Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'School: School of Linguistics and Applied Language Studies'
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Alborough, Clare Louise. "Designing social identities : a case study of a primary school theatrical performance by Zulu children in an English ex-model C school." Thesis, University of Cape Town, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/6718.
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This multimodal case study investigates the discourses that emerge in a theatrical performance, constructed and performed by a group of grade seven, Zulu speaking students as a representation of themselves. The performance was set in an ex-model C primary school in Kwa-Zulu Natal and reflects the tensions between the students' identities that are located in the different fields of home, school, traditional settings and urban settings. The study is qualitative in nature, with the performance text being a participatory, creative, multi modal, joint-construction involving the participants and the researcher. The performance was structured so that each scene represents one of the participants' social fields. The analysis of the performance follows this structure and explores the way discourses and identities emerge from the Traditional, Home, School and Urban scenes of the performance. The study draws on the New London Group's Multiliteracies theory, using the concepts of discourse, identity, interest and design, as well as drawing on Bourdieu's notions of field and capital. The study makes use of social semiotic analysis, drawing particularly from Kress and van Leeuwen's visual grammar, to explore the multi modal nature of the performance, analysing the linguistic mode alongside those of the visual, the gestural and the spatial. The study attempts to be consistent with the multimodal nature of the performance and so presents the data through photographs, sketches and video clips integrated with the written text. The study alms to amplify the participants' voice through the richness of their representation. It attempts to contest the notion that marginalised people are powerless in the face of hegemonic discourses, asserting rather that there is always agency.
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Braam, Daryl. "The role of a school community's perceptions of the implications of a change in language policy in a Western Cape primary school." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7807.
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Bibliography: leaves 79-83.The constitution, South African Schools Act and the Language in Education Policy (LiEP) all advocate the development and promotion of all official languages. LiEP also gives a clear directive for additive bilingualism whereby the home language of learners should be encouraged as the foundation for learning additional languages. This policy is clearly aligned with the constitutional provisions for promoting parity of esteem between all languages.
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Proctor, Elspeth. "Talking democracy in Grade 7 : a discourse analysis of SRC practice in a primary school." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2001. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7882.
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Bibliography: leaves 111-117.My research set out to clarify to what extent democracy education is an identifiable and teachable concept in Curriculum 2005 and to find pedagogically useful ways of conceptualising and teaching active democratic participation. I chose a two-staged explorative qualitative research framework, informed by the New Literacy Studies and Critical Discourse Analysis, with Grade 7 learners in a primary school. I identified school Student Representative Councils (SRC's) as a potential site for 'democracy education-in-action'.
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Dyer, Dorothy. "Why won't they learn? : a contrastive study of literature teaching in two Cape Town high school classrooms." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/7463.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 71-75).Literature is included as part of most English curricula around the world. South Africa is no exception, and students are expected to study novels, poetry and plays as part of their school language curriculum. There are many debates about the best way to teach these texts in the classroom. However what is often overlooked is that reading literature, like reading anything, is primarily a social activity, and as such has been 'learned'. The way we respond to literature depends on the social activities, attitudes and behaviours -what can be called the practices -of our social grouping that holds value for us. What many teachers hold as the 'right' way of reading and responding literature reflects their commitment and participation in a particular set of practices, whereas students come to class from backgrounds that are different from theirs, and with different commitments. This thesis uses a case-study, ethnographic approach to study two teachers' English classrooms in a working class high school to in order to examine how practices around literature were negotiated between teachers and students who came from working class backgrounds. Despite differences in personality and beliefs, both teachers in the study approached literature study in a limited way -the way that examinations prescribe -viewing the text as a given that had to be mediated for the students so that they were able to 'get the message'. The students in both classes were generally unruly, or passive, with about less than half the class focusing on the lesson at anyone time. This may partly be ascribed to this limited approach to literature. However this approach has been used more successfully in other schools, and I argue that the reason for the 'failure' of these lessons lay beyond the classroom walls. Working class students who want to perform adequately at school have to, in some ways, give up something of the values and beliefs of their backgrounds, and develop a new set of understandings of who they are, a new identity that incorporates these practices. It is unlikely that this investment is going to be made without some reward or fulfilment. In the classes in this study, students had no motivation to join this new literature club that might even affect their participation in other domains. They did enough to get by, to pass through the lessons and exams, but were engaged in very little real meaning making in the classroom. Literature study remained a foreign and sometimes puzzling requirement for examination purposes.
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Pietersen, Nicola Aideen. "What counts as English? : a discursive investigation between two English language Cape Town primary school grade six classrooms." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2011. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11156.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 63-67).What counts as English depends on the circumstances and where and how it is employed. In classrooms this socio-cultural artefact is constructed through practices in particular ways. Language and literacy practices in schools produce and re-produce certain things that count. In this dissertation I asked what counts as English and what practices were employed in varying contexts to validate what counted in a greater context. I was concerned to find out whether and how English-language resources in different contexts or did not contribute to enhancing students’ (social and economic) mobility. This ethnographically-based study focused on two Grade Six classes in State run Primary schools in Cape Town, one of them being a well-resourced, monolingual, English classroom and school and the other being a poorly-resourced, multilingual, English as an Additional language classroom and school.
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Kendal, Charmaine Allana. "Everyone has a view of literacy : learners' perceptions of literacy and their practices at home and at school." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2007. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8077.
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Includes bibliographical references (leaves 90-93).This is an ethnographic study of how learners write about, speak about, depict and value their literacy activities at home and how this links with their performance at school. It also examines the shift in learners' perceptions of literacy through their involvement in the research project. The theoretical framework for the research is drawn from the New Literacy Studies with its emphasis on the autonomous and ideological models ofliteracy (as formulated by Street) and on literacy as situated practice. The data is a series of literacy activities, of seven learner profiles made up of their writing, literacy inventories, photographic depictions, focus group discussions, semi structured interviews, and tasks assessed in the formal academic domain. Critical Discourse Analysis is used as a tool for the analysis of some of the data and traces the similarities and differences in the kinds of literacy activities that learners engage in, ranging from homework to hobbies, cell phones, conversations, computer games and so forth. Interpretation of the data also draws on Gee's theory of primary and secondary Discourses.
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Cooper, Lisa. "Building home-school partnerships with parents of English language learners in a high school community| A mixed methods phenomenological study of one high school in Southern California." Thesis, Pepperdine University, 2015. http://pqdtopen.proquest.com/#viewpdf?dispub=3685321.
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The purpose of this mixed methods study was to examine home-school partnerships practices between the high school community and English Language Learner (ELL) parents. More specifically, this study examined the experiences and benefits, if any, of ELL parents who participated in 1 or more of the following four ELL parent engagement practices implemented at 1 high school in Southern California during the 2009-2012 school years: 1. ELAC Parent education meetings; 2. ELL Parent Handbook; 3. ELL Parent Orientation Day; 4. ELL Guidance Counselor.
The convergent parallel mixed methods design allowed for qualitative data of parent interviews and quantitative data of student performance scores to be used in parallel, analyzed separately, and then summarized separately, looking for contradictions or relationships between the 2 data sets. A total of 7 parents participated in the interview process. The parent interview responses were coded to highlight key words and statements, forming them into emerging themes in regard to the 4 implemented parent engagement practices. The quantitative data of student performance scores on the California English Language Development Test (CELDT), Math California Standards Test (CST), and English language arts CST were compared among the students whose parents participated in 1 or more of the engagement practices to the total population of identified ELL students at this one school site during the 2009-2012 school years. The quantitative data also compared ELL student performance scores from the year prior to the implementation of the parent engagement practices.
The findings of this study support the following conclusions. Existing ELL parent engagement practices are viewed by ELL parents as valuable; however, new means need to be explored to benefit a larger number of parents. ELL parents benefit from and place higher value on practices that provide opportunities for 2-way communication. ELL parents value sharing their personal experiences with other ELL parents in support of student learning. Specifically designed ELL parent engagement practices prompted parents to communicate with their children. Lastly, parent participation in 1 or more of the 4 implemented practices may have contributed to greater student success.
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Nthara, Ivy Jeb. "An examination of classroom practices for the development of writing in English as a second language in a Malawian primary school." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2008. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/11765.
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Includes abstract.Includes bibliographical references (p. 85-88).
This study arises out of an awareness of the history of Malawi' s language in education policy from the era of British colonialism to the present multilingual era. English is given a high status in schools despite the fact that many more teachers and pupils speak local languages. Malawi's new language in education model stipulates that "English should be offered as a subject from Standards 1 to 3; English should be offered as medium of instruction from Standards 4 to 8" (MOE. 1996). The Malawi in education bilingual model is thus subtractive, which impacts negatively on second language learning. I discuss various theories that underpin the teaching of literacy in a second language. namely bilingualism and cognition, social learning, and theories with an educational or classroom orientation to establish a framework for my empirical investigation.
