ELEVERS SKRIVANDE PÅ ENGELSKA. En studie om en grupp niondeklassares syn på engelska ur ett nutida och framtida perspektiv

Abstract

The purpose of this study is to investigate a group of year 9 pupils’ views on English, with a specific focus on their views on writing, in school, in their spare time and in the future. The data consists of semi-structured interviews involving a total of eight pupils. Socio-cultural theory is used as a theoretical framework with a phenomenological approach. The background of this study is my own experience as a teacher, as well as a number of international and national comparisons of both pupils’ language ability and their attitude towards English as a language and a school subject.

The result is divided into six different categories, and shows that pupils find knowledge of English very useful, that they are able to adapt to purpose, recipient and situation and also that they mostly feel confident when using English as a means of communication. Another category deals with the issue of what kind of English these pupils use and learn in their spare time, i.e. extramural English and the digital written language known as digitalk. However, one question that has arisen from this study concerns what form and what quality of language that the future requires of these pupils and if and to what extent these issues are something they tend to reflect on.