State Control and Governance of Schooling and Their Effects on French, German, and Spanish Learning in Swedish Compulsory School, 1996–2011

Learning, teaching and assessment of second foreign languages in Swedish lower secondary school

“…Since the time when English became a compulsory subject, the status of this language has improved continuously. SFLs have a very different status, being optional in lower secondary school but compulsory in academically oriented study programs in upper secondary school (for thorough descriptions and analyses of the history and status of SFLs in Sweden, see Marklund, 1985;Tholin, 2017). For long, the two foreign languages offered in addition to English in lower secondary school were German and French, with German as the dominating option.…”

“…These were further elaborated in the revision of the language syllabuses in 2000. The ambition was to increase the number of students taking an additional FL and also to make the aims of the syllabus more attainable than before (for further information, see Skolverket, 2000;Tholin, 2017). Hence, the number of hours of SFL instruction (Modern languages) was increased by c. 25%, the learning objectives were slightly modified, and national assessment materials both of a formative and summative kind were gradually introduced, however presented as an optional, and consequently not mandatory for sch ools to use (cf.…”

“…In a recent article, Tholin (2017) discusses the current situation for SFLs in lower secondary school in relation to the efforts made at the national level to increase the number of students choosing and also completing their language studies. As reported above, steps had been taken in the 1990s to achieve this by increasing teaching time by 25% and making the learning goals more attainable.…”

“…The study shows that these changes have had very little effect, if any: The situation regarding the number of students and their achievement of syllable goals has not changed much from the time before the reforms. Tholin (2017) points at three interactive factors that may explain this: the non-existence of a central school administration in Sweden that concretizes political intentions; teachers not perceiving the reforms as important, and a gap between policy intentions and research-informed knowledge about the motives underlying students' decisions.…”

“…The situation for SFLs in Sweden seems to be characterized basically by a number of interdependent factors, which are all in some way indicators of a relatively low degree of interest for SFL at different levels of society. An important background factor at the societal level is that the Swedish school-system is decentralized, leaving full responsibility to municipalities for deciding how resources should be allocated and to schools for fulfilling the goals set in the curriculum and subject syllabuses (for discussion, see Tholin, 2017).…”