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Ralphs, Liana. "Peripheral Normativity: Language and literacy, teaching and learning in two Grade Four classrooms in an under-resourced school in the Western Cape." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 2009. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/8276.
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This study focuses on how children in the post-Foundation phase of Primary Schooling encounter reading and writing practices and learn to be certain kinds of readers and writers in poorly-resourced school settings in the Western Cape in South Africa. The aim of this research was to investigate how literacy practices in a socially situated domain, such as a classroom in a poorly-resourced school, are shaped by both the internal dynamics of classroom teaching as well as by external factors beyond the school, relating to the social location of the school within a peripheral social context. Through an ethnographic-style case study of a multilingual context in one primary school site, this study examined how specific notions of Grade Four school-appropriate language, literacy and learning activities operated as locally normative resources that produced complex outcomes in relation to the language-of-instruction and in relation to what counted as worthwhile classroom learning. By focusing on two Grade Four classes (the 'Afrikaans class' and the 'English class'), this study investigated the ecological and cultural dimensions of the language debates that were operating at the research site, and how these influenced the children, teachers, and the school. It was found that what characterised teaching and learning at this research site involved peripheral normativity: the downscaling and localisation of educational standards and language debates to attainable local levels of possibility. The children received localised, restricted versions of language use and literacy that was context-specific. The school's educational response to the multilingual context and to the social pressure for access to high status linguistic and literacy resources was to stream the predominantly Afrikaans-speaking school community into two parallel streams where the language of learning and teaching was either 'English' or 'Afrikaans,' and these divisions reflected a broader division in the wider community between those aspiring to upward social mobility and those who more clearly constituted a social underclass. The language and literacy learning practices characteristic in both the Grade Four classes did not, however, provide the resources for school success for children in either group.
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Folkeryd, Jenny W. "Writing with an Attitude : Appraisal and student texts in the school subject of Swedish." Doctoral thesis, Uppsala universitet, Institutionen för lingvistik och filologi, 2006. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-7410.
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Learning in school is in many respects done through language. However, it has been shown that the language of school assignments is seldom explicitly discussed in school. Writing tasks are furthermore assigned without clear guidelines for how certain lexical choices make one text more powerful than another. The present study is a contribution to a linguistic and pedagogical discussion of student writing. More specifically the focus is on the use of evaluative language in texts written by students in the school subject of Swedish in grades 5, 8 and 11. The major investigations of the study have been accommodated within the theoretical framework of Appraisal. An overview is given of the language resources in the student texts for constructing emotion, judging behavior in ethical terms and valuing objects aesthetically. Another question addressed is that of how attitudinal meaning is intensified, thus creating greater or lesser degrees of positivity or negativity associated with the feelings. The results show that manifestations of attitude are found in practically all texts in the study. However, variations are noted in relation to different genres, age, proficiency level, language background and gender. A contribution of the study in relation to the theoretical framework upon which it draws is an extension of the system of Attitude as well as an identification of different patterns in the use of attitudinal resources. These patterns are furthermore discussed in relation to how students talk about their own written production in terms of text movability. Results indicate that students with a high degree of text movability also use attitudinal resources to a large extent. It is argued that applying the linguistic tool of Appraisal can facilitate a discussion of how to make one aspect of the hidden curriculum more visible, namely, how to write with an Attitude.
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Whitman, Robert Leader. "Literacy, new capitalism, and new work orders: Case studies from school-to-work education." Diss., The University of Arizona, 2004. http://hdl.handle.net/10150/280663.
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This dissertation examines literacy practices in settings that have been transformed by changes in capitalism of the last forty years. These settings are characterized by increased technologization, accrediting processes, team-building, and a requirement for independent critical thinking on the part of workers. The two school-to-work programs included in the dissertation are biotechnology and nursing. Both were sited in a two-year urban community college and both had the characteristics mentioned above. However they also provided a contrast it two ways. First, nursing is a traditional practice that has recently been transformed by changes in capitalism while biotechnology is a completely new field that didn't exist forty years ago. Second, students in these school-to-work programs were pointed towards different class positions within their work settings; biotechnology students toward elite positions, and nurses toward a more traditional and less elite position. The dissertation examines how apprentice workers in these settings learn new practices of a changed capitalism through literacy and other discursive processes as they move back and forth between school and work settings. It also examines students as they learn other aspects of capitalism through the grammars of their respective fields. These include gendered work identities, highly prescriptive critical thinking processes that bear the footprints of a sociohistorical past, and new processes of thinking and acting that are characteristic of a new moment in capitalism.
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Shen, Jing Qi Flora. "Code-switching in language practices of secondary school students in Macau." Thesis, University of Macau, 2018. http://umaclib3.umac.mo/record=b3953685.
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BARBOSA, GABRIELA BRITO. "UNDERSTANDING WHAT STUDENTS DO NOT UNDERSTAND: APPLIED LINGUISTICS, EXPLORATORY PRACTICE AND LITERACY IN HIGH SCHOOL FOREIGN LANGUAGE CLASSROOMS." PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIRO, 2018. http://www.maxwell.vrac.puc-rio.br/Busca_etds.php?strSecao=resultado&nrSeq=34790@1.
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PONTIFÍCIA UNIVERSIDADE CATÓLICA DO RIO DE JANEIROCOORDENAÇÃO DE APERFEIÇOAMENTO DO PESSOAL DE ENSINO SUPERIOR
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTS. DE ENSINO
PROGRAMA DE SUPORTE À PÓS-GRADUAÇÃO DE INSTITUIÇÕES COMUNITÁRIAS DE ENSINO PARTICULARES
A presente dissertação objetiva investigar as dificuldades de letramento apresentadas por alunos de primeiro ano do Ensino Médio de um colégio estadual localizado em um bairro de baixa renda da Zona Norte do Rio de Janeiro. A autora desta dissertação é professora de língua inglesa nesse contexto e se interessou pelo tema ao perceber que os desafios enfrentados por seus alunos ecoavam notícias publicadas em jornais, portais eletrônicos, rádio e televisão acerca do fraco desempenho dos estudantes brasileiros em exames nacionais e internacionais como o SAEB, o ENEM e o Pisa. Buscando entender e contribuir para essa grave situação social, a presente pesquisa, de cunho qualitativo-interpretativista, se insere nos estudos da Linguística Aplicada e foi realizada com diversas turmas de primeiro ano do Ensino Médio, ao longo das aulas de inglês, na qual a pesquisadora em questão também era a professora. A base teórica foi construída a partir dos conceitos de letramento, tanto em LM como em LE, apresentadas por Street (1984), Soares (1998) e Rojo (2009) bem como da Prática Exploratória (Allwright; Hanks, 2009). Assim, a professora-pesquisadora sistematizou suas observações cotidianas a respeito do trabalho de letramento que realiza há nove anos, sob a perspectiva de gêneros textuais como formas de vida e ações sociais (Miller, 1984; Bazerman, 2006), com alunos ingressantes no Ensino Médio. Os entendimentos reflexivos alcançados confirmam a necessidade de intensificar o ensino-aprendizagem de LM e LE através de gêneros textuais e sugerem a importância de fomentar mais estudos sobre práticas de letramento escolar.
This work aims to investigate the literacy difficulties presented by high school students of a state school located in a low income neighborhood of the Northern Zone of Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. The author of this dissertation is an English language teacher in this context and became interested in the subject when she realized that the challenges faced by her students echoed news published in newspapers, electronic, radio and television portals about the weak performance of Brazilian students in such national and international examinations as SAEB, ENEM and Pisa. Seeking to understand and contribute to such a serious social situation, this qualitative-interpretative research is considered an Applied Linguistics study and was carried out with several 1st year high school English classes, in which the researcher was also the teacher. The theoretical framework was anchored not only in the concepts of literacy, both in the mother tongue and in the foreign language, as presented by Street (1984), Soares (1998) and Rojo (2009) but also in the ideas of Exploratory Practice (Allwright; Hanks, 2009). Thus, the teacher-researcher systematized her daily observations regarding the literacy work that she had been doing since 2010, from the perspective of textual genres as forms of life and social actions (Miller, 1984; Bazerman, 2006), with entering high school students. The reflective understandings achieved confirm the need for intensifying mother tongue and foreign language teaching and learning through a genre pedagogy and also suggest the importance of encouraging further studies on school literacy practices.
