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English Language Education in the Swedish Compulsory School

Article in Foreign Language Annals · December 2008

DOI: 10.1111/j.1944-9720.1999.tb02394.x

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 English Language Education in the
Swedish Compulsory School
E. G. Kim-Rivera
University of Texas

ABSTRACT In the 1960s, Sweden instituted educational reforms with the intent to create a citi-
zenry bilingual in Swedish and English. Today, ordinary Swedes in everyday situations speak
English with a high level o f communicative competence. A number o f social and affectivefac-
tors have brought about this result. This article focuses on English language education in the
Swedish compulsory school, where the framework and foundation for the achievement o f Eng-
lish fluency is established, Oral skills and the practical aspects o f English learning are empha-
sized in the compulsory school cum‘culum. In class, pupils are encouraged to speak and their
reading and writing competence is aided by the functional approach to English teaching.
Introduction tary school, it is pertinent and timely to make
In 1993 the Swedish population was officially attempts to understand why European coun-
estimated at 8.7 million. Until the 1950s the tries are often more successful at teaching for-
Swedish population was ethnically homoge- eign languages. This article will examine
neous, but today the number of immigrants English language education in compulsory
and their children has reached 1 million. The schools in Sweden, a country recognized as
Swedish language is spoken by the majority of having exceptional success in teaching Eng-
the population and it is also the first language lish.
of approximately 300,000 Finns (Orpet 1984).
Since the early Twentieth Century, Sweden English Language Education in the
has enjoyed political stability, high economic Compulsory School
growth, and a relatively conflict-free labor
market. When judged in terms of Gross Do- CompulsorySchool
mestic Product (GDP) per capita, it is consis Swedish children’s formal education con-
tently ranked as one of the wealthiest sists of a nine-year compulsory school and a
countries in the world. voluntary uppersecondary school. The com-
In the 1960s, Sweden launched an impres- pulsory school is usually for children between
sive educational reform with the ultimate goal the ages of seven and sixteen. However, since
of creating a nation bilingual in Swedish and 1991 it has been possible for children to begin
English (Anderman 1974). Today the Swedes school at the age of six if the parents prefer and
have achieved a high standard of English flu- if the municipality is able to accommodate
ency. A large number of ordinary people in such need. Seven and four-tenths percent of
ordinary jobs and circumstances speak rela- all first graders were six years old or younger in
tively fluent English (Orpet 1984). As Ameri- 1995 (EURYDICE and CEDEFOP 1998).
cans show increased interest in foreign Compulsory schooling was introduced in
language education, especially in the elemen- Sweden in 1842 and the system has been con-
tinuously revised since the 1940s. The current
nine-year compulsory comprehensive school
E.G. Kirn-Rivera is a Ph.D. candidate of Applied was adopted by the Swedish parliament (Riks-
Linguistics, Foreign Language Education at the dag) in 1962 and implemented in 1973. “Com-
University of Texas, Austin. prehensive education” is based on the

