Design and use of mobile technology in distance language education : Matching learning practices with technologies-in-practice

This thesis focuses on the adaptation of formal education to people’s technology- use patterns, theirtechnology-in-practice, where the ubiquitous use of mobile technologies is central. The research question is: How can language learning practices occuring in informal learning environments be effectively integrated with formal education through the use of mobile technology? The study investigates the technical, pedagogical, social and cultural challenges involved in a design science approach. The thesis consists of four studies. The first study systematises MALL (mobile-assisted language learning) research. The second investigates Swedish and Chinese students’ attitudes towards the use of mobile technology in education. The third examines students’ use of technology in an online language course, with a specific focus on their learning practices in informal learning contexts and their understanding of how this use guides their learning. Based on the findings, a specifically designed MALL application was built and used in two courses. Study four analyses the app use in terms of students’ perceived level of self-regulation and structuration. The studies show that technology itself plays a very important role in reshaping peoples’ attitudes and that new learning methods are coconstructed in a sociotechnical system. Technology’s influence on student practices is equally strong across borders. Students’ established technologies-in-practice guide the ways they approach learning. Hence, designing effective online distance education involves three interrelated elements: technology, information, and social arrangements. This thesis contributes to mobile learning research by offering empirically and theoretically grounded insights that shift the focus from technology design to design of information systems.

Immigration, security and the public debate on US language policy : a critical discourse analysis of language attitudes in the United States of America

The narrative of the United States is of a "nation of immigrants" in which the language shift patterns of earlier ethnolinguistic groups have tended towards linguistic assimilation through English. In recent years, however, changes in the demographic landscape and language maintenance by non-English speaking immigrants, particularly Hispanics, have been perceived as threats and have led to calls for an official English language policy.This thesis aims to contribute to the study of language policy making from a societal security perspective as expressed in attitudes regarding language and identity originating in the daily interaction between language groups. The focus is on the role of language and American identity in relation to immigration. The study takes an interdisciplinary approach combining language policy studies, security theory, and critical discourse analysis. The material consists of articles collected from four newspapers, namely USA Today, The New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and San Francisco Chronicle between April 2006 and December 2007.Two discourse types are evident from the analysis namely Loyalty and Efficiency. The former is mainly marked by concerns of national identity and contains speech acts of security related to language shift, choice and English for unity. Immigrants are represented as dehumanised, and harmful. Immigration is given as sovereignty-related, racial, and as war. The discourse type of Efficiency is mainly instrumental and contains speech acts of security related to cost, provision of services, health and safety, and social mobility. Immigrants are further represented as a labour resource. These discourse types reflect how the construction of the linguistic 'we' is expected to be maintained. Loyalty is triggered by arguments that the collective identity is threatened and is itself used in reproducing the collective 'we' through hegemonic expressions of monolingualism in the public space and semi-public space. The denigration of immigrants is used as a tool for enhancing societal security through solidarity and as a possible justification for the denial of minority rights. Also, although language acquisition patterns still follow the historical trend of language shift, factors indicating cultural separateness such as the appearance of speech communities or the use of minority languages in the public space and semi-public space have led to manifestations of intolerance. Examples of discrimination and prejudice towards minority groups indicate that the perception of worth of a shared language differs from the actual worth of dominant language acquisition for integration purposes. The study further indicates that the efficient working of the free market by using minority languages to sell services or buy labour is perceived as conflicting with nation-building notions since it may create separately functioning sub-communities with a new cultural capital recognised as legitimate competence. The discourse types mainly represent securitising moves constructing existential threats. The perception of threat and ideas of national belonging are primarily based on a zero-sum notion favouring monolingualism. Further, the identity of the immigrant individual is seen as dynamic and adaptable to assimilationist measures whereas the identity of the state and its members are perceived as static. Also, the study shows that debates concerning language status are linked to extra-linguistic matters. To conclude, policy makers in the US need to consider the relationship between four factors, namely societal security based on collective identity, individual/human security, human rights, and a changing linguistic demography, for proposed language intervention measures to be successful.

