This chapter reports the doctoral study Engelsk i grunnskolen: Mål og innhold (Simensen, 1988a), which includes three investigations central to the field of English didactics. The overall aim of the study was to produce knowledge about the aims and content of the English school subject in compulsory school. One central focus was to investigate to what extent there was agreement over time between ideas in selected academic disciplines, “parent disciplines”, and ideas in the school subject, as reflected in curricula, assessment documents and adapted readers as teaching materials.

This chapter reports on a doctoral study (Skulstad 1997) which examined an established and an emerging genre within a specific professional domain, using genre analysis as a theoretical and methodological framework. The doctoral thesis was put within an English for Specific Purposes (ESP) context, and the chapter explains how this study relates to the use of authentic texts, materials development and the development of vocationally oriented language learners’ genre awareness.

This chapter reports a doctoral study (Drew, 1997) which explored factors linked to student teachers’ competence to teach written English in Norwegian compulsory schools. The teaching of writing was perceived from the duality of writing competence, with a focus on form, and the perceived ability to teach writing. The results showed that student teachers’ writing only marginally developed during a one-year English teacher training course, while their perceptions of teaching written English in schools changed considerably. Implications for L2 teaching and further research are discussed.

This chapter reports from a doctoral study (Burner, 2016a) that explored teacher and student perceptions and practices of formative assessment (FA) in English writing classes. Four English teachers and their students (N=100) took part in the study. The assessment situation was analyzed using mixed methods before a plan for intervention cycles was made continuously throughout a school year. The main results, their implications for teaching English in Norway, and further research will be discussed in this chapter.

This chapter reports a PhD study (Horverak, 2016) that investigated English writing instruction practices and the effects of a genre-pedagogical approach defined as scaffolding writing instruction. The results suggest that this approach supports the students to improve their argumentative writing. The chapter discusses various aspects of writing instruction and feedback on writing, and concludes by advocating the need for a coherent model for teaching writing in English teacher programmes.

This chapter presents a doctoral study (Wold, 2017) that investigated L1 Norwegian learners’ use of the English progressive aspect (BE + V-ing). While the construction is consistently overused, results indicate that Norwegian learners to some extent are sensitive to which verb meanings are most compatible with the progressive. The chapter discusses how such learner usage could be addressed by Norwegian teachers.

This chapter summarizes a doctoral study (Lund, 2003) that investigated teachers of English in Norwegian Senior High schools and their use of Information and Communication Technologies (ICT). The aim was to examine how teachers perceive the impact of ICT on their school subject, how they practiced in technology-rich environments, and how they appropriated ICTs to transform and expand their practices. The conceptual framework and theoretical perspective guiding the analysis were drawn from sociocultural perspectives and especially Cultural-Historical Activity Theory. The chapter discusses current and future issues related to teaching English in technology-rich and networked environments.

This chapter reports a doctoral study (Røkenes, 2016b) which investigated English as a Second Language (ESL) student teachers’ development of digital competence in a Norwegian secondary teacher education context. Results show that ESL student teachers might be digitally confident, but lack knowledge and awareness of how to use information and communications technology (ICT) didactically to support pupils’ learning in English. Implications and further research for professional digital competence (PDC) development in ESL for Norwegian teacher education are discussed.

This quantitative study used an International English Language Testing System (IELTS) Reading Module to examine the academic English reading proficiency of Norwegian upper secondary and university students. About 66% of the senior upper secondary school students scored below IELTS Band 6 compared to 32% of the university students. Their problems were due to slow reading for detail and poor vocabulary. Implications for teaching and further research are discussed.

This chapter reports a doctoral study (Brevik, 2015) that investigated the practices involved in developing reading comprehension in English as a second language in upper secondary school; focusing specifically on reading strategy instruction and use. The chapter describes how strategies were taught and used markedly differently in general and vocational study programmes, and addresses recent developments related to reading comprehension instruction across contexts in Norway, with suggestions for further research.

This chapter reports a doctoral study (Charboneau, 2016) that investigated the use of four approaches to EFL reading instruction in Norwegian 4^th–5^th grades. The study used a mixed-methods approach comprising a questionnaire sent to teachers throughout Norway and a case study of four schools. The results suggest it was challenging to provide differentiated teaching to meet students’ abilities and needs. The chapter discusses implications for EFL reading instruction, and suggestions for future research.

This chapter reports a doctoral study (Lund, 2007) that investigated four English textbook series for lower secondary school, published 1997–1999. The 1997 national curriculum introduced new perspectives on the role of cultural questions for teaching and learning English. The chapter describes how textbooks followed up these ideas only to a limited degree. It also describes recent developments related to questions of context and culture in foreign language education, and suggests further research.

This chapter reports a doctoral study (Wiland, 2007) that investigates the experience of poetry reading in English and aims at revealing what foreign language students experience cognitively and affectively when they read a poem for the first time. By applying an experimental slow line-by-line reading method, the assumption is that the readers will document more thoughts and feelings than when conventional approaches are used. The chapter discusses some of the implications of this research.

In this chapter, the results of a doctoral study (Larsen, 2009) of thematic content in Nordic pupil narratives in EFL²The term EFL was used in the doctoral thesis on which the present chapter is based and is therefore used throughout, even if it has often been replaced by the term ESL in more recent research. are presented. A literary analysis of pupil texts focussing on intertextual references was applied. The findings suggest that the pupils’ narratives formed a discourse in which these narratives explored the power aspects of the parent–child relationship, rebelled against teachers, and ridiculed the perfectionism ideals of popular culture. Implications for teaching English in Norway and suggestions for further research will also be discussed.

This chapter summarises a doctoral study (Munden, 2010) that describes, compares and explains how student teachers make sense of literature. The twenty-two participants were student teachers of English in either Norway or Eritrea. They first wrote answers to a questionnaire and then to assignments based on three literary texts. How and what they wrote provides insight into their cultural and academic expectations and socialisation, both as members of an interpretive community and as individuals. These insights can contribute to raising English teachers’ awareness of how differently learners make sense of texts in their own classrooms.

This chapter reports a doctoral study (Rindal, 2013) that investigated L2 practices in a English language teaching (ELT) context using a theoretical and methodological framework at the intersection of linguistics and education. The results suggest that Norwegian learners can express local and individual identity through English. The chapter discusses the implications of such L2 social meanings for the teaching of English in Norway, and presents suggestions for future research.

This chapter reports a PhD study (Dahl, 2014) on the effects of English target language input in Norwegian first-grade classrooms, comparing three learner groups with different volumes of input. The results highlight the role of input for acquisition, showing that with sufficient exposure, development in a foreign language can be rapid and similar to other forms of second language acquisition. Overall contributions and practical implications of the study to the field of English teaching are presented.

In this chapter, the research design of and main findings from Bøhn’s (2016) doctoral study are presented. The study used educational and psychological measurement theory and a mainly qualitative methodological approach to investigate teachers’ understanding of what should be assessed in an oral exam in English in Norway. The findings indicated that the teachers generally agreed on the main aspects of student performance to be assessed, but disagree more on the more narrowly defined aspects. On the basis of the results the chapter discusses implications for oral assessment in English language teaching and possible avenues for further research.

The PhD study reported here examined the design of a part-time, one-year, blended-mode in-service English teacher education course and its impact on the development of thirty-three experienced primary school teachers. While the teachers became more confident and competent, insufficient opportunities for oral English practice and teacher collaboration were design weaknesses. The chapter includes a discussion of implications for English teaching and design of comparable courses, providing suggestions for future research.