Foreign Language Annals, 32, No. 2, 1999

 FOREIGN LANGUAGE A " U 4 U M M E R 1999
ideology that children with a variety of social
backgrounds, experiences, and cultures
should be educated together and receive the
same high-quality schooling. Compulsory
schools include compulsory basic school
@rundskolun),school for the Sami peoples of
northern Sweden (sumeskolan), special
school for children with impaired vision, hear-
ing, and speech (speciulskolan),and compul-
sory school for mentally disabled children
(~Zirskolan).Practically all students attend
state compulsory schools, and only 2 percent
go to private schools.
In Sweden, curricula, national objectives,
and guidelines for state education are deter-
mined by the parliament and the government.
The National Agency for Education (Skoluer-
ket) is responsible for the development, eval-
uation, follow-up, and supervision of state
schooling and is required to give a report on
the general status of state schooling to parlia-
ment and the government every three years.
In December 1993, the Swedish parliament
approved legislation for new curricular guide
lines for the entire educational system. Under
the new National Curriculum (Idroplan),com-
pulsory schools underwent major reform, r e
sulting in wide-ranging changes in the
cumculum, syllabi, and time-schedules. The
new national syllabi specify objectives for
each subject which are to be fulfilled by the
end of the fifth and ninth year of compulsory
school. This requirement has made it possible
to evaluate nationwide scholastic achieve-
ment after the fifth year. In addition, the
school system is moving toward decentraliza-
tion, and it is possible for each school to out-
line its own curriculum.
Within the national goals and guidelines,
municipalities are able to decide the way their
schools should be run. The headmasters of
compulsory schools are responsible for de-
signing a working plan based on the national
curriculum and syllabus in cooperation with
teachers and other staff. The participation of
students, parents, and parent associations is
also encouraged in the decision-making
process. However, teachers enjoy great free
dom in planning their teaching and in choos-
235
ing teaching methods, and it is ultimately their
responsibility to develop the approach and
working methods that best suit them and their
students.
The 40-week Swedish academic year is di-
vided into two terms: the fall term, which runs
from the end of August to the end of Decem-
ber, and the spring term, which runs from the
beginning of January to the beginning of June.
Students attend school five days a week, from
Monday to Friday. Mandatory attendance is a
minimum of 178 days (a maximum of 190
days) per year and eight hours per day (six
hours in the first two grades) (EURYDICE and
CEDEFOP 1998). At least once a term, the
teacher, student and parents meet to discuss
the student's progress and to decide how to
best assist in the development of the student's
academic skills:
An average of 25 students are in one class,
but the actual student-teacher ratio is much
lower due to the increase in teachers' in-
volvement with small groups or individual
students. Tuition is free in state schools.
Teaching materials, school meals, health
care, and school transport are also provided
free of charge. The annual cost for a com-
pulsory-school student in 1989-90 was re-
ported to be US $7,600, and this cost is
equally shared by the state and the munici-
pality. According to World Bank statistics,
Swedish school systems are the most expen-
sive in the world. (Marklund 1994)
English Cumculum
English is a mandatory subject in the com-
pulsory school. When the new National Cur-
riculum was introduced in 1995, each local
school authority was given the freedom to d e
cide when its students begin English instruc-
tion. Thus, in some regions children may start
learning English in the 4th grade while in oth-
ers they may begin as early as the 1st grade:
The main goal of English teaching in the
compulsoty school is to develop children's
proficiency in their oral skills; that is, the stu-
dents' ability to understand and make thern-
 FOREIGN LANGUAGE A N N A J S ~ U M M E R 1999

selves understood in spoken English. This Teaching should be based on the contents
view of the primacy of functional oral skills being meaningful and interesting...It is es-
is shared by both teachers and students. (0s- sential in the early stages of teaching English
carson 1995) to try to capture the pupils' interest and cu-
riosity even outside the world of the
Another important aspect of English teach- school.. .Pronunciation is an important part
ing is that English is treated as a world lan- of language communication.. .Knowledge of
guage. In class, students are exposed to the everyday life, history, geography, social
English as it is spoken in New Zealand, Aus- conditions and religions of English speaking
tralia, Kenya, Ghana, and lndia as well as the countries are of value in themselves.
United States and Britain. This emphasis is (Swedish Ministry of Education and Science
based on the belief that knowledge of the Eng- 1995)
lish language will make it possible for chil-
dren to communicate with people of different In 1995 the Swedish parliament laid out a
backgrounds. new timetable which determined the mini-
The 1995 English syllabus for the compul- mum number of hours in each subject that a
sory school articulates two significant ele- student is entitled to teacher-supervised in-
ments of English teaching: communicative struction. Municipalities have the freedom to
language skills and intercultural understand- implement a more extensive timetable, with
ing. Part of the syllabus reads: the only restriction that the school administer
assessments at the end of the fifth and ninth
Being able to communicate in the target lan- year.
guage is a focal point of language learning. In this new timetable, additional instruc-

TABLE 1
Timetable for Curriculum
("he teaching hours for subjects over the 9 yeam of compulsory SchooI)

Subject Hours as of 1 July 1995

Min. hours

Art Education 230

Domestic Science 118
Physical and Health Education 460
Music 230
Crafts 282
Swedish 1,490
English 480
Mathematics 900
Geography, History, Religion, Social Sciences 885
Biology, Physics, Chemistry, Technology 800
Foreign Language 320
Pupils' Choice 470
Total 6,665
Whereof choice of school (locally decided) 410
(EURYDICE and CEDEFOP 1998)

