English Language Teaching on Aland in Third Grade Swedish Classrooms : Teacher Attitudes Towards Speaking English

Sammanfattning: In primary school, the teacher is often seen as a role model by their students. For this reason, it is crucial that teachers use a rich supply of English in the classroom. There are two focuses in this study. Firstly, the amount of English spoken in the classroom through teacher talk and secondly, teachers’ attitude towards speaking English in the classroom. To obtain information on these matters, classroom observations were performed, and a survey was administered examining teachers’ attitudes as well as their situational use of English versus first language in the classroom. Findings of this study showed a significant variation in the amount of English used by the teachers. Furthermore, while attitude towards and situational use of English also varied between the teachers, there were certain similarities as well. Findings revealed to be in line with previous research and suggestions for future research are proposed.