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ABSTRACT
The Swedish educational policy for upper secondary English, which took effect in 2011 and adopts a globalised perspective on language, is explored with respect to how skills and awareness related to local, national, and international roles of English are represented in policy documents. A discourse analytic approach to language policy is used to offer a critical reading of the national syllabus for English, the accompanying guide and commentary on the syllabus, and the general upper secondary curriculum. Analysis, informed by the work of Robert Phillipson, shows how English is represented with respect to the specific functions it serves as a lingua cultura (a language indexing socially situated value systems), a lingua emotiva (a language of popular culture and entertainment), a lingua academica (a language of research, teaching, and learning), a lingua economica (a language of market forces and globalisation), and a lingua tyrannosaura (a language of power or threat). The findings show that sociocultural and sociopolitical dimensions are identified in the syllabus for English to a greater extent than academic and professional/vocational dimensions of English which are treated in more detail in the general upper secondary curriculum and that the relationship between plurilingualism and English is minimally addressed but nascent.
Acknowledgments
I am grateful to Jasone Cenoz and other participants of the Donostia Lectures on Multilingualism and Education series for their comments when I presented an earlier version of this paper at the University of the Basque Country. I also thank Robert Phillipson for his feedback on a previous draft.
Disclosure statement
No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.
Notes
1. There are three levels of upper secondary English: English 5, English 6, and English 7. They correspond roughly to the three years of upper secondary education (years 10, 11, and 12); however, depending on the school and program there is not always a one-to-one correspondence between level of English and year of education.
2. The national syllabus for English and the general upper secondary curriculum are available in Swedish and English while the commentary on the syllabus (Skolverket, Citation2011b) is available only in Swedish. Accordingly, English translations of the latter are my own, and the English translations given for the two former documents are from Skolverket’s English versions (Skolverket, Citation2011a; Gy Citation2011b, respectively).
3. Skills related to strategic competence that would also be relevant for intercultural communication are included, such as adjusting language to interlocutors or adapting language to different contexts and situations.
4. Since it is an extensive document and pagination between the English and Swedish versions vary considerably, page numbers to the Swedish-language version of Gy 2011 are given with page numbers to the English version specified here in notes. This translation is from the English version of Gy Citation2011b (p. 82).
5. As translated in Gy Citation2011b (p. 26).
6. The six thematic college preparatory programs are arts, economics, humanities, natural science, social science, and technology.
7. As translated in Gy Citation2011b (p. 125).
8. As translated in Gy Citation2011b (p. 137).
9. As translated in Gy Citation2011b (p. 95).
10. The 12 thematic vocational programs are building and construction, business and administration, child and recreation, electricity and energy, handicraft, health and social care, hotel and tourism, HVAC [heating, ventilation, and air conditioning] and property maintenance, industrial technology, natural resource use, restaurant management and food, and vehicle and transport. Detailed descriptions about the role of English is provided for all except child and recreation and natural resource use.