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Matutu, Samkelo Nelson. "'Heteroglossia in IsiXhosa/English bilingual children's writing: a case study of Grade 6 IsiXhosa Home Language in a Township School." Master's thesis, Faculty of Humanities, 2021. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/32826.
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The South African constitution recognises 11 official languages, of which isiXhosa is one. IsiXhosa belongs to the Nguni language family which also comprises of isiZulu, isiNdebele, and siSwati. IsiXhosa is mostly spoken in the Eastern and Western Cape Provinces. Those that regard isiXhosa as their home language (HL) are referred to as amaXhosa. However, as a teacher of isiXhosa HL, I have observed that there is often a mismatch between the isiXhosa used by the students and the one used in the schooling context. Thus, this study explores and investigates the written language varieties Grade 6 isiXhosa HL students use in their formally assessed and informal writing. The theoretical framework used in this study reviews literature on discourse/language and literacy as social practice, language ideologies and identity, heteroglossic and translingual practices, as well as primary school children's writing in South Africa to understand the complexities of students' language varieties. Moreover, this study explores the way in which the isiXhosa HL students represent their varied language resources through use of a language body portrait. Further, issues of language standardisation in relation to children's literacy are also reviewed. This study takes the form of qualitative case study in design. Students' Formal Assessment Task (FATs), language body portrait and informal paragraph writing about their linguistic repertoire were collected and analysed. Data analysis revealed the following themes: language ideologies, linguistic repertoires, use of urban and everyday language varieties, Standard Written isiXhosa (orthography), language borrowings, as well as unconventional spellings. Themes and categories are intensively analysed in Chapters four and five of this study. This study displays evidence of hybridity and fluidity of named languages, as well as heteroglossic practices that the students employ. Analysing the students' writing was effective in helping understand how bi/multilinguals engage in writing and that, while the adopted curriculum approach to language and FAT is monoglossic, children's writing is heteroglossic (see also Bakhtin, 1981; Krause and Prinsloo, 2016). The implications of teaching languages as bounded, fixed and separate entities are explored and problematized. Chapter six of this study concludes the study and offers recommendations that are important for deliberation when teaching writing in isiXhosa/African language contexts.
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Schlebusch, Anne. "Non-racial schooling in selected Cape Town schools : language, attitudes and language learning." Master's thesis, University of Cape Town, 1994. http://hdl.handle.net/11427/17504.
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Bibliography: pages 111-118.This study examines some elements of the language environment, language learning processes, and language inter-actions between child and teacher, and child and child in the changing South African education system. As more classrooms become non-racial, new dimensions are arising in language use and in learning: classrooms are perforce multilingual as different language groups come together to receive instruction through the medium of English. What dynamic do these multilingual elements bring to the standard classroom? I focus on part of the Standard Six population of 5 Western Cape English medium schools. The schools are different in many respects and similar in others; some have more Black pupils than others. By using a variety of research methods, including questionnaires, worksheets, personal observation, interviews and essays, I explore the experiences and attitudes of pupils, teachers and principals. My object is to try to identify trends: to look for positive features arising out of present classrooms and to look for possible points of tension as well, in order to extract central features to analyse. These are highlighted, and cross-referenced with relevant international studies, as matters of interest for practitioners in the classroom and for education planners. The field is immense: the study essentially provides a broad-based platform for further research. I tried not to have any preconceptions about what I would find, so made it a comprehensive and far-ranging study. It uncovers important elements which teachers and schools may attend to, relatively easily, indicates the importance of development of one's Mother Tongue and exposes deeply-felt emotions about Language and identity. It asks questions about Bridging Programmes and about the language of the teacher in the classroom and in testing. I also ask about the future of English in this country, about feelings about learning Afrikaans and about learning Xhosa. The main target in the recommendations is the teacher, as the generator of learning opportunities in the classroom. I call for more specific communication between teacher and pupil and the evolution of child-specific language learning processes. It is every teacher in every classroom who needs to adjust consciously to the new classroom profiles. Differing patterns clearly emerge from the schools with different intake profiles. This suggests the need for further studies to examine these findings for generalisability. The situation in schools is both volatile and exciting, calling for concrete and imaginative attention to aspects emerging from the personal, perceptive and wide-ranging input of the sample studied in this research project.
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Blecher, Hannah, and Martin Hörlin. "Formative assessment in elementary school." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Fakulteten för lärande och samhälle (LS), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-40027.
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This study's purpose is to investigate formative assessment/feedback in elementary school. According to the Curriculum (2018), it is essential to use formative feedback in the classroom because it helps students progress in their learning. The aim is to see how formative assessment is conducted in English as a second language/English as a foreign language classroom. The research questions that we used were to what extent is formative feedback used in the elementary classroom? Furthermore, are there different ways of giving formative assessment in an English classroom? The primary method used has been electronic searches in two databases, such as Education research complete and ERIC. The study results will show that the teachers know that formative assessment is beneficial for the students' learning process. However, they do not use it due to the lack of experience, time and knowledge. We investigated the teachers' role in formative assessment and discussed how essential time and prioritizing are.
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Sweeney, Philip John. "Taiwanese Language Medical School Curriculum: A Case Study of Symbolic Resistance Through The Promotion of Alternative Literacy and Language Domain Norms." PDXScholar, 2013. https://pdxscholar.library.pdx.edu/open_access_etds/938.
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In contemporary Taiwan, Mandarin language proficiency and literacy in Han characters are not only key skills needed for success in academic institutions and employment markets, but they also carry meaning as symbolic markers of national and supranational Chinese identity. This study examines how Taiwanese-language medical studies curriculum planners are promoting alternative linguistic practices as a means of resisting the influence of Chinese nationalism in Taiwan and striving to replace it with a rival Taiwanese nationalism. I conducted research for this study during the 2010-2011 school year in Kaohsiung, Taiwan. I collected data for this study by engaging in participant observation research at Taiwanese-language curriculum-editing meetings; auditing Taiwanese-language courses at Kaohsiung Medical University; and conducting interviews with both curriculum planners and students at KMU. The role of official languages, literacy, and historical narratives are examined as symbolic components of a Chinese nationalist hegemony, which was constructed through the policies of the Kuomintang's Republic of China administration in post-war Taiwan. This study also examines the relationship between occupation, language skills, and national identification in the context of the contemporary Greater China regional economy. The curriculum planners who are the subjects of this study are employed in the field of medical care, where Taiwanese language skills are valued resources for communicating with patients from a variety of socioeconomic backgrounds. In addition, medical doctors have historically been vocal opponents of the Kuomintang administration's pro-Chinese nationalist policies. Therefore, this case study illustrates how the curriculum planners' occupations and language practices are utilized as resources in their efforts to foster Taiwanese autonomy in the Greater China region. This study also examines current limits to the effectiveness of language preservation and revitalization policies in Taiwan due to the importance of Mandarin-language literacy in the majority of high-status occupations in Greater China and to changing conceptions of the relationship between language practice and national identity. This study contributes to the fields of linguistic anthropology and Asian studies by examining relationships between nationalism, employment, language practice, and literacy in the context of Taiwan's ambiguous status as a national entity. It also analyzes ways in which language practices and literacy forms are created and modified as strategic acts to both identify people with competing nationalisms and allow them access to employment opportunities in the context of shifting administrative and economic power structures in the Greater China region.
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Begovic, Nina. "A study of communicative strategies in upper-secondary school." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Akademin för utbildning och ekonomi, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-10826.
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The present study investigates communicative strategies used by a group of four upper-secondary L2 learners of English. To be able to reach this goal, I have recorded and transcribed a conversation between these students in order to detect natural communication. The communicative strategies I have looked for were: pauses and hesitations, questions, code-switching and message abandonment. Previous research on communicative strategies is divided into two different fields. These two approaches define and classify communication strategies as either interactional or psycholinguistic. The definition and classification of communicate strategies depends viz. on what kind of approach is used.
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Tordsson, Julius. "Language Learning Strategies : The Influence of Research on the English Syllabus in the Swedish Curriculum for Compulsory School Year 7-9." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-75982.