236
tional time was allotted to second foreign lan-
guage courses. Although the hours can be
moved from subject to subject depending on
the school policy, it is not allowed to reduce
the number of hours prescribed to Swedish,
mathematics, and English. According to the
new cumculum, schools have more freedom
to decide the grade in which their students
begin to study the languages of their choice.
Normally students choose either a second for-
eign language or an alternative when entering
grade 6. Second foreign languages include
German, French, Spanish, Finnish, Lappish
and others; alternatives are the student’s
home language, Swedish as a second lan-
guage, Swedish, English, and Sign Language.
The most common choice of second lan-
guage is German, in which 33 percent of all
sixth graders enroll (JorsZter 1997).
Methods of Teaching
Foreign language teachers in Sweden are
provided with guidelines for their teaching,
but guidance on teaching methods is not spe-
cific. As a result, teachers have a substantial
amount of freedom in their instruction. Eng-
lish teaching aims to develop four language
skills: oral proficiency; listening comprehen-
sion; reading comprehension; and written
proficiency.
Oral Proficiency and Listening Comprehen-
sion. In class, students are encouraged to
speak in English while instructions are given
in the target language. English teaching at the
lower levels targets listening comprehension
and oral practice as the most important skills.
In grades 1-3 (figstadium), children practice
words, phrases, and grammatical patterns of
simple spoken English. They talk about them-
selves in simple forms of language, such as by
saying their names, singing songs, playing
games, and creating rhymes. Children’s phys-
ical participation is encouraged through sim-
ple exercises. There are two main types of
oral exercises practiced at the lower grades:
fixed oral exercise, in which the teacher asks
a question that has only one correct answer,
and substitution exercise, in which students
substitute a word with another word of the
237
same part of speech in a sentence.
In the middle levels (grades 4-6; Mellansta-
dium), students listen to interviews with native
speakers and stories in order to develop lis-
tening comprehension. They practice easy
conversation to get information and to say
what they need or want. Exercises that are
practiced in these levels consist of simple role
plays, storytelling, descriptions or explana-
tions of things, games, and songs.
In the higher grades (7-9; Hogstadium),au-
thentic or produced recorded materials are
used for listening comprehension. Students
practice role plays and interviews and partici-
pate in discussion, singing, and music. They
engage in free conversation exercises, the aim
of which is to strengthen students’ ability to
fully express themselves in English. For ex-
ample, in one exercise, the student is given a
picture in which a dramatic incident is de-
picted and asked to describe what he or she
thinks is taking place. The grammatical struc-
tures are introduced to the students through
systematic exercises. In the early stages, these
exercises are strictly oral; only later are they
incorporated with written practice. Unfamil-
iar structures are always presented with thor-
oughly familiar vocabulary (Anderman 1974).
Reading Comprehension. At the beginning
level, English texts are presented with pic-
tures, and the teacher spends only a small por-
tion of the lesson on reading practice.
Reading at the beginning level is done in c h o
rus. In the lower grades, only the words that
students are already familiar with are pre-
sented in reading, while at the higher levels
authentic texts, such as newspaper articles
and books, are used for reading comprehen-
sion. Reading is not used as a medium for cre-
ating literary essays or for grammatical
explanations but has a purpose in itself; that
is, it is done for pleasure or to get specific in-
formation. Generally, the emphasis is on gist
comprehension, while translation of passages
is rarely done.
Written Proficiency. Teachers are careful
when making the transition from spoken to
written English and do so only when they are
confident that the students are completely fa-
 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS4UMMER 1999

