The “Return” of Grammar: A Comparison of the Grammar Teaching in Three Swedish EFL Textbooks
2023 (English)Independent thesis Basic level (professional degree), 10 credits / 15 HE credits
Student thesis
Abstract [en]
Grammatical knowledge is often considered essential for communication. Despite this, the teaching of grammar was, for many years, not explicitly mentioned in the Swedish syllabus for English. However, when the curriculum was revised in 2021, grammar was explicitly named in the subject’s core contents. In the light of this recent change, this study aimed to investigate what grammar isincluded in Swedish EFL textbooks and the types of approaches used to teach it. To do so, we performed a content analysis of three textbooks commonly used in the Swedish upper secondary school course English 5. The analysis consisted of two parts. The first part of the study examined what grammar is included in the textbooks. For this analysis, a list of grammatical features basedon the CEFR-levels B.1 and B.2 was used as a framework to identify grammatical content in the textbooks. The second part of the study focused on the approaches to grammar teaching reflected in the textbooks. For this analysis, the concepts of ‘Focus on Form’ and ‘Focus on Forms’ wereused to categorise the approaches to grammar teaching identified in the textbooks.The results show that there is great variation in how the textbooks approach the teaching of grammar. For example, the learning materials varied in how much grammar was taught, what grammatical functions were included, as well as how these were distributed. Similarly, the overall approaches to grammar teaching differed. One textbook reflected a Focus on Form, while another displayed a Focus on Forms. The last textbook reflected a mixed approach, i.e. a combination of both a Focus on Form and Focus on Forms. Based on these results, the grammar teaching in Swedish EFL classrooms can differ greatly depending on what textbook is used. Consequently, if textbooks are to be used as a means of teaching grammar in the EFL classroom, teachers need tobe aware of how – and to what extent – textbooks differ from one another in order to effectively plan their teaching.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
2023. , p. 50
Keywords [en]
Grammar teaching, Textbook analysis, Focus on Form, Focus on Forms, English language teaching, Swedish syllabus
National Category
General Language Studies and Linguistics
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:hv:diva-19797Local ID: EXE601OAI: oai:DiVA.org:hv-19797DiVA, id: diva2:1747491
Subject / course
Educational science
Educational program
Teacher Traning Programme
Examiners
2023-04-192023-03-302023-04-19Bibliographically approved