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This essay has studied the extent to which research on language learning strategies has influenced four Swedish syllabi for the English subject in compulsory school year 7-9. The study has made use of hermeneutics to both categorize and interpret the various mentions of language learning strategies that can be seen throughout the various syllabi. All in all, it can be concluded that research, especially Swedish research, has come to increasingly influence the syllabi over time, which can be seen through both the increased number of mentions of language learning strategies and through the more clearly defined terminology used when mentioning the strategies in LGR 11 (2011). This development may be seen as showcasing a shift in focus from teaching methods regulated by the teacher to learning strategies applied by students and their significance for the degree of success and level of achievement reached in the target language. However, for the teachers and students reading the syllabus, it is still not overtly mentioned what the strategies are, and in order to find out, they have to find the description of language learning strategies on their own. It can, therefore, be beneficial to include workshops and seminars on the topic to ensure that all English teachers understand what kind of strategies they should be looking for in their students. This would strengthen the verification of the grades given to the students and the overall professionalism of the teachers. How exactly these seminars and workshops should be constructed and incorporated in schools and universities, however, is not within the scope of this essay, but can be determined in future studies on the subject.
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Frigerio, Sara. "The Role of Transfer in Italian High School Students' Written Production in English." Thesis, Umeå universitet, Institutionen för språkstudier, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:umu:diva-144710.
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This study aims at exploring to what extent transfer plays a role for young Italian learners of English. The informants consisted of a group of Italian high school students whose English written compositions are investigated. The collection of data is made up of an error analysis based on Pit Corder’s methodology (Corder in Ellis 2008: 46), in which six different linguistic categories are examined such as collocations, word order, the past tenses with special focus on the simple present perfect versus the simple past, furthermore the null subject parameter, false friends and subject-verb agreement. A brief discussion is also dedicated to the difference between what constitutes an error and a mistake. What emerges in this study is that the category of collocations is the one in which most instances of transfer errors are found followed by word order and the use of the simple past tense. Finally, the research aims to find out what could be the plausible reasons as to why certain categories appear to be more subject to the transfer phenomena.
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Dijkstra, Daniel. "Motivation and English as a foreign language : Motivation among Swedish upper secondary school students." Thesis, Karlstad University, Karlstad University, Faculty of Arts and Education, 2009. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-4271.
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In order to be able to influence the motivation of second language learners one first has to understand what motivation is, what its preconditions are and how to detect it. The research for this essay was done with the help of one hundred and ten students from seven classes in two different upper secondary schools and most of these learners were first year students.
The aim was to find and measure the students' motivation to learn English and how this motivation can be influenced in a positive manner. The method used to collect the necessary data was a questionnaire which asked questions about the relevancy of the English course and how frequently the students used English and how interested they were in the language.
The results give a clear picture of the students' motivational levels as well as to which parts of the English course they respond and to which they do not.
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Shak, Juliana. "Nudging young ESL writers : engaging linguistic assistance and peer interaction in L2 narrative writing at the upper primary school level in Brunei Darussalam." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:7723ad72-5ccb-4933-b239-a21b33b053aa.
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Motivated primarily by a cognitive approach, with consideration of interactional processes from a sociocultural perspective, the present study examined the use of linguistic assistance and peer interaction to facilitate second language (L2) writing of young ESL learners. A total of 257 Year 5 children (age 10) from twelve intact classes (from six different schools) took part in this eight-week intervention-based study. Using a quasi-experimental design, the classes were randomly assigned to one of three treatment groups or the control group. Pretests, interim tests, immediate posttests and delayed posttests were administered. As the study concerned both the processes and products of L2 development, peer interaction and children's written production were taken as the two primary sources of data for this study. For the written production, four criteria were used to rate learners’ writings: Quality of ideas, Story shape and structure, Vocabulary and spelling and Implicit grammar. Partial correlation was employed to examine if there were any statistical relationships between treatment and learners’ written performance while controlling for prior attainment. Results show that the provision of enhanced and basic linguistic assistance may have a positive influence on only certain aspects of L2 writing, while opportunities for peer interaction does not appear to have an impact on learners’ L2 performance. For peer interaction, a subset of 60 learners were selected from the two treatment groups which received basic and enhanced linguistic assistance, to compare their dialogic performance. Based on quantitative analyses of their recorded interactions, the findings suggest that the provision of varying degrees of linguistic assistance may affect, not the content of peer discussions, but how peer assistance is given during task. The results also show that through the provision of linguistic assistance, peer interaction mediates the participants’ performance on Quality of ideas, Story shape and structure and Implicit grammar in their subsequent individual writing.
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Forsberg, Carrie. "Breaking Down the ELL Sound Barriers : Listening Comprehension Strategies for Swedish High School Students." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-32464.
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The purpose of this qualitative research study was to identify difficulties some Swedish learners have with listening comprehension in the English 5 course in Upper Secondary Schools and to find methods of teaching such as scaffolding, schematic knowledge, preparation and peer cooperation that may prove successful. The methodology for this study was to test three groups of students representing three different programs of study at a high school in Sweden. These groups performed two different tasks to test theories about listening comprehension methods, and data was collected through test results and observations in the classroom, which were subsequently analyzed through discussion and comparison. The study showed that affective filters affected learning. However, scaffolding, schematic knowledge, preparation, and peer cooperation proved successful as reflected in higher all-around test scores. The researcher has attempted to identify the main aspects that make English listening comprehension difficult for Swedish learners, and to come up with ideas on how to break down the barriers to learning in order to promote improved listening comprehension in both live classrooms and in online learning situations.
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Persson, Joakim. "Speech and Gender in the English as a Second Language Swedish High School Classroom: a Sociolinguistic Study." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Pedagogik, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-26140.
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Gender dominance has been the focus of research in recent years. However, this research was conducted in countries with less progressive stances towards gender equality than Sweden. This paper focuses on gender equality in the Swedish high school English as a second language classroom. A mix of quantitative research, empirical analyses using modern technology and qualitative interviews were conducted. This approach focused upon students’ views regarding gender and speech dominance and how these views correlate with the views of the teachers. Furthermore, the quantitative amount of spoken language output was measured to confirm informants’ views about speech dominance. Three informant groups were interviewed and observed. For a myriad of reasons, it was impossible to come to a definite conclusion regarding speech and gender equality. However, it is clear that floor-time is a vital factor for students’ learning, meaning that it is important that second language teachers are aware of the issues raised.
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Svensson, Mats. "The Way of the Word : Vocabulary learning strategies in an upper secondary school in Sweden." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för utbildning, kultur och kommunikation, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-38539.
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One of the hardest challenges that learners may face during the process of acquiring a second language is learning vocabulary. Knowledge of vocabulary is an important factor when achieving the competence to communicate in a foreign language. There are multiple strategies available when it comes to learning new words, depending on factors such as the learner, the environment, and the context. Essentially, as Nation (2001) maintains, there are two ways of learning vocabulary: "incidental learning" and "direct intentional learning". Although there is a growing body of research on vocabulary learning strategies employed by students, studies in the Swedish context that take into consideration both students’ and teachers’ perspectives are scarce. Against this background, this mixed methods study examines on the one hand which strategies to learn and remember new words are preferable from the students' perspective and on the other hand it also investigates what strategies the teachers are actually using and encouraging in the English subject in a Swedish upper secondary school. The reported preferences of the students indicate that they do not explicitly use vocabulary learning strategies (VLSs) to any great extent at all, while their teachers' view is that the students should largely be responsible enough to care for their own vocabulary acquisition. However, the students suggest one VLS to be of great advantage to themselves: to use their teacher as help rather than for example dictionaries or textbooks. This is, however, something that the teachers do not encourage in their classrooms, although previous research has shown the benefits of using source language translations in second language learning.
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Essving, Linn. "Tense and aspect errors in junior high school students’ writing : A study of risk taking." Thesis, Södertörns högskola, Lärarutbildningen, 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:sh:diva-38528.
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English is taught in Swedish schools as a foreign language. The students are at different levels, and most of them try to achieve a higher proficiency level. While the extent to which students are successful at learning a language depends on many different factors. Previous studies have shown that students who are open to taking risks in their production are at an advantage. The present study investigated 80 texts written by students in the seventh and the ninth grade. The main aim was to investigate to what extent errors and complexity levels can be explained in relation to risk taking. In more detail, the study examined differences between the grades in terms of degree of syntactic complexity and what kinds of aspect and tense errors were made. To be able to investigate the errors an approach called Error Analysis was used. The results showed that for both grades, substitution errors were the most common error and there was a significant difference between the grades (p<0.001); however, the other errors showed no significant differences. Regarding the complexity levels, there was a highly significant difference (significance level p<0.001) for the least complex sentences, but there were no significant differences between the grades for the highest and second highest levels of complexity. The results furthermore suggest that there is a correlation between risk taking and a higher likelihood of making errors, as a large proportion of the erroneous sentences written by students from the ninth grade were found in syntactically complex sentences. Most of the errors made by students in the seventh grade were found in less syntactically complex sentences however.