miliar with the meanings of the words to be Assessment and Achievement

presented. While writing is not generally prac- The Swedish national syllabus for the sub-
ticed in the lower grades, middle-level stu- ject of English stipulates the level of achieve-
dents practice spelling by copying and writing ment that students should attain at the end of
simple messages and short letters. In the the fifth and ninth year:
higher grades they write about what they have
read and discussed and practice functional Targets That Pupils Should Have
writing exercises, such as writing messages A w e d by the End of the Fifth Year in
and letters. Students also practice “free writ- School
ing,” such as writing one’s own stories or di-
aries and copying word lists and passages Pupils should:
from the textbook.
English lessons are conducted in the target
-
understand clear and simple speech and
be able to take part in simple conversa-
language, although teachers are prepared to tions;
use Swedish if necessary. Giota (1995) re- * be able to read and understand simple
ported in her survey study that 50 percent of narratives and descriptions;
the students indicated that the teacher almost * be able to make themselves understood in
always spoke in English during lessons while writing, e.g., simple messages;
another 12 percent said the teacher only -
know something about living conditions
spoke in English during lessons. in English speaking countries.

Teaching Materials
English teaching materials in the compul- Targets That Pupils Should Have
sory school include the basic textbook, s u p Attained by the End of the Ninth Year in
plementary booklets, and audio-visual School
materials such as film strips, slides, and tape
recordings. Texts are studied in two ways. Pupils should:
The first way is through intensive study, and its - understand standard British and American
purpose is to gain thorough understanding of speech;
the content and to acquire new vocabulary - be able to actively take part in conversa-
and grammatical knowledge. Students use tions on everyday subjects and familiar
the basic textbook in this manner in class. Ex- events in simple language;
tensive study is done individually, and its pur- - be able to verbally relate something which
pose is to enable the student to understand they have heard, read or experienced;
the content as a whole and extract important * be able to read and understand the con-
facts. Supplementary booklets, which contain tents of narrative and descriptive texts as
texts of simpler content and few unknown well as extract facts from a text;
words, are used for extensive study. This ad- - be able to formulate themselves in writing
ditional study provides students with an op- in simple forms, e.g., messages and letters;
portunity to develop their potential at their - have general knowledge about social con-
own pace. Among supplementary booklets, ditions, cultural conditions, and ways of
exercise books are available for practice of living in English- speaking countries;
grammatical structures and vocabulary that - be accustomed to using dictionaries and
students encounter in the main textbook. grammar reference works as aids when
Short stories are used to develop students’ in- reading and writing on their own.
terest in reading on their own in English and
to provide detailed information of specific There are no final examinations in Swedish
subjects. In addition, teachers make exten- schools. Achievement-related final awards
sive use of tape recorders in class. are given in the ninth year of compulsory