Teaching Intercultural Communication in Foreign Language Education through Video Conferencing

Since 1980s, Western linguists and specialists on second language acquisition have emphasized the importance of enhancing students’ intercultural communication competence in foreign language education. At the same time, the demand for intercultural communicative competence increased along with the advances of communication technology with its increasingly global reach and the process of globalization itself.In the field of distance language education, these changes have resulted in a shift of focus from the production and distribution of learning materials towards communication and learning as a social process, facilitated by various internet-based platforms. The current focus on learners interacting and communicating synchronously trough videoconferencing is known as the fourth generation of distance language education. Despite the fact that teaching of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) faces the same or even greater challenges as teaching other languages, the intercultural communication perspective is still quite a new trend in CFL and its implementation and evaluation are still under development. Moreover, the advocates of the new trends in CFL have so far focused almost exclusively on classroom-based courses, neglecting the distance mode of CFL and leaving it as an open field for others to explore. In this under-researched context, Dalarna University (Sweden), where I currently work, started to provide web-based courses of the Chinese language in 2007. Since 2010, the Chinese language courses have been available only in the distance form, using the same teaching materials as the previous campus-based courses. The textbooks used in both settings basically followed the functional nationalism approach. However, in order to catch up with the main trend of foreign-language education, we felt a need to implement the cross-cultural dimension into the distance courses as well. Therefore in 2010, a pilot study has been carried out to explore opportunities and challenges for implementing a cross-cultural perspective into existing courses and evaluating the effectiveness of this implementation based on the feedback of the students and on the experience of the teacher/researcher.

A Story of English Language Learning – How Can Children’s Literature be Used in Teaching Vocabulary to Young English Language Learners? : - A Literature Review

This study aims to find research relating to the use of children’s literature to promote vocabulary development in young children, particularly English language learners in Sweden. The main questions address how (methods) children’s literature can be used and why (reasons) children’s literature is often recommended for the teaching of vocabulary to young learners. The study also aims to explore reasons against the use of children’s literature in vocabulary teaching found in previous research. A systematic literature review was carried out, including results from five empirical studies. The studies involved native speakers, second language learners and foreign language learners from various backgrounds. The results suggest that while research has shown children’s literature to be a good tool to use with young learners, careful lesson planning needs to be carried out. Direct instruction and scaffolding using pictures, technology and gestures is recommended. Hence, the teacher plays an important part for the vocabulary development using children’s literature in the classroom.

Mobile Assisted Language Learning : A Literature Review

Mobile assisted language learning (MALL) is a subarea of the growing field of mobile learning (mLearning) research which increasingly attracts the attention of scholars. This study provides a systematic review of MALL research within the specific area of second language acquisition during the period 2007 - 2012 in terms of research approaches, methods, theories and models, as well as results in the form of linguistic knowledge and skills. The findings show that studies of mobile technology use in different aspects of language learning support the hypothesis that mobile technology can enhance learners’ second language acquisition. However, most of the reviewed studies are experimental, small-scale, and conducted within a short period of time. There is also a lack of cumulative research; most theories and concepts are used only in one or a few papers. This raises the issue of the reliability of findings over time, across changing technologies, and in terms of scalability. In terms of gained linguistic knowledge and skills, attention is primarily on learners’ vocabulary acquisition, listening and speaking skills, and language acquisition in more general terms.

Machine Translation and the Disruption of Foreign Language Learning Activities

This study examines the question of how language teachers in a highly technologyfriendly university environment view machine translation and the implications that this has for the personal learning environments of students. It brings an activity-theory perspective to the question, examining the ways that the introduction of new tools can disrupt the relationship between different elements in an activity system. This perspective opens up for an investigation of the ways that new tools have the potential to fundamentally alter traditional learning activities. In questionnaires and group discussions, respondents showed general agreement that although use of machine translation by students could be considered cheating, students are bound to use it anyway, and suggested that teachers focus on the kinds of skills students would need when using machine translation and design assignments and exams to practice and assess these skills. The results of the empirical study are used to reflect upon questions of what the roles of teachers and students are in a context where many of the skills that a person needs to be able to interact in a foreign language increasingly can be outsourced to laptops and smartphones.