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Vrikki, Maria. "Investigating the impact of learner codeswitching on L2 oral fluency in task-based activities : the case of EFL primary school classrooms in Cyprus." Thesis, University of Oxford, 2013. http://ora.ox.ac.uk/objects/uuid:6d2170f3-3498-42d4-8bc8-45ff74684e63.
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The potentially beneficial role of classroom codeswitching, or the use of the first language (L1) in foreign language (FL) classroom settings, is gradually becoming acknowledged in the field of second language acquisition (SLA) research. However, researchers call for the construction of a framework, which indicates when this use is beneficial for language learning and when it is not. In an attempt to contribute to the construction of this framework, the present study investigates whether codeswitching can be used as a tool within task-based learning settings for the development of second language (L2) oral fluency. It is hypothesised that by allowing learners to codeswitch during task completion, their willingness to communicate (WTC) is enhanced because the function of that switching is likely to be mainly the metalanguage needed to complete the task. Previous research has also suggested that task repetition might lead to greater fluency. However, both teachers and learners may be sceptical of the value of repetition without some form of feedback on the first task attempt. This study sought to explore therefore the value of task repetition with feedback (TR+). By repeating the task with feedback that recycles metalanguage into the L2, it is hypothesised that learners will learn to move to a state of less reliance on their L1, while simultaneously achieving the overall aim of tasks, which is effective L2 communication. With increased WTC and L2 metalanguage, extensive L2 oral practice will facilitate the proceduralisation processes needed for fluency development. In short, the pedagogical package of TR+ on recycled language is tested in the present study as a potential contributor to oral fluency. The thesis begins by relating these themes with the context of Cyprus through teacher interviews. It becomes evident through these interviews that the activities taking place in this context are not tasks in the sense researchers intended. Following the setting of the context, the interactions of 75 primary school learners of English (11-12-year-olds) practising TR+ are analysed qualitatively. This analysis determines whether the package can lead to enriched output on the second attempt. In addition, there is a quasi-experimental aspect to the study. The students were allocated in three groups, each testing a different package. The codeswitching group was allowed to switch to Greek while completing the tasks and had their L1 metalanguage recycled into the L2 when they repeated the tasks. The English-only group completed the tasks strictly under L2 conditions and repeated them with feedback on accuracy. The comparison group completed the tasks once with no language instructions. Oral production tests, used as pre- and post-tests, partly support the hypothesis by suggesting that WTC is enhanced with the incorporation of codeswitching, but no evidence supports fluency development. Nevertheless, when comparing TR+ with no task repetition, the data indicate that TR+ leads to greater fluency. It is suggested that a larger and longer intervention would have allowed more time for fluency to be developed when codeswitching was incorporated. As for task-based learning, it is suggested that TR+ is a more viable way to move forward in real classroom contexts, particularly those with young learners. Furthermore, the results of the present study indicate that this package works better with learners of a certain proficiency level.
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Gustafsson, Tova. "Acquiring Pragmatic Knowledge through Textbooks : Explicit Teaching of Speech Acts in EFL Textbooks in the Swedish Upper Secondary School." Thesis, Mittuniversitetet, Institutionen för humaniora och samhällsvetenskap, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:miun:diva-42573.
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Previous studies in the field have suggested that speech acts are underrepresented in EFL textbooks and that, in addition, these tend to have little or no presentation of meta-pragmatic information. In relation to these findings, the present study investigated the extent and manner in which speech acts are presented in EFL textbooks currently used in the Swedish upper secondary school. The focus was limited to explicit teaching of speech acts and, thus, does not present any information or findings concerning implicit teaching of speech acts or to what extent this is presented in the textbooks. The findings showed that the four textbooks examined provide limited presentation of speech acts and that, when presented, little or no meta-pragmatic information is included, which is consistent with the findings of previous studies. To begin with, the findings of the present study show that, on average, speech acts cover less than 1% of the content in the four textbooks examined, providing students with very little opportunity for frequent repetition and to acquire knowledge about speech acts through these textbooks. Moreover, the findings show that the range of speech acts presented in the textbooks is rather low, presenting only 8 different speech acts in total between the books, which compares rather well with the findings of Nguyen (2011: 21) who, as mentioned in Section 6.1, also found 8 distinct types of speech act presented in EFL textbooks designed for courses for more proficient students. Further on, the manner in which these are presented is problematic. Two manners of presentation were identified: speech acts were either presented in lists of useful phrases or integrated as examples of phrases to use within a written assignment. The speech acts presented as useful phrases were listed according to level of formality and the integrated examples provided, to some extent, contextual information concerning the gender and status of an addressee. However, this is the extent to which meta-pragmatic information is presented. No textbook provides any explanation as to why some speech acts are more formal than others or why one phrase may be better suited than another. Subsequently, the findings of the present study have implications for teachers and learners using the textbooks for the purpose of teaching and learning EFL. As the findings suggest that speech acts are underrepresented in Swedish EFL textbooks and that, once mentioned, there is still a lack of meta-pragmatic information on these, such information must be provided in the teaching elsewhere. This can mean a number of things. For one thing, it could mean that textbooks need to be further developed, providing a wider range of speech acts presented and including more metapragmatic information. It could also mean that, in the meantime, teachers need to find alternative ways of incorporating speech acts and information on these, so that students are given the opportunity to acquire this language feature elsewhere.Godkänt datum 2021-06-06
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Sjölander, Max. "Digital EFL reading versus traditional EFL reading in upper secondary school. : A study of reading comprehension in digital and print text." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-35943.
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This study tested differences in reading comprehension between printed text and digital platforms. Two groups of upper secondary EFL students took eight tests, aiming to test their reading comprehension. The students took four tests in which they read traditionally and four in which they read digitally. The results of those tests were then compared using the percentage of correct answers, mean scores, and a t-test. The results showed slightly, but statistically insignificant higher scores in favor of the traditional test-takers. One test showed a statistically significant difference in favor of traditional test takers. The results were later discussed through relevant previous and related research. The reason for the difference in performance is, arguably, due to test mechanics.
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Rosén, Linda. "Multilingualism and Translanguaging in Swedish Upper Secondary school : An exploration of English teacher candidates’ attitudes." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-144182.
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This ethnographically informed, qualitative study aims to investigate English teacher candidates’ attitudes towards multilingualism and translanguaging in English as a foreign language (EFL) classrooms and in the school environment. More specifically, the study intends to identify potential contributing factors to the formation of said attitudes, such as the influence of policy documents and of the teacher training program on the perception of the future working environment. The data was collected with semi-structured interviews; the participants were four teacher candidates, two females and two males, enrolled in the teacher education program in a Swedish university. In addition, at the time of data collection, all participants had completed most of the teacher education program, an aspect that increased the relevance of their responses, since they would soon be active teachers in the Swedish school system. Overall, the participants expressed positive attitudes towards multilingualism and translanguaging in a school environment. However, some hesitation in their answers was detected when they are asked how they would work with multilingual students in their future practice. These findings suggest that, if teacher candidates receive adequate education to approach their future working environment with confidence they would be better equipped to provide adequate pedagogical support to students whose L1 is other than Swedish. This would foster positive attitudes towards multilingualism and translanguaging and would, consequently, lead to an improvement in the academic results of multilingual students. The teacher candidates’ increased awareness of the benefits and challenges of multilingualism and their ability to put into practice the general principles they learn at university would benefit from changes in the teacher training program, in the curriculum compiled by the National Agency of Education, and in the national pedagogical approach to language learning.
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Persson, Niklas. "The Dawn of Digital Classroom : Experiencing the English school subject through distance education during the covid-19 pandemic." Thesis, Jönköping University, Högskolan för lärande och kommunikation, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hj:diva-50752.
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As a result of the Covid-19 pandemic, peoples’ everyday lives have been affected, including the teachers and students in Swedish upper-secondary schools while teaching and learning English. Due to this, both parties have had to experience the English classroom in the shape of distance education through computer-mediated communication (CMC). A convenience sampling consisting of four teachers and four students was used to provide statements regarding the participants’ experiences of the virtual classroom, in comparison to the physical classroom. The study also examined how the four language skills of listening, speaking, reading, and writing have been affected while teaching and learning English, due to distance education. The main findings consist of teachers claiming to have experienced difficulties regarding testing the English language skills known as reading and listening. In addition, a lack of non-verbal interaction was missed, according to the teachers, resulting among other things in the linguistic phenomenon such as turn-taking, to have taken place. The students on the other hand, have experienced difficulties regarding autonomy while studying English at home during the distance education as well as a different linguistic issue known as overlap in conjunction with a lack of non-verbal interaction and several people speaking simultaneously. The reported effects due to the covid-19 pandemic in conjunction with distance education are discussed along with the consequences of the obtained results and further suggestions regarding the topic.
