesis examines what research says about in what particular situations the L1 is used by teachers in upper secondary EFL-classrooms as well as the teachers’ and the students’ attitudes towards this practice. The method used was a systematic literature review, where seven articles from all across the globe were analyzed, compared and synthesized. The results show that the L1 was mainly used by the teachers when managing discipline, when explaining grammar and when teaching vocabulary. However, the articles did not conclude how the L1 could be used strategically by the teachers. Concerning the teachers’ and students’ attitudes, the majority of these were positive towards L1 use by the teacher in the above mentioned situations. However, the teachers were not aware of how the L1 could be used by them in a judicious and a strategic way. Lastly, it can be concluded that more research is needed on how the L1 can be used more strategically by the teachers as well as on the students’ perspective on this.

The purpose of this study has been to investigate students’ perceptions of the content in the Swedish subject and current syllabus for Swedish in the third year of upper secondary school. The purpose has also been to analyze if students are familiar with the aims they are working towards, how explicit they are and if they have any significance for the students’ results and motivation. This investigation is based on a socio-cultural perspective and was made with help of a quantitative method by using questionnaires, but has also been studied to some extent qualitatively, which have been analyzed from a student angle. The analysis of the results shows that the students have very good perception of what they should study in Swedish year three in upper secondary school. The students have also relatively good knowledge about learning presented by teachers, and that the aims are presented in the beginning of the course. In addition to this, the study shows other important elements that influence students’ results and motivation, such as teachers’ competence, their ability to teach and engage the students and the relationship between teacher and student. The conclusion is that teachers in their interaction with students should be more concrete and distinct, when presenting the aims anchored in the current curriculum. They also need to adapt contents and methods to students’ capacity, in order to motivate students and promote their ambition to get higher results and grades. Finally, this is required to reverse the declining trend in Swedish school results.