In this study, teaching is seen as a complex decision-making situation, where different factors that influence the teaching and learning process are interwoven and connected with each other. To describe and analyse the complexity of teaching literature in a foreign language instruction setting is the aim of the study. The study was conducted with one teacher participant and her group of 16–17 years old pupils in a Swedish upper secondary school, while they read a German youth novel. Data on the teacher decisions in the planning phase was collected by interviewing the teacher before the actual teaching of the novel and between lessons, while the implementation of the teacher decisions was observed during the lessons. In the interviews, four decision areas showed to be central to the teacher: teaching goals, choice of text, task formulation, and the role of freedom and control as central concepts of learner autonomy. In the analysis chapters, the decisions within these different areas are described, commented on, and contextualized within the teacher’s own teaching concepts, and within current research and theory on foreign language reading, learning, and teaching. Factors critical to the decision-making situation are identified. The findings of the study show that teaching literature employs a decision-making process of great complexity because of the subjective character of the reading process. The complexity of the process is increased by the fact that a foreign language was being taught. Even for an experienced teacher (as the teacher who was observed in the study is) teaching decisions are characterized by a complexity which her many years of teaching experience can only partly compensate for. The main goal for the teaching of the novel was formulated by the teacher as ‘reading pleasure’, a concept grounded on a previous teaching experience. Since the teacher saw tasks as an obstacle for a reading experience, the task formulation constituted a conflict for her. In the study, the structure of the conflict is described by investigating different understandings of the concepts ‘reading pleasure’ and ‘task’. A crucial question was raised: What was considered to be the most important activity of the lesson: the reading or the tasks? When the task is secondary to the reading, there is an opportunity for the learner to focus on the reading experience; an important condition for reading pleasure. When the task is considered to be the primary activity, the student’s focus is on solving the task, and the reading activity thus looses its importance when the task is fulfilled. The interpretation of teaching concepts like ‘task’ is therefore a crucial factor that influences the teacher’s decisions about the teaching. A second concept that is central to the teacher’s teaching activities is ‘learner autonomy’. Since it is a central concept in the Swedish school curriculum, learner autonomy is held in very high esteem, whilst teacher control is consequently held in very low esteem. The idealization of learner autonomy, along with insufficient explanation of its impact on the distribution of the responsibility for the learning process between teachers and pupils are seen as factors that lead to an increased complexity in the decision-making process about how to manage situations where pupils are not prepared to take on the responsibility that is given to them.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:lnu-5474 |
| Date | January 2010 |
| Creators | Marx Åberg, Angela |
| Publisher | Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk och litteratur, SOL, Växjö : Linnaeus University Press |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | German |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Doctoral thesis, monograph, info:eu-repo/semantics/doctoralThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
| Relation | Linnaeus University Dissertations ; 3/2010 |
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