Machine translation and the disruption of foreign language learning activities

This study examines the question of how language teachers in a highly technology-friendly university environment view machine translation and the implications that this has for the personal learning environments of students. It brings an activity-theory perspective to the question, examining the ways that the introduction of new tools can disrupt the relationship between different elements in an activity system. This perspective opens up for an investigation of the ways that new tools have the potential to fundamentally alter traditional learning activities. In questionnaires and group discussions, respondents showed general agreement that although use of machine translation by students could be considered cheating, students are bound to use it anyway, and suggested that teachers focus on the kinds of skills students would need when using machine translation and design assignments and exams to practice and assess these skills. The results of the empirical study are used to reflect upon questions of what the roles of teachers and students are in a context where many of the skills that a person needs to be able to interact in a foreign language increasingly can be outsourced to laptops and smartphones.

Enhancing Intercultural Communication in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language : An Action Research Study

Enhancing Intercultural Communication in Teaching Chinese as a Foreign Language – An Action Research Study Over the past few decades, the rapid development of information communication technology, internationalization and globalization worldwide have required a shift in the focus of Chinese as a foreign language (CFL) towards competence in intercultural communication in which the role of culture in the acquisition of CFL and in the pragmatic use of the language is emphasized and promoted. However, most of the current research in this academic area remains only on a theoretical level. Practical examples, particularly with regard to distance learning/teaching of the Chinese language, are very limited. This motivated the implementation of an action research study which aimed at exploring the possibilities and limitations of integrating Chinese culture and applying intercultural communication theory into a contemporary distance CFL course for beginners. By observing and comparing the performance of subjects in the control and experimental groups, this action research study focuses on exploring three basic areas. Firstly, it discloses the cultural elements which underlie effective daily communication. Secondly, it investigates how students acquire cultural knowledge and develop their ability to competently communicate in the target course. And thirdly, it evaluates how the modified course syllabus could enhance students’ intercultural communicative competence. The findings of the research aim to serve as both a resource and reference for educators and researchers who are interested in carrying out reforms and research in this academic domain.

Finite element modeling of straightening of thin-walled seamless tubes of austenitic stainless steel

During this thesis work a coupled thermo-mechanical finite element model (FEM) was builtto simulate hot rolling in the blooming mill at Sandvik Materials Technology (SMT) inSandviken. The blooming mill is the first in a long line of processes that continuously or ingotcast ingots are subjected to before becoming finished products. The aim of this thesis work was twofold. The first was to create a parameterized finiteelement (FE) model of the blooming mill. The commercial FE software package MSCMarc/Mentat was used to create this model and the programing language Python was used toparameterize it. Second, two different pass schedules (A and B) were studied and comparedusing the model. The two pass series were evaluated with focus on their ability to healcentreline porosity, i.e. to close voids in the centre of the ingot. This evaluation was made by studying the hydrostatic stress (σm), the von Mises stress (σeq)and the plastic strain (εp) in the centre of the ingot. From these parameters the stress triaxiality(Tx) and the hydrostatic integration parameter (Gm) were calculated for each pass in bothseries using two different transportation times (30 and 150 s) from the furnace. The relationbetween Gm and an analytical parameter (Δ) was also studied. This parameter is the ratiobetween the mean height of the ingot and the contact length between the rolls and the ingot,which is useful as a rule of thumb to determine the homogeneity or penetration of strain for aspecific pass. The pass series designed with fewer passes (B), many with greater reduction, was shown toachieve better void closure theoretically. It was also shown that a temperature gradient, whichis the result of a longer holding time between the furnace and the blooming mill leads toimproved void closure.

Finite element analysis of hot rolling in the blooming mill

During this thesis work a coupled thermo-mechanical finite element model (FEM) was builtto simulate hot rolling in the blooming mill at Sandvik Materials Technology (SMT) inSandviken. The blooming mill is the first in a long line of processes that continuously or ingotcast ingots are subjected to before becoming finished products. The aim of this thesis work was twofold. The first was to create a parameterized finiteelement (FE) model of the blooming mill. The commercial FE software package MSCMarc/Mentat was used to create this model and the programing language Python was used toparameterize it. Second, two different pass schedules (A and B) were studied and comparedusing the model. The two pass series were evaluated with focus on their ability to healcentreline porosity, i.e. to close voids in the centre of the ingot. This evaluation was made by studying the hydrostatic stress (σm), the von Mises stress (σeq)and the plastic strain (εp) in the centre of the ingot. From these parameters the stress triaