Uttalets plats i undervisningen av svenska som andraspråk

This is a case study about pronunciation teaching in Swedish as a second language. The aim of this study is to compare pronunciation teaching for adults in Finland and Sweden. Data were gathered via interviews with eight teachers and observations of eight Swedish classes. The theoretical framework is language teacher cognition, which implies that we compare what teachers say with what they actually do in the classrooms. The study shows that teachers in both countries find pronunciation a central field of Swedish teaching. However, they think that they lack methods for pronunciation teaching. Most of the pronunciation teaching observed is implicit and integrated in the teaching of other elements, such as vocabulary and grammar. In Sweden, there were more examples of explicit pronunciation teaching than in Finland. In Finland, the minority position of Swedish implies certain challenges for teaching pronunciation and other aspects of the language. Overall, there was much correspondence between the interviews and the observed classes in the two countries.