"What does drottningen heta?"
En studie om engelsklärares kommunikation vid engelskundervisning
Second language learningEnglish teachingEnglish teachersTeaching languageCode switchingBody languageAttitudesAndraspråksinlärningEngelskundervisningEngelsklärareUndervisningsspråkKodväxlingKroppsspråkAttityder
The aim of this study is to investigate English teachers? communication when teaching English in grade three in Swedish schools. The investigation seeks to find out what language is, and why it is, dominant and how the proportions in the teachers? uses of English and Swedish in time are distributed. The study also describes what attitudes teachers have to the English language and if, if so how, two categories of strategies, namely body language and code switching are used.The study was performed in two steps with different methods for collection of qualitative empirical data. The collection of the empirical data was carried out in structured observations and in structured interviews with four English teachers of whom two work in so called free and independent schools and two work in public schools. To obtain a complete picture of teachers? English teaching the observations were conducted first to be followed by an additional interview. The results show that two of four English teachers dominantly speak English. The teachers? motives for using English as educational language are that students need to hear the second language early to learn it. The teachers also report that code switching between Swedish and English and teaching in pupils? levels help pupils to understand are motives for using Swedish as educational language. Several English teachers find it difficult to teach in the target language and they are therefore feeling an uncertainty in teaching English.Body language is more widely used by English teachers teaching in their second language. The English teacher, who speaks more English when teaching, use body language most frequently and teachers who have Swedish as the dominant language of instruction use code switching more often. Teachers' reasoning about the use of body language and code switching are for some knowingly and some unknowingly and is used by all respondents to illustrate and clarify. The teachers believe that there are both pros and cons of using code switching. Results also show that teachers who have worked the shortest time as an English teacher and work at free schools use English in English teaching to a greater extent than teachers who have taught English some time and work at public schools.