With the rising societal awareness of inclusivity and accurate representation in films and other forms of media, it has become increasingly important that cultural and sexual diversity are not neglected in the material used in education, especially in English Language Teaching (ELT) where the chosen material is supposed to represent the whole English-speaking world. Previous research often focuses on the difference between national and international textbooks and compares the results between them. While some studies have focused on either cultural or sexual diversity, none have included both and there are not many studies that focus on Swedish ELT. Four textbooks were analysed in this study; Short Cuts to English 1 (2001), Streams 1 (2004), Pick & Mix 1 (2013), and Blueprint A (2017). Inclusivity and representation of cultural and sexual diversity were analysed using three models. Analytical methods focused on the aesthetic and sociological senses of culture, the circles of countries, and the levels of heteronormativity in the textbooks. Ourfindings show that there is a lack of inclusivity and representation of sexualities other than heterosexuality, and that even for culture there is a lack of inclusivity outside of English-speaking countries. Results indicate that the four textbooks used in this study did not display a high level of inclusivity regarding sexual diversity. Although still small, levels of inclusivity and representation of different cultures were greater.

This study focuses on civics teachers’ opinions and experiences of subject-integratedteaching. The study aims to learn more about teachers’ autonomy and how it affects theirchoice to teach subject-integrated or not. More specifically, the study is concerned withteachers’ way of interpreting the national steering documents and how it affects their choiceof methods, but also which aspects, circumstances, and conditions – in this study calledframework factors - teachers find as either opportunities or obstacles for subject-integration.The findings of this work are based on interviews with five teachers who teach civics at thesame upper secondary school in the north of Sweden.The study shows that teachers have different interpretations of the national steeringdocuments, which results in how and to what extent subject-integration is conducted varies.At the same time subject-integrated teaching seems to be regarded as a teaching methodwhere a lot of planning and preparatory work is required. Moreover, teachers emphasize that astrong consensus between the teachers is necessary for cooperation to function well. Inaddition, teachers must be willing to relinquish some of their autonomy when workingsubject-integrated, which many of them think is a problem. Teachers want a large amount ofautonomy and they do not want anything or anyone to limit it. They want to choose thecontent and methods that they think fit best and at the same time they want to be able toredirect their teaching based on what is happening in the world. All these reasons combinedresult in teachers not teaching subject-integrated to a particularly large extent.

The aim of this essay has been to investigate the role of language awareness (LA), from a teacher’s perspective in today’s Swedish upper secondary school, related to foreign language learning (with the emphasis on the cognitive aspects), and to investigate why it is important to give more attention to LA as a concept in order to enhance language acquisition. The investigation has been carried out through qualitative in-depth interviews with six foreign language teachers. The result shows that the teachers’ views of the concept do not cover all aspects of LA and that there are theoretical and practical ambiguities in the views concerning the cognitive aspects. The conclusion points to the necessity of clarification of LA and that LA ought to be explicitly mentioned and developed in the curriculum. Finally, the conclusion underlines the need of LA methodology in order to facilitate teaching in the aim of improving language learning through pupils’ metacognition.

This paper is the result of a case study of learner responsibility in English language teaching at an upper secondary school. With the implementation of Gy11, the new curriculum for the upper secondary school in Sweden, learner responsibility has been introduced as an obligatory goal. However, in the steering documents the concept is not clearly defined. As a result the implementation of learner responsibility is dependent on the interpretation done by the schools. The purpose of this project was to explore how some students, teachers and head teachers perceive learner responsibility in relation to teaching and learning. The empirical study consists of observations and interviews with two head teachers, two teachers and eight students. Our results show that both students and teachers are happy with the opportunities for learner responsibility provided.Furthermore, they highlight it as something important. Both the head teachers and theteachers emphasise the importance to view the implementation of learner responsibility as an on-going process which the teachers are responsible for. In addition the students express that they are more motivated in their English studies as a result of being allowed more influence over their learning process. Lastly, the head teachers highlightmotivation and understanding as key factors for learner responsibility.

The aim of this paper is to report on students´ attitudes and their awareness towards different English accents. With changes in the latest Swedish syllabus for English (Lgr11), the aim is no longer to sound in a specific way by speaking with a certain accent. This has been the case since 2000, but the Nativeness principle is still powerful. However, we discuss that a clear pronunciation is important for students and teachers a requisite for being understood and avoiding confusion. Students in four different schools, secondary and upper secondary schools, took part in our research by answering a questionnaire. We found that many students were aware of different accents, but also that students preferred the Inner Circle accents with AmE and BrE being the most popular ones. Also, we found a difference between secondary and upper secondary students where teacher influence was more important to the former and personal preferences to the latter.Keywords: Accent, pronunciation, comprehension, intelligibility, ESL, EIL, EFL, ELF, English as a Global Language

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 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.

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.