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Brunsell, Oskar. "Teaching and Learning English Online : A Study of the Effects of Transitioning to Online Education in an Upper Secondary School in Sweden." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Engelska, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-35903.
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This study investigates how teachers and students in a Swedish upper secondary school experience the sudden transition to teaching and learning English as a second language online. Students and teachers have answered questions in online questionnaires and the answers were analyzed and compared to previous research and secondary literature. The results indicate that both students and teachers prefer the physical context compared to the online context. Communication and natural interactions are expressed to be the worst consequences for both the teachers and students. This study aims to provide a deeper understanding of the effects on both teachers and students the transition to an online context due to Covid-19 have had and how similar events can be conducted better
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Henriksson, Johan. "Self-regulation and the motivation to achieve : A quantitative study on the effects of self-regulation strategies and motivation on learning English at an upper secondary school in Sweden." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-144051.
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The Swedish National Agency for Education recently begun explicitly promoting teaching through self-regulation strategies in national steering documents intended for teachers, following a number of other countries world wide (Skolverket, 2012; LGY 11; Dalland & Klette, 2016). The goal of self-regulation strategies is for the students to take control of their own learning process, and though there is research on the benefits of self-regulation strategies and motivation, these ideas are based on abstract concepts and biological processes in the brain, that are very difficult to measure (Zimmerman, 1990; Hattie, 2012; Simpson & Balsam, 2016; Schumann, 2004). As such, more research on these strategies is warranted, and little has been done to evaluate their effects on Swedish upper secondary school students. Consequently, the purpose of this study was to attempt to operationalize the theoretical concepts of self-regulation strategies in order to calculate the correlation between students perceived usage of self-regulation strategies, and English performance, with a special focus on motivation. This was done by operationalizing motivation and self-regulation strategies into six variables based on previous research, and then surveying 40 English 05 (year one) students at Enskilda Gymnasiet upper secondary school in Stockholm, and then running correlation tests with their grades from a grammar test the week after the survey, as well as with their overall grade from the previous year. The results showed almost no statistically significant correlations between the students´ grades, and the students self-reported usage of self-regulation strategies. The exception was a statistically significant positive correlation between high levels of intrinsic motivation and good grades. The causes of these results are not specified within the parameters of this research project, however, it could be that there simply were no correlations between the perceived usage of self-regulation strategies and performance due to the strategies not having an effect on performance, or because the strategies were not being used properly. However, it could also be that the operationalizing of the variables in the questionnaire did not generate accurate levels of usage of these strategies. Either way, the results of this essay stress the need for further research that evaluates the effect of self-regulation strategies and motivation on learning English.
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Sabra, Sara. "Gender differences in young learners’ English skills in Swedish schools : A study of perceived and actual gender differences in skills, attitude towards and interest in the English language." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-26705.
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This study examined gender differences in young learners of English in terms of skills, attitude and interest, and teachers’ perceptions of potential gender differences. To examine potential gender differences in skills, a three-part test was conducted with two third grade classes in a school in Sweden. A survey was conducted in the same third grade classes to map the students’ interest and attitude, and structured interviews were conducted with six different teachers to investigate their perception of potential gender differences in skills and interest and attitude. The results revealed that boys’ and girls’ skills were almost equal, although boys at an average acquired a slightly higher level of points in listening and reading comprehension, while more girls wrote at a higher level than boys in the writing assignment. Boys and girls were not equal in their attitude towards and interest in the English language, as girls were more positive towards the language while boys were more confident in their English skills. Teachers perceived no gender difference in interest and attitude, and most perceived none or slight difference in skills.
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Wistrand, Josefine. "GA and RP accents in a verbal guise test: A questionnaire-based study of Swedish upper secondary school students’ language attitudes." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-194476.
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The aim of this study is to use a verbal guise test to investigate Swedish upper secondary school students’ language attitudes toward GA and RP. While research has been conducted on this topic before, few studies have incorporated all three cognitive, affective and conative components of the mentalist approach to language attitude, and even fewer with younger student participants, which are two components the present study included. The findings of the present study indicate differences in evaluation of the RP and GA speakers. The investigated L2 speakers of English, the 17-19 year old participants, favoured the RP speaker in terms of the cognitive categories serious, intelligent and responsible, while the GA speaker was evaluated more favorably for the categories not arrogant, kind, calm and gentle. The participants also felt more trust while listening to the RP speaker, while other affective categories did not generate considerable differences in evaluation of the speakers. Lastly, in the conative component, the students self-reported using and aiming for similar pronunciation to GA rather than RP. Several of these results are supported by previous research, but contrasting findings occur as well.
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Song, Wanlu. "Learning vocabulary without tears : a comparative study of the jigsaw and information gap tasks in vocabulary acquisition at school." Thesis, Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för lärande och miljö, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-8493.
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The primary purpose of the present study is to compare the effectiveness of the jigsaw task and information gap tasks in understanding new words and retaining them. Sixteen pupils aged between eleven and twelve were involved in the study and divided into two groups. They were allocated either a jigsaw task or an information gap task. This study consists of a pre-test, immediate post-test, delayed post-test as well as a questionnaire. The pupils were required to carry out the chosen tasks, tested immediately and then one week later. The results of the questionnaire are also discussed in order to establish the pupils’ attitudes towards their allotted tasks. The results revealed marginally higher scores in the immediate post-test for pupils performing the information gap task in terms of recognizing the meaning of words. However, this advantage disappeared when it came to the depth of vocabulary knowledge and word meaning retention. Pupils performing jigsaw task outperformed group B in productive vocabulary knowledge and their retention. The gain in vocabulary among pupils who performed the jigsaw task is most evident in the delayed post-test. This result is consistent with the pupils’ assertion that they enjoyed doing the jigsaw task more than the information gap task. To sum up, the jigsaw task best promotes pupils understanding of words and their retention.
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Ljungberg, Calle. "Would you like to play? : A quantitative study about attitudes towards game-based learning in the Swedish school system." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-75334.
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The aim of this quantitative study is to investigate the relationship between motivation and game-based learning among Swedish students attending junior high school and high school. To investigate this, the motivational theory Self-Determination Theory was used to create a questionnaire containing questions about experiences of games in and out of school. Furthermore, this essay discusses the possibilities of bringing the concept of game-based learning into an educational environment of L2 English learning. In addition, support has been found that strengthens the claim of an existing willingness to include games as part of the education in the Swedish school system.
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Willman, Josefin. "Gender in the English Language Classroom : A comparative study of gender portrayals in textbooks for the course English 6 in the Swedish upper secondary school." Thesis, Linnéuniversitetet, Institutionen för språk (SPR), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:lnu:diva-100834.
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This study aims to explore how textbooks aiming at the course English 6 in the Swedish upper secondary school display male, female and transgendered characters in fictional texts. The study also seeks to investigate what genders are represented in the authors of the analysed fictional texts in the textbooks. The method of the study was a mix between critical discourse analysis and content analysis. Content analysis was used in a quantitative way as a starting point to get an overview of the results for the critical discourse analysis which was used qualitatively. The study showed that authors identifying as male were the most common and represented at a higher rate in the textbooks. Among the results it was also shown that transgendered characters and authors identifying as something else than male or female were not represented at all. The study’s conclusion is that teachers will need to provide a greater variety to their classrooms than what is provided by the textbooks in terms of gender related issues and questions, since students should be given a variety of texts and authors during their English education according to the syllabus (Natl. Ag. f. Ed. 2013).
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Johansson, Björn. "The Use of English Prepositions in Swedish Schools : A survey study on language transfer effects on Swedish EFL learners in a Swedish upper secondary school." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-144100.
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This empirical study investigates how English as a foreign language (EFL) learners in Swedish upper secondary schools succeed in their use of English prepositions. EFL learners in Sweden today represent a multitude of nationalities and ethnic groups with many different first languages (L1); therefore, English teaching could be subject to change in order to adapt to the new situation. The study is based on an online survey given to pupils taking “English 7” at upper secondary schools in Stockholm. The study aims to find patterns in how pupils with Swedish as their L1 handle English prepositions and use a control group consisting of pupils with another L1 in a comparative analysis based on language transfer. A teacher of English at the respondents’ school was interviewed to elicit teaching methodology and how they use the language diversity in the classroom when teaching prepositions. Even though it was hypothesised that negative language transfer was a factor, the analysis of the focus group shows that negative language transfer from Swedish did not inhibit the focus group’s ability to choose prepositions compared to the control group in the given context. In contrast, positive transfer from Swedish as an L1 contributed to a substantial increase in success rate. However, no clear connection could be made to teaching methodology as the interviewed teacher did not have any specific method for dealing with prepositions and mainly treated teaching prepositions implicitly. Furthermore, the interviewed teacher did not use language diversity in classroom as a tool for learning.
