During the last few decades the communicative approach to English teaching has been enhanced continuously. Meanwhile, pupils are constantly in touch with the English language outside school. They watch films, listen to music with English lyrics and use the Internet. This essay provides the reader with a theoretical background to the communicative approach as well as its implications in Swedish classrooms and syllabuses. Furthermore, the role of media for young people is discussed, as well as previous research findings on Swedish pupils’ English skills and opinions in the English subject. During 2002 Skolverket carried out a research, published in March 2004, together with authorities from seven other European countries, which deals with teachers’ and pupils’ thoughts about English as well as it tests the pupils’ skills. In the research presented in this essay, the questionnaires are almost identical to Skolverket’s in order to make comparisons possible. The research was carried out in a small industrial community where 56 ninth graders and six teachers of English participated. According to the results, few pupils have had the opportunity to learn English in an English speaking country. The pupils get in touch with the English language through other sources to a great extent. They spend a lot of time with their homework, and they think very highly of both the English subject and of English as a language. On average the teachers have taught English for many years, of which nearly all have been in the same school. Their teaching methods are quite traditional. They consider the lack of motivation to be their main challenge together with the difficulty to adjust their teaching to fit all pupils. The results state that there are inconsistencies between the pupils’ positive attitudes and conditions for language learning and their low grades and, according to the teachers, lack of motivation. The essay suggests that the answer might be in a disability to connect the resources of the world outside the classroom to the activities that take place within it. The lack of a classroom with computers and most of all the lack of in-service courses imply that the teachers do not have the opportunity to adjust to new learning methods and ideas. In the light of the theoretical background, the conclusion is that the grades, as well as motivation and enjoyment for both pupils and teachers, will improve considerably if teachers were given more support in introducing methods with a communicative and self-directed approach.