T HE AVERAGE INFORMANT ; J OAKIM

Joakim is a little bit nervous when I arrive for the interview. Because I had given not given him any detailed information of what was expected of him prior to the interview he was a little bit unsure of how this would develop. When I informed him that it was his teaching practise I was interested in he relaxed, and he became very interested in how he could be of help.

Looking at Joakim’s formal background we see that he is a highly educated teacher holding a master’s degree from a university in Norway. In addition to his formal education he has nine years of teaching experience. With regards to his language skills, they should be rather good as he has stayed one year in an English speaking country. When asked how much English he speaks in class he says that he speaks mostly English himself, however that some topics, such as for instance grammar, is taught in Norwegian. He also admits to allowing his pupils to speak some Norwegian in class.

6.2.1 What and how much is read?

When asked what and how much is read in his class, Joakim informs me that he mostly uses the texts in the textbook. The reason for this is that the purpose of the textbook is to cover the syllabus, and so, in his opinion, by sticking to the textbook he ensures that he does so too. This reliance on the textbook is to a degree where he follows the topics in it

chronologically and rarely supplements it with texts of his own choice.

When asked if they read any longer texts, he informs me that they read one novel during the year. This year he has chosen one class reader for the entire class, instead of letting them read a novel of their own choice. There are two reasons for this. One is that it is easier for him to help the pupils get through the novel if it is a novel he is familiar with himself, and the other is that a class reader makes it easier to work on the novel in class. What is somewhat paradoxical to me is that this informant later tells me that the novel is not

something they spend a lot of time on in class, the pupils mostly read at home and hand in an essay after they have finished it.

6.2.2 Reading strategies

Joakim informs me that he sees reading as an important skill. However, when I ask him whether or not he works on reading strategies in class, he says that this is not something they spend any time on. He expects that some work on reading strategies might be integrated into his teaching, however, he has no conscious plan behind or goal for this teaching.

Having found out that Joakim does not work consciously on reading strategies in class I begin to wonder whether or not he is aware of what reading strategies are. When I ask him what the term reading strategy means to him he is able to give some kind of definition of the term and mention some strategies that he himself uses when he reads. One thing I notice about Joakim when he is faced with these direct questions on reading strategies and what they are, is that although he is able to come up with a definition and mention some strategies he is very unsure of whether or not he has understood the term correctly. He keeps looking to me for confirmation on whether or not the answer is correct.

As we can see Joakim does not work a lot on reading in class. His pupils mostly read the texts in the textbook. As mentioned above, they also read one novel during the year,

however, this is not something they spend a lot of time on in class. In addition to this he does

not teach his pupils reading strategies. Based on this I think it is safe to say that reading is not a point of focus in this informant’s teaching. This is something I find strange as there is such a clear focus on reading in the LK06 syllabus. To check whether or not Joakim is aware of the increased focus on reading in this syllabus compared to the R94 syllabus I proceed to ask him how he has covered specific learning objectives for reading listed in the LK06 syllabus.

6.2.3 Reading in the LK06 syllabus

To find out whether or not my informants use the syllabus actively in planning their teaching I asked them whether or not they see reading as a suitable basic skill for English and chose four competence aims directly related to reading and asked them how they covered these in class. These aims are as mentioned above:

The pupils shall be able to

1. extract essential information from spoken and written texts and discuss the author’s attitudes and point of view

2. select appropriate listening, speaking, reading and writing strategies adapted to the purpose, situation and genre

3. read formal and informal texts in various genres and with different purposes 4. select and use content from different sources independently, critically and

responsibly (LK06 p.6)

As this informant works so little on reading in class I start by asking him whether or not he sees reading as a suitable basic skill for English. He answered that he felt that a clearer focus on reading in the syllabus is positive and that he definitely sees reading as a suitable basic skill for English. However, when asked to elaborate on this he finds it difficult to answer

why he thinks so. He mentions something about reading being important in all aspects of life and that reading can help increase the pupils’ vocabularies.

When asked about the specific objectives from the LK06 syllabus Joakim finds himself in trouble again. He finds it hard to answer how he has covered or is planning to cover them in class. He says that they do read texts and extract information from them in class. However, these are textbook texts and the way they extract information from them is by answering the questions given in the textbook for that particular text. On objective two he still maintains that reading strategies is not something he works on. Objective three is the objective he has the most trouble answering, due to problems understanding the wording of the objective. He is uncertain of what formal and informal texts are and simply answers by listing genres they have covered in class. On objective four he is much more informative. Correct use of sources is something he works a lot on with his pupils. This is important to him because he is aware that his pupils might fail the exams at the end of the year if they do not quote from and list their sources correctly.

When I ask why he works so little with reading in class he informs me that this is mostly due to a lack of time. He has 140 teaching hours and too many topics to cover so there is little time left over for reading. This puzzles me. Could it be that there really is too little time to work extensively on reading in English class? As we can see from my findings listed in the previous chapter many of my informants feel the same way. However, there is one informant that does find the time to work extensively on reading within the 140 hour time limit of the subject. I will present him in the case study below in an attempt not only to show that it is possible to find the time, but more importantly how he manages it.