Teaching to communicate

This dissertation explores how oral communication is perceived and used by five teachers at a secondary school in Malmö. Through qualitative interviews with the teachers, this paper aims to find a deeper understanding of their view on teaching. By looking at oral communication theories, sociocultural theories, a theory on discursive space and a recent study regarding English as a subject in Swedish secondary schools, it examines how the interviewees approach teaching. Based on the results, this paper will discuss how the teachers in this study initiate meaningful oral communication and how they view their own role as promoters of an oral communicative and inclusive learning environment.The results show that the teachers’ thoughts concerning oral communication to a large extent seem to agree with the theoretical basis presented in this study. However, the teachers claim to be restricted by external factors. The results show that the teachers in this study find working with oral communication very time consuming. According to them, their lessons are too short and the classes are too big. Therefore they find it difficult to create an ideal learning environment. The teachers try to motivate and encourage their students through creating tasks that are interesting from the students’ point of view. In order to give every student the opportunity to speak, dividing them into groups during speaking activities is preferred. Furthermore, the teachers point out that the students’ personalities also are important factors to take into account, since some students are more reserved then others. Finally, the teachers aim to be supportive during oral activities, although the lack of time seems to be a restraint. They find it hard to manage their big classes and to be supportive to the individual student at the same time