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Elmén, Isak. "Pictures as an aesthetical tool in English language teaching : An experimental study." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för språk, litteratur och interkultur, 2013. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-31538.
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This explorative qualitative case study aims at finding out about the impact of pictures as an aesthetical tool in English language teaching, through an experiment in the English classroom. Aesthetical tools are here defined as tools through which one can reach a stronger experience and improve learning. The independent variable in the experiment was a picture assignment and the dependent variable was a Chinese high school class and their teacher in English. After having done the experiment, the research questions were answered through a student questionnaire and an interview with the teacher. The study is based on Dewey’s theory of an experience (Dewey 1934) which is about the benefits of aesthetical experiences, and six themes of aesthetical experience provided by Uhrmacher (2009) meant to make education into such an experience. A majority of the subjects responded positively to the experiment, and the assignment seemed to be able to implement Uhrmacher’s six themes, at least to a certain extent. The claims of earlier findings are also echoed in this study.
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Legge, Nils. "Who is the teacher? : An investigation of upper secondary school students’ pronunciation of English and the possible underlying reasons." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2012. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-77193.
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Swedish school pupils are taught English from a very young age. Many speak English at a very high level thanks to this and also thanks to readily available television programmes in English, mostly from America but also from Britain. Some, including Marko Modiano argue that the English spoken in Sweden could be a new variety. There is some evidence in support of this in the form of previous studies showing to what degree American and British English is mixed by Swedes. The present study aims at exploring if there are any recurring patterns in the way Swedish upper secondary school students mix American and British English as well as possible underlying reasons. This was done by recording 32 informants at an upper secondary school in Stockholm while reading a list of words and sentences designed to elicit phonetic markers that separate American English from British English. The data from the recordings is complemented by a short questionnaire. Here the informants are asked about their preference for English varieties and what they believe the preference of English varieties is for their teacher, the school, their textbooks as well as what they watch on television and if they have ever been or would like to go to an English speaking country. Concerning whether or not the informants mix American and British English or not, the results clearly show that most believe they do, although most of them seem to favour American English on the whole. There seems to be an overall tendency to use rhotic /r/ and there were some differences between male and female informants. Looking at the results of the present study compared to previous studies there is a connection in that formal text types like word lists elicit more British English than less formal text types do. Concerning what they watch on television, nearly all informants watch American television shows and this could be, in part, responsible for the tendency to favour the American variety. Regarding other influences, there was some uncertainty, especially when they were asked what they believed was preferred in the textbooks and by their teachers. Though it seems most believe that British English is preferred over American English except for the school in general where most believe that both varieties are preferred equally.
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Jansson, Tommy. "Swedish or English : A Study of L1 and L2 Preference and Speaking Proficiency among High-functioning Upper Secondary School Students within Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD)." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för språk, litteratur och interkultur, 2017. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-64783.
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This study is both quantitative and qualitative in nature. In order to support or discard the hypothesis that high-functioning, autistic upper secondary school students speak more freely in English than in their native language Swedish, an experiment with a narrative format was conducted with students both within and without Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD). Measurements of lexical density, hesitations and long pauses in the narrative were applied to assess the quality of produced speech. A questionnaire survey for teachers of this age category of students was also carried out. The analyses of the results are primarily quantitative, but a portion of the questionnaire is also thematically analysed. The study shows that there is initial support for the hypothesis.Denna studie är båda kvantitativ och kvalitativ i sin natur. För att stödja eller förkasta hypotesen att högfungerande, autistiska gymnasieelever talar engelska mer obehindrat än deras modersmål svenska, genomfördes ett experiment med ett berättande format med studenter både inom och utanför Autismspektrumtillstånd (AST). Mått på lexikalisk täthet, tvekan och långa pauser i berättandet användes för att utvärdera kvalitén av producerat tal. En enkätundersökning för lärare av denna ålderskategori av elever genomfördes också. Analyserna av resultaten är primärt kvantitativa, men en del av enkäten är också tematiskt analyserad. Studien visar att det föreligger ett initialt stöd för hypotesen.
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Chabo, Maria. "“It is important to understand that there are not just 3 varieties of English” : Swedish upper secondary school students’ awareness of and attitudes towards varieties of English." Thesis, Mälardalens högskola, Akademin för utbildning, kultur och kommunikation, 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mdh:diva-55437.
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The main aim of this study is to investigate Swedish upper secondary school students’ awareness of and attitudes to varieties of English, especially with a focus on accents. Based on a survey with both open-ended and closed questions, this study is both qualitative and quantitative. The questionnaire was distributed digitally to several teachers at three upper secondary schools in Sweden, one school in Eskilstuna and the other two in Stockholm. The number of participants in total was 88. The results revealed that the students were aware of several varieties of English, but the most known varieties were American, British, Irish and Indian English. Furthermore, the students were enthusiastic about both American and British English, but American English was the most common. In addition, the majority of the students believed that it was essential to learn about varieties of English in school and that American, British and Canadian were the most important varieties to learn about. In conclusion, the students have a general awareness of and an openness to linguistic variation, as well as being positive towards learning about different varieties of English in school.
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Jonsson, Agnes. "Feeling Set Up by The Set-up : A Study on Swedish Junior High School Students’ Understanding of Phrasal Verbs." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2018. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-165996.
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Existing research on phrasal verbs is ample due to their prevalent existence in the English language and the difficulties they bring out as a result of their lack of transparency (Liu, 2011, p. 661). However, more research is necessary to cover new generations of English learners who cross paths with phrasal verbs. This study will provide empirical information on (i) whether Swedish students in 7th -9 th grade understand frequently used phrasal verbs better than nonfrequent ones, (ii) if phrasal verbs are easier to understand in productive- or perceptive tasks, (iii) if the students’ first languages (L1) interfere with this understanding, or (iv) if there is a difference in understanding phrasal verbs which are more common in AmE or BrE. The factors of second language acquisition taken into account in the analysis are explicit and implicit exposure of English, English varieties, crosslinguistic influences and idiomaticity. Chameliec & Weiss (2008, p. 381) define a phrasal verb as “a simple verb combined with an adverb or a preposition, or sometimes both, to make a new verb with a meaning that is different from that of the simple verb, e.g., go in for, win over, blow up”. The data was elicited with a questionnaire in three parts: one part about the participants background information and two parts on phrasal verb understanding, both in contextualized examples and without context. In the analysis, factors such as the construction of the questionnaire and choice of phrasal verbs need to be considered. The results demonstrate that Swedish junior high school students understand about 50% of the tested phrasal verbs in both parts of the questionnaire. More frequent ones are easier to understand, more so the AmE PVs, and the perceptive task generated a slightly higher percentage of correct answers. The textbooks did not have explicit sections on phrasal verbs, or even formulaic expressions in general. However, the books contained vocabulary boxes with a few different phrasal verbs, which also occurred in the texts. Since no explicit teaching method has been applied in these classes, doing so might increase the general frequency of correct answers. Furthermore, no conclusive results can be made regarding crosslinguistic influences, however, hypotheses on positive transfer can be made.
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Kulborg, Catarina. "English Errors in Swedish Upper Secondary School : A study of grammatical errors and errors as a result of transfer, produced by Swedish Upper secondary students." Thesis, Högskolan i Gävle, Avdelningen för humaniora, 2020. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hig:diva-35199.
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This is a study that employs error analysis to investigate written production in English, by Swedish upper secondary learners of English, in order to determine which linguistic errors most commonly occur amongst this group, and to compare the results between first-year students and third-year students for a possible indication of which error types continue to occur throughout upper secondary school. The error categories included in this study are grammatical errors and errors as a result of transfer. The variable of gender will also be taken into account, due to the statistics and previous research that show female students tend to achieve higher results in academics. The purpose of the study is to gain a better understanding of how Swedish upper secondary learners acquire English, and to uncover which areas are most challenging for them, in the hopes of highlighting areas within ELT that may need revision. The participants of the study are students attending Swedish upper secondary schools, year 1 and 3. The analyzed data was collected from the Uppsala Learner English Corpus (ULEC), which consists of texts produced by Swedish learners of English attending middle school and upper secondary school. The results show that certain error categories and types are consistently challenging for both first-year students and third-year students, which provides an indication of which areas in ELT might be lacking. Within the grammatical error category, all groups demonstrated a significant lack of knowledge pertaining to subject-verb agreement, as well as prepositions, which are both to a certain degree attributed to the first language; meaning, they may be the result of transfer. The male students were shown to outperform the female students; however, the female third-year students produced fewer errors than their male counterparts, which suggests a faster progression. The male third-year students were shown to have the same error rate as the male first-year students, which suggests a slower progression. While the third-year students produced fewer errors overall, the error types they struggled the most with are the same error types most commonly occurring in the first-year group, suggesting pedagogical remediation is needed.
