Reading Comprehension or Envisioning Literature : the discourse of literary instruction found in English lessons in Swedish Upper Secondary Schools

Reading and analyzing literature has a long tradition of being an essential part of the teaching of English in Sweden. As the offers of entertainment have increased in popular culture with the introduction of computer games, internet and other media, interest in reading novels has decreased. Literature is still a compulsory part of English teaching and the question is how teachers of today use literature and what kind of literary instruction they use. The aim of this study is to explore and discuss the literary instruction discourse in pedagogical texts, lessons, created by and for English teachers of Swedish Upper Secondary Schools. The lessons have been collected from the site lektion.se, where teachers are able to share knowledge and lessons. The study uses an analytical method based on Norman Fairclough´s Critical Discourse Analysis in order to analyze the lessons. In the analysis aspects of language, intertextuality and assumptions are discussed. As a theoretical base, Louise M. Rosenblatt´s and Judith Langer´s ideas of reader centered literary instruction is used as well as Design Theory. The result of the study shows that the overall discourse is text orientated and, with few exceptions, there is little room for students to contribute to a creative, personal experience of literature. Furthermore, it is shown that literary texts are often used as an exercise of reading comprehension and specific literary reading is scarce. The study postulates that more effort should be put into involving the students in the reading, and less effort on literary terminology