The development of Swedish syllabi of English in the past 50 years

Abstract: This paper aims to analyse syllabi written for teachers of English in Sweden from 1962 up until 2000. The syllabi are placed into a matrix to provide a lucid view of the development. The syllabi used in this study are the documents published in 1962, 1980 and 2000. The paper moves on to historically acknowledge methods and approaches in language teching serves as the basis of the division made in the matrix, as well as White's (1988) classification of two types of syllabi. The study shows that the syllabi have become more and more communicative and drawn from the structural type. The teachers are still the ones in charge, but the syllabus today is more open for interpretation that the previous documents.