Learning strategies for reading and listening in the Swedish national syllabus for English : a case study of four English language teachers' best practices

Abstract: Language learning strategies are presented in several parts of the Swedish national syllabus for English for high school and teachers are expected to both teach learning strategies and to test and grade students’ use of them. Despite supporting documents, teachers have expressed an insecurity regarding what in the Swedish national syllabus for English is referred to as “[…] strategies to assimilate and evaluate the content of spoken and written English”(Skolverket, 2011a). These issues and the split state of the field of research of language learning strategies motivate the present study, with the purpose of documenting English language teachers’ best practices regarding language learning strategies for the receptive language skills, reading and listening. Through a qualitative and interpretative analysis, the present study investigated how language learning strategies are presented and described and how Learning strategies for reading and listening can be treated in teaching, testing and assessment by examining Swedish national policy documents and interviews with four English language teachers. The results of this study suggest that learning strategies for the receptive language skills are an important part of English language teaching in the Swedish context. All of the teachers claim to work with strategies in their teaching and specific examples of how to incorporate learning strategies for reading and listening in the teaching are provided by the teachers. However, the analysis revealed that there are issues regarding the testing, assessment and grading of students’ use of strategies that arise mainly due to the interpretability of policy documents and due to the characteristics ascribed to language learning strategies. These issues affect how well equitable assessment that respects students’ educational rights can be established.