The Swedish school system has recently been going through some larger changes, but bigger reforms already started being made in the beginning of the 1990s when the normative grading scale was replaced by a criteria-based scale. This essay discusses and analyses the transformation of upper secondary education in Sweden. Focus lies on the assessment and expectations committed in the curriculum regarding English, including a deeper analysis of oral proficiency within the subject. In order to get a sense of examinations within oral proficiency from this time-period, the study consists of a range of national course-tests, all from the Speaking part, which tests oral proficiency in English. The oral national course-tests included in the study ranges from spring 1999 to fall 2007 as well as two example test representative for tests produced after 2007 until 2014. Assessment of oral production is and has been an subject of discussion, defining the differences between the newer and older exams in contrast to the reforms of the curriculum gives more to the topic. This study finds that changes in the curriculum has had great influences on the levels sought after concerning oral proficiency within the school subject English. The changes reflect overall shifts in the perception of knowledge, both regarding acquisition and performance of language. Moreover there are noticeable changes in the status of English in Swedish schools, concerning schedule; English have seen an increase in hours of teaching, as well as an increase in overall expectations on students as global citizens. However these changes are not represented to the same extent within the national course-tests. The tests show more similarities than differences in areas of construction, preparation and time-constraints, although changes have been made, the examination of the tests are more similar than not.
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:UPSALLA1/oai:DiVA.org:umu-108031 |
| Date | January 2015 |
| Creators | Söderström, Sofia |
| Publisher | Umeå universitet, Institutionen för språkstudier |
| Source Sets | DiVA Archive at Upsalla University |
| Language | Swedish |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Student thesis, info:eu-repo/semantics/bachelorThesis, text |
| Format | application/pdf |
| Rights | info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess |
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