238
 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALS-SUMMER 1999
school. These awards are based on a three-
point scale: G Cgodkund) for a pass, VG (uul
godkund) for a pass with distinction and, the
highest grade, MVG (mycket udl godkand) for
a pass with special distinction. Subject teach-
ers award these grades on the basis of
students’ performances throughout their
school years. In their English assessment,
teachers are required to consider all aspects
of the students’ performance in terms of oral
proficiency, comprehension, and written pro-
ficiency. Thus, teachers are encouraged to
keep a record of students’ work in these areas.
Municipal schools administer national tests
in English, Swedish, and mathematics at the
end of the fifth and ninth year. The tests at the
end of the fifth year, however, are voluntary.
The National Agency for Education provides
the central testing service, in which objective
testing methods and a rigid marking system
are applied. The tests are considered guide-
lines for each teacher to compare the achieve-
ment of his or her students with that of the
general population. The aims of the tests are
not to judge the students’ performance on the
subject but to assist teachers in assessing the
overall performance of the class. Another
way to compare the standard of English teach-
ing is “teachers’ day,” when teachers of the
same subject gather to discuss teaching mat-
ters and methods.
An assessment of achievement in foreign
languages that involved more than 20,000 Sec-
ond, Fifth, and Ninth graders (Oscarson 1995)
showed an overall high level of achievement
in English skills. According to the assessment,
the goals prescribed by the National Curricu-
lum were achieved by an overwhelming ma-
jority of the learners. Students in general
attained relatively high levels of listening and
reading comprehension. In addition, the ma-
jority possessed welldeveloped speaking and
writing skills, although many showed weak-
ness in mastery of grammar. The students
showed confidence in their oral communica-
tive skills in everyday language use, and this
confidence was supported by teachers’ corre-
sponding assessments. However, the survey
study reported a broad variation in the com-
239
petence levels of the students.
Giota’s 1995 study showed that approxi-
mately a third of the students believed they
understood only a few English words and
phrases before entering school. However, at
the time of the survey, 80 percent felt they un-
derstood most or all of what their teacher said
in English. When asked where they felt they
had learned most of the English they knew, 55
percent of them answered ‘mainly in school’
and 30 percent said ‘almost totally in school.’
Only 15 percent of them answered that they
had learned as much English outside class as
in class. Balke (1991) reported that 90 per-
cent of the surveyed students achieved a
basic level of proficiency in all four skills.
Teachers
A large majority of teachers of English are
Swedish speakers who are trained and quali-
fied as teachers within the Swedish school sys-
tem. There are only a few native English
speakers within the system, due to the fact
that it is difficult for foreign nationalities to be
qualified as language teachers in Sweden. It
is often the case that language teachers are re-
quired to teach two foreign languages, or a
foreign language and one other subject. A
large number of native English speakers are,
however, teaching English in other educa-
tional organizations where no qualifications
are officially required.
Compulsory school teachers are trained ei-
ther in universities, such as Lund, Uppsala,
Stockholm, and Goteborg, or in university col-
leges, such as Karlstad and Orebro. There,
they are trained in one of two programs:
Teachers for grades 1-7 attend three-and-a-half
years to four years of programs of study, and
teachers for grades 4-9 attend four to five years
of programs. English teachers in the higher
grades are required to earn university qualifi-
cations in at least two subjects, and super-
vised teaching practice is required in all
teacher training. The main emphasis of the
teaching practice is on the improvement of
the trainees’ oral performance.
In-Service Training. Swedish municipalities
have the responsibility to provide in-service
 FOREIGN LANGUAGE A"ALS--SUMMER 1999
training for the teachers. The National Agency
for Education ensures that inservice training
courses are available nationwide. Until the
mid 1970s, it was considered entirely accept-
able for teachers to participate in inservice
training courses by sacrificing their holidays.
Language teachers often attended training
courses organized by Swedish organizations
in other European countries. Some of these
courses were subsidized, but in most cases
participating teachers paid for themselves, as
they still do today. Today, training courses,
which are paid for by the municipalities-the
employers of the teachers-normally take
place during the academic year. Universities
and colleges offer training courses that last
from one week to twenty weeks. Balke (1991)
reported, however, that few of the compulsory
school teachers surveyed had actually at-
tended inservice training courses. In Oscar-
son's study (1995), the teachers expressed a
great need for inservice training. They were
particularly interested in recent lexical and
structural development of the target language
and sociocultural circumstances in the target
language countries.
English Outside the Classroom
English is by far the most widely used for-
eign language in Sweden. Traditionally Ger-
man had been the second language in
Sweden until the end of World War 11, but Eng-
lish quickly became the major second lan-
guage in the 1950s. Today Swedish children
are widely exposed to English outside school.
Young children have contact with English b e
fore schooI age, particularly through English
programs on TV. About half of the TV pro-
grams in Sweden are imported from other
countries and of them, English programs tend
to be the most popular. The majority of chil-
dren watch English TV programs with subti-
tles. Movies in English are rarely dubbed and
usually subtitled, except for those for young
children. English-language movies are
watched by a high number of Swedes. Videos
are also popular and the majority of them are
available in English. In addition, a consider-
