Contemporary Popular Culture for Educational Purposes – Teaching English

Abstract: The purpose of this dissertation is to examine four teachers’ of English perceptions of the use of CPCE in their teaching. When reading the control documents of the Swedish school, indications pointing towards the use of CPCE texts in teaching were found. Therefore we took an interest in finding out how teachers choose to implement CPCE in their teaching. We have combined the methods of semi structured qualitative interviews and the use of a focus group to gather the data needed. Our main findings consist of how the concept of popular culture is understood by our informants. They find the concept vast as it entails such a broad variety of texts such as TV shows, film, the Internet, magazines and literature. Teachers select appropriate CPCE materials with regards to their pupils’ preferences. However, our findings of how these materials are implemented in their teaching of English vary and are to be considered limited.