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Plaza, Cajsa. "The environments differ, and therefore, the language differs. : A case study of how pragmatic competence in English is taught in a Swedish secondary and upper secondary school." Thesis, Stockholms universitet, Engelska institutionen, 2014. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:su:diva-99946.
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Pragmatic competence has become an essential component of L2 (second language) proficiency. The purpose of this case study is to investigate how pragmatic competence in English is taught in a public Swedish secondary and upper secondary school. The aim with this study is to reach an in-depth understanding of how the teachers in this specific school view, value and teach pragmatic competence. The study has a qualitative approach and was conducted through semi-structured interviews with two teachers. In addition to the interviews, an analysis of the pedagogic material used in the classroom was made. The most significant findings of the study show that pragmatic competence and cultural knowledge are teachable and are indeed being taught in the studied school. Different types of oral activities are the mostly used pedagogical practices to teach different aspects of pragmatic competence. The aspects of pragmatic competence that are in focus, in both secondary and upper secondary school, are formal and informal language, adaptation of the language and politeness.
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Visconti, Alessandro. "Learning English by Surfing : Swedish upper secondary school students’ views on how they learn English by surfing the Internet – A case study based on a questionnaire." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för språk, litteratur och interkultur, 2015. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-36964.
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The Internet has become a natural element in society and is constantly gaining ground in schools. The aim of this paper is to find out whether upper secondary school students in Sweden estimate that their Internet use affects their second language learning positively. The study was operationalized by means of a self-completion questionnaire which was distributed to 80 students from the same school. The results show that most of the informants estimated that they spend much time on the Internet in general, most often reading the news, and that they use Swedish and English to almost the same extent doing so. The students' English use in school is estimated to be voluntary and controlled while the Internet is mostly used voluntarily for English homework. Besides engaging in information search both in school and at home, a considerable number of students estimate that translation is an activity exclusively for homework. Most students also find that they are receptive Internet users and that their general Internet use is in line with the comprehensive aims of the English subject listed in the curriculum.Internet har blivit en naturlig del av samhället och är på ständig frammarsch i skolorna. Syftet med denna uppsats är att ta reda på om gymnasieelever i Sverige anser att användningen av internet påverkar deras andraspråksinlärning positivt. Studien har genomförts med hjälp av en enkät som delades ut till 80 elever från samma skola. Resultaten visar att de flesta av de tillfrågade ansåg att de tillbringar mycket tid på Internet, främst för nyhetssökningar, och att de använder både svenska och engelska. Elevernas användning av internet på engelsklektionerna i skolan tros vara både frivillig och kontrollerad medan internet används mest frivilligt för engelskläxor. Förutom att genomföra informationssökningar både i skolan och hemma, anser ett relativt stort antal elever att översättning utförs nästan uteslutande för läxor. De flesta elever anser dessutom att de är receptiva internetanvändare och att deras allmänna internetanvändning påverkar de förmågor som de ska tillägna sig i engelska enligt läroplanen positivt.
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Andersson, Malin. "Feedback and digitalization : A qualitative study of the feedback methods of Swedish teachers of English at upper secondary school." Thesis, Karlstads universitet, Institutionen för språk, litteratur och interkultur (from 2013), 2019. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:kau:diva-72962.
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The aim of this study was to examine what methods Swedish teachers of English use to give feedback on students’ written production and what factors influence them to choose these methods. An additional aim was to find out what teachers’ experiences are of digitalization in relation to feedback on students’ written production. Five semi-structured, qualitative interviews were conducted with five certified English teachers who were currently active in upper secondary school. The results showed that the teachers used different methods when giving feedback on students’ written productions. Nonetheless, all of them mostly use formative feedback in the form of written comments. Four out of five respondents let their students submit texts through digital tools, Itslearning or DigiExam, but then printed them and handed them back with handwritten feedback of different sorts. One respondent gave all feedback electronically. When the teachers chose their methods, the most influential factors were available time, lacking student engagement and the fact that the school management team chose which digital tools that should be used. The fact that no teachers were involved in the decision about which digital tools should be used severely limits teacher autonomy and may be the reason why at least two of my respondents did not want to use these tools, which in their experience do not meet their feedback needs.Syftet med studien har varit att undersöka vilka metoder engelskalärare använder när de ger återkoppling på elevers skriftliga arbeten och vilka faktorer som påverkar deras val. Vidare var även syftet att undersöka vilka erfarenheter lärare har av digitalisering i förhållande till återkoppling. Fem semi-strukturerade intervjuer hölls med fem aktiva, legitimerade gymnasielärare som undervisar i engelska. Resultatet visade att lärarna använder olika metoder när de ger återkoppling, men det finns vissa gemensamma nämnare. Alla ägnar sig huvudsakligen åt formativ återkoppling som utav fyra av fem respondenter ges skriftligt. Fyra av fem respondenter låter elever skicka in texter genom Itslearning eller DigiExam, men printar därefter ut texterna och ger tillbaka dem med handskrivna kommentarer. En respondent ger all feedback elektroniskt. De faktorer som påverkar lärarnas metodval mest var tidsbrist, upplevelsen av bristande engagemang hos eleverna samt att beslutet om vilka digitala verktyg som ska användas har tagits av rektorer och ledningsgrupp. Faktumet att beslutet togs utan att involvera lärare påverkar och limiterar lärarnas frihet att göra sitt jobb, vilket kan vara en förklaring till flera respondenters negativa inställning till de digitala verktygen. Två respondenter vill inte använda de digitala verktygen som ledningsgruppen implementerat eftersom de anser att verktygen inte passar deras föredragna återkopplingsmetod.
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Chen, Weijie. "An Investigation of Topic Sentences in Chinese Students’ Argumentative Essays : A Multidimensional Probe." Thesis, Högskolan Kristianstad, Sektionen för lärande och miljö, 2011. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:hkr:diva-8397.
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Topic sentence writing is an important component of academic writing. Through studying topic sentences in Chinese students’ English essays, this research aims to find out the frequency and the placement of topic sentences, the wording within topic sentences and the relationship between topic sentences and paragraph unity. In this research, 45 English essays written by Chinese students were collected from WECCL corpus and targeted topic sentences were selected out afterwards. Depending on Wordsmith 3.0, results related to topic sentences were generated including the frequency, the placement, the wording of topic sentences and the unity between topic sentences and supporting sentences. Results show that Chinese students have a good awareness of writing topic sentences and placing them at the beginning of paragraphs. However, Chinese students are not good at applying transitional phrases and expressing ideas objectively as academic writing requires. Moreover, paragraph unity in some Chinese students’ essays is poor. In addition, as a part of this empirical study, an interview about how to write topic sentences was conducted among ten Chinese students majoring in English in order to verify the results. Based on the responses from the interview and previous research, this research suggests that Chinese rhetoric convention and school instruction on writing are two major factors leading to the present results.
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Leffler, Anna. "The consequences of digital extramural activities for the formal classroom." Thesis, Malmö universitet, Malmö högskola, Institutionen för kultur, språk och medier (KSM), 2021. http://urn.kb.se/resolve?urn=urn:nbn:se:mau:diva-40182.
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The purpose of this independent project is to give teachers of young ESL-students a collected knowledge of what kind of digital extramural activities the students often do on their spare time and what consequences this have for the formal primary classroom and students’ vocabulary skills. The studies used are found on EBSCO’s ERIC and SwePub, peer reviewed, published between 2010 and 2020, and all available in full text through Malmö university. Informal learning is shown to have a big impact on formal learning, especially for boys who learn mainly through gaming. Girls still score higher on English tests within formal learning, though boys who are frequent gamers score higher within the studies. Gaming seems to help boys keep up with girls in formal English as a second language. The main skill which gaming gives the students is to communicate, hold a conversation and increase their vocabulary. Since gaming is the extramural activity which seems to give the student the most, and at the same time there are students whose families could not afford to game due to costs of computer, tv, games and, in some cases, internet. This could become a socioeconomic factor which the school and the teacher need to consider, especially since results from some of the studies claim gaming to be how the boys keep up with the girls. Not to forget the students who, thanks to informal learning, speak English on a higher level and their right to be educated at their own level.