Svensklärares didaktiska val i arbetet med att utveckla elevers förståelse av implicita betydelser i text

: En kvalitativ studie i årskurs 6–9

Abstract

Reading comprehension is a central component of the Swedish language subject and an important prerequisite for students’ knowledge development. Previous research shows that inferencing, that is, the ability to understand meanings that are not explicitly stated in a text, is crucial for deeper reading comprehension. At the same time, there is limited knowledge about how Swedish language teachers explicitly organize their instructions to develop this ability in students. The purpose of this study is therefore to investigate how Swedish language teachers in grades 6-9 describe their didactic choices in working to develop students’ understanding of implicit meanings in texts, as well as the opportunities, challenges and support structure that emerge in teachers’ descriptions of this work. The study was conducted as a qualitative interview study in which three practicing Swedish language teachers were interviewed through semi-structured interviews. The empirical material was analyzed using a cognitive and sociocultural perspective on reading comprehension and learning. The results show that teachers’ didactic choices are characterized by individual instruction, linguistic scaffolding, activation of prior knowledge, and work with text discussions and questions. Conversation, structure, and adapted instruction emerge as main support structures in developing students’ inferencing ability and understanding of implicit content. The results also show that linguistic difficulties and limited vocabulary can constitute obstacles to students’ reading comprehension development. The study therefore demonstrates that understanding implicit meanings cannot solely be understood as an individual student ability, but also as something shaped through teachers’ didactic choices and the organization of instruction

Date of Award	2026-Jun
Original language	Swedish
Supervisor	Christoffer Dahl (Supervisor), Simone Löhndorf (Assessor) & Christoffer Dahl (Examiner)