A Closer Look at Reading Strategies in the Swedish Syllabus for English as a Second Language : A Literature Review on Strategies for Reading in Upper Secondary School in Sweden

Abstract: Given the importance of reading in life, it is worrying that reading comprehension as well as the interest in reading among Swedish students, especially older students, have decreased during the 21st century. One way of addressing this problem is the explicit teaching of reading strategies, which has proven effective in improving reading comprehension and is supported by the revised English as a Second Language (ESL) syllabus published by the Swedish National Agency for Education (SNAE) – effective as of 1 July 2021. This systematic literature review aims to examine the reading strategies mentioned in the revised syllabus and what these can entail in practice. This is done by comparing them to reading strategies investigated in previous research and investigating the didactic and pedagogical consequences that can arise in the teaching as a result of the wording in the ESL syllabus. The results of this research review were sorted into the following categories of strategies: visualising, retelling, predicting content, posing questions, taking notes, identifying main ideas and inferencing, and associating and using prior knowledge. The results show that the wording in the ESL syllabus, as it stands, complicates interpretations for teachers, but that the strategies can be described using research independent from SNAE, somewhat facilitating the actual use of the syllabus for working teachers. It can, however, not be assumed that teachers do this with their limited time. The results also show that education among teachers on reading strategies, at least in L2, is inadequate, affecting the quality of reading strategy teaching and the reading comprehension of students. Thus, it is of importance that teachers obtain knowledge of the teaching of reading strategies, suitably during their studies at the teacher education programme. Future research could benefit from investigating the actual use of reading strategies in classrooms, comparing reading strategies in ESL to other subjects, or looking into textbooks’ use of reading strategies.