This paper focuses on EFL classroom reading from a communicative and task-basedperspective. Most lower-secondary school pupils perform well on traditional readingcomprehension tests in English, like the ones encountered in the national tests (Skolverket,2023). However, teachers experience that working with reading can be challenging, especiallywhen reading is linked to the implementation of tasks where the information gained from thewritten text is to be used for a specific communicative purpose (cf. “adapting […] reading tothe form, content and purpose of the language output”, Skolverket, 2024, p. 46, core contentfor year 7-9).

This practice-based problem is at the root of our study, which is part of an ongoing collaborativeproject between researchers and schoolteachers. The project explores pupils’ reading of a newsarticle in relation to the communicative task of recording a summarizing radio report. It iscarried out as a learning study, which is a collaborative, interventional and iterative approachto educational research (Carlgren, Eriksson & Runesson, 2017). The core of the learning studyis an object of learning, that is a certain capability that the pupils should develop (Pang &Runesson, 2019). During the research process, the understanding and teaching of the object of learning are improved through the analysis of pre- and post-tests and interventions. Our objectof learning is “finding relevant information in a news article in order to produce a short radioreport”, and the research questions involve identifying the critical aspects that the pupils needto discern to read the article purposefully, and consequently, designing teaching that supportsthe pupils’ understanding of these critical aspects.So far, we have carried out one cycle of pre-test, intervention, and post-test. Collected dataconsist of audio recordings of pre- and post-test radio reports, pupils’ notes from pre- and posttests, and video-recordings of the classroom intervention. Based on the tests, we haveformulated the following preliminary critical aspects (i.e. aspects of the learning object that thepupils need to discern):• see why the text constitutes a piece of news• see that not all information is relevant for the task• see that relevant information can be found anywhere in the text• see that the reported information should be correct• see that the report does not include new information or personal opinions

The paper contributes to the discussion about all-round communicative competence in EFLteaching and learning by exploring reading for a specific purpose that goes beyond merecomprehension. 

ReferencesCarlgren, I., Eriksson, I., & Runesson, U. (2017). Learning study. In I. Carlgren (Ed.)Undervisningsutvecklande forskning – exemplet Learning Study (pp. 17-30). Gleerups.Pang, M.F. and Runesson, U. (2019). The Learning study: recent trends anddevelopments. International Journal for Lesson and Learning Studies, 8(3), 162-169. https://doi.org/10.1108/IJLLS-07-2019-093Skolverket (2023). Resultat på de nationella proven i årskurs 3, 6 och 9. Läsåret 2022/23.[Report]. Retrieved from www.skolverket.se

Skolverket (2024). Curriculum for compulsory school, preschool class and school-age educare– Lgr22. Retrieved from www.skolverket.se