Teaching L2 grammar : A study of teachers’ beliefs on frequency, methods and approaches of teaching English grammar in Swedish schools.

Abstract: The aim of this thesis was to study English teachers' approaches, methods and beliefs that link to teaching grammar to students in Sweden. The research has revolved around how frequently grammar is taught, what approaches are used and what methods are favored by English teachers in Swedish secondary and upper secondary schools. The respondents were 51 teachers recruited through a convenient sampling in the Facebook group “Nätverk för lärare i engelska”. The study used a mixed method with a survey as the data collection instrument. The results show that English teachers in secondary schools and upper secondary schools in Sweden occasionally use grammar teaching. On a four-grade scale ranging from Very Occasionally to Very Often the mean response was 2.36. In terms of preferred approach, the results indicated that a planned approach was preferred by a small margin. These results are in contradiction to previous research on English grammar teaching in Sweden which shows that teachers prefer an incidental approach to grammar teaching. The present study indicates that teachers favored interactive methods of grammar teaching. The two most favored methods were the Task-Based method where students complete tasks in pairs or groups, and the Communicative Language Teaching where students learn through discussions. Analyzing teachers’ beliefs on grammar teaching, the present study focused on the open-ended questions in the survey. The responses indicated that context to grammar teaching is extremely vital according to the teachers who responded to the survey. As previously mentioned, the present study contradicts previous studies in terms of preferred approach to grammar teaching. However, the present study coincides with previous research in terms of preferred methods both in international research but also in Sweden specifically, which is that teachers prefer interactive methods of grammar teaching that involve inductive learning.