Standard English versus General American - Which Variety is Preferred in Swedish Classrooms?

Abstract

General American and Standard English are the two main varieties of English found in Swedish schools. Traditionally only Standard English has been taught, but lately General American has been taught as well. Nowadays, both varieties – General American and Standard English – are found in the Swedish National Curriculum and as a result of this, I think, problems may occur when deciding which variety to teach in the Swedish classroom. My aim with this study is to find out the attitudes of twelve EFL teachers of English towards different varieties of English, namely Standard English and General American. Furthermore, I want to find out if these attitudes are reflected in their classroom teaching as well as what their views are on students’ use of the variety of English in question. The study was carried out in two Swedish upper secondary schools located in Gothenburg and Varberg. The participants are asked to fill in a questionnaire including “alternative” and “open ended” questions. The results of my study show that the Standard English variety is more commonly used among Swedish upper secondary school teachers when teaching English, than the General American variety is. Furthermore, the teachers’ attitudes towards the varieties illustrate that Standard English is considered as “nice”, “formal”, “correct”, “intelligent”, etcetera. General American is described as being friendlier”, “young approached” and “down to earth” and so forth.