1. English in Scandinavia: Monster or Mate? Sweden as a Case Study

Abstract

. When I left the room the little princess was lying on her mother’s breast and seemed to be very cosy]The use of English catchphrases and idioms in an otherwise Swedish lan-guage frame is not unusual and it is no exaggeration to say that English plays a significant role in contemporary Scandinavia. The following areas of use at least can be distinguished: (1) English taught as a school subject; (2) English used as a lingua franca; (3) English in certain domains; (4) English as an act of identity; and (5) English in the linguistic landscape.The term ‘Scandinavia’ is used in this chapter as shorthand for Denmark, Norway and Sweden (where Scandinavian languages are spoken) as well as for Finland (which is part of the Scandinavian peninsula together with Sweden and Norway). English is taught as a mandatory subject in schools throughout Scandinavia, usually from Grade 3 or 4, meaning that school leavers normally have 9–10 years of English teaching. In recent years there has been an increase of CLIL (content and language integrated learning), where content subjects are taught in English (see, for example, Washburn, 1997). The availability of English instruction throughout the education

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