Hur läroplaners fokus på flerspråkighet och engelska språkets status påverkar elevers engelskfärdigheter : En jämförande litteraturstudie med fokus på de aktuella L2 läroplanerna i Sverige, Danmark, Finland, Frankrike och Spanien

Sammanfattning

The purpose of this study is to investigate how Sweden is among the countries with the fewest hours of English instruction in lower secondary school and yet is the country ranked among those with the highest English proficiency in Europe. The research questions that this study aims to answer are a) what knowledge is enabled in the current L2 curricula in Sweden, Denmark, Finland, France and Spain? and b) what teaching methods are used and what effect might this have on students' English proficiency? The methodology in this study is a comparative literature review using J.S. Mill's theory of The Most Similar System Design. Some results show that all countries' L2 curricula teach the same skills, convey the same values, and see communication as an important starting point for learning. However, the results show that the status of English is highest in Denmark as they are the only country advocating that students should develop their own voice and English identity. Also, a key explanatory factor to the different English proficiency outcome may be that Sweden and Denmark concentrate on meaning-focused teaching while Finland, France and Spain have more form-focused textbook teaching. This study has contributed to the field of research on L2 learning, mainly in the theoretical direction of Krashen's five language hypotheses.