able amount of popular music in English is
played on Swedish radio programs. American
or English groups are popular, and most
Swedish bands produce at least some of their
songs in English. Furthermore, children also
use the computer and play computer games
in English.
It is common for students in higher grades
(7-9) to go abroad for summer classes. They
usually go to Britain and the United States for
English language courses; this practice is not
as common for lower grade students. A 1989
survey of fifth graders (Giota 1995) showed
that only a few of the students (16 percent)
had visited an Englishspeaking country and
had done so for less than four weeks of their
vacation. Although their English-language ac-
tivities in free time involved a variety of listen-
ing, speaking, reading, and writing activities,
the most frequent were listening activities
such as watching TV and listening to music.
They also engaged in activities such as writing
letters, reading comics and books, and speak-
ing English with English speakers or their fam-
ily members, but with less frequency.
Motivation and Attitudes
Swedish children are taught to see a value
in the use of the English language in school.
Oscarson (1995) reported that most of the
children surveyed had positive attitudes to-
ward English, with 20 percent of them having
a very positive attitude. Ninetysix percent of
them stated that they expected to use what
they learned in English classes.
According to Giota's 1995 study, almost all
the students felt their English comprehension
and speaking skills in class were good or very
good. Nearly all of them believed that it was
important for Swedes to know English. They
regarded speaking English as the most impor-
tant element of English use outside school
and comprehension of spoken English as the
second most important. About 80 percent of
them said they enjoyed speaking English in
class.
In the same study, 63 percent of the fifth
graders surveyed indicated that English is
compulsory in school because it is a world
language and that their motive for learning
240
 FOREIGN LANGUAGE A " A U 4 U M M E R 1999
English is to communicate in English and un-
derstand other cultures. Thirty percent stated
that they learn English because it will be of
use to them. Only 7 percent had a negative at-
titude toward learning English; this minority
indicated that they learn English in school be-
cause an authority has decided they should.
These students showed consistently lower lev-
els of performance than other students on the
given achievement tests. Balke (1991) re-
ported that students, in general, have a posi-
tive attitude towards the use of English and
have confidence in their use of English in real-
life situations.
Discussion and Conclusions
The Swedes have achieved a remarkable
standard of English over the last few decades.
Social atmosphere and affective factors have
played important roles in their achievement.
The use of English is widespread in today's
Swedish society: people are exposed to the
language in almost every aspect of their daily
lives. The society has put great emphasis on
the use of English. For the most part, children
have a strong motivation to learn English and
have a positive attitude toward the language
and its use.
However, the most important factor for sec-
ond/foreign language educators and re-
searchers to consider should be the Swedes'
impressive educational efforts toward the cre-
ation of a nation bilingual in Swedish and
English. Young children enter compulsory
school with the knowledge of only a few Eng-
lish words and phrases, but a large number of
them grow to function as English speakers
with a high level of communicative compe-
tence.
It is important to note that English is taught
for practical purposes in Swedish schools.
The English curriculum emphasizes the im-
portance of English oral skill acquisition and
English as a world language. In class, students
are encouraged to produce oral output in
English while instructions are given in the tar-
get language. They are exposed to English of
different regions and are encouraged to see
the value of learning other languages through
24 1
the ability to understand and communicate
with people of different cultures. It is also im-
portant to note that reading is not used as a ve-
hicle to teach or explain grammatical points
or for other purposes. It is practiced for plea-
sure or for the student's search for specific in-
formation. In addition, functional writing
exercises, such as writing messages and let-
ters, are emphasized.
The new National Curriculum has made it
possible for young students to start learning
English in the first grade. Considering the fact
that early exposure to a language promotes
easier acquisition of the language, this is an-
other educationally sound move that the
Swedes have taken.
This article has attempted to give an outline
of English language education in Swedish
compulsory schools, but there are obvious
limits in overview articles such as this one. It
is strongly recommended that further exten-
sive research be conducted on each category
dealt with in the article, such as the curricu-
lum, specific teaching methods and materials,
scholastic assessment, and teacher prepara-
tion and training. It is the author's belief that
foreign language educators can greatly b e n e
fit from the knowledge of Swedes' successful
efforts in the teaching of English.
Finally, it is unfortunate that less-advan-
taged researchers with limited or no Swedish
skills find it difficult to access the literature
that the Swedes have produced in the field of
second-language acquisition because of its
unavailability in languages other than
Swedish. Swedes have achieved a great level
of success in the teaching of English and other
foreign languages. It is likely that they will
contribute to the field of second-language ed-
ucation once their research and its applica-
tions are shared by others.
ACKNOWLEDGMENT
I would like to thank Elaine K. Horwitz
of Foreign Language Education, University
of Texas at Austin, and Pia Kohlmyr of the
Department of English and Mats Oscarson of
the Department of Education, Goteborgs Uni-
versitet, Sweden, for their helpful comments
 FOREIGN LANGUAGE ANNALSAUMMER 1999
on an earlier draft of this article.
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