The aim of this study is to better understand how oracy education is viewed by a selection of active intermediate-school teachers in the school-subject Swedish. Oracy in the intermediate-school level of education is a subject which is rarely researched and this study thus seeks to broaden the base of knowledge available to future studies.

Data was gathered through internet-based interview questions sent to respondents from a selection of Swedish schools as well as teacher students. This was then analysed through a discourse-analytic method. Through the use of this method, common themes were identified within many of the respondents’ answers which in turn pointed to some discourses about oracy.

What I found was that common topics circled around the pupils and the classroom climate, Oracy in education and time in both a resource- and fairness perspective. These made up for three main discourses in the material:

1. A preparatory-activities discourse concerning how the pupils are to be prepared for oracy education. This was separated into two discussions about: (1) the maturity of the pupils and (2) teaching proper preparation strategies.
2. A benefits discourse centring on how the student benefit from oracy education. The respondents’ statements point towards there being two benefits of oracy education: (1) its role in providing a well-rounded education and (2) it acting towards their own personal maturity as speakers.
3. A resource discourse which addresses the time-aspect of a teacher’s practice. Two main parts of this discourse focused on: (1) how teachers save time by taking notes during oral examination forms and (2) The problems with fairness faced when time constraints force an oral exam to be split into more than one period.