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English Teachers´Views on the Use of the Target Language in the Classroom

In our ever more international world, the English language plays an important role. This is also reflected in its prominent position as a core subject in the Swedish school system. It is therefore important that English teachers offer students an environment in which they have the best possible opportunities to be successful in reaching the goals specified in the syllabuses. One variable in a successful foreign language classroom is the teacher's usage ofthe target language. This study is about English teachers' views on the issue of target language usage in the classroom, versus usage of the mother tongue. In this study, at Upper Secondary level, the interviews show that the teachers are, more or less, in agreement that the target language should be used all the time in the classroom. There are, however, occasions in which the interviewed teachers do not work according to their own beliefs and methods and revert to using Swedish. The main such occasions can briefly be said to be: explanation of grammar, non-subject related "mentor's issues" and classroom management issues. In addition, this study argues that the governing documents, previous research, as well as well-known theories on the subject support a high usage of the target language by the teacher.

Identiferoai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:hh-1388
Date January 2007
CreatorsSjöberg, Helén
PublisherHögskolan i Halmstad, Sektionen för lärarutbildning (LUT), Högskolan i Halmstad/Sektionen för lärarutbildning (LUT)
Source SetsDiVA Archive at Upsalla University
LanguageEnglish
Detected LanguageEnglish
TypeStudent thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text
Formatapplication/pdf
Rightsinfo:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess

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