La compétence communicative, à quoi ça sert? : Interprétation et mise en pratique de la notion dans l’enseignement des langues vivantes en Suède

This thesis presents an investigation of the interpretation and application of the concept "communicative competence" in a lower secondary school in the south of Sweden. The reason for this investigation is that the author is in the teacher training programme and seeks to learn more about this important feature of language teaching. The aim is to investigate how the teachers interpret and apply, i.e. teach this oral and written competence, and what exercises the teachers estimate help the development of the communicative competence. The primary material and method of this case study consist of interviews with four teachers of modern languages.The results reveal that the teachers are well acquainted with the concept of communicative competence and that the methods applied help the students develop their oral and written competence. However, the teachers do not use the target language sufficiently, which has also been confirmed in previous research in the field. The results further reveal that the teachers find it somewhat difficult to interpret the course syllabus, especially concerning the teaching of grammar. The conclusion of this study is hence that there is a need for clearer instructions in the course syllabus, as well as more team-work between colleagues in interpreting it. Furthermore, the teachers need to use the target language more efficiently and better adapted to the students’ linguistic level in order for the students to be able to develop their ability to understand the spoken language. The results and the conclusions of this study may be of significance and interest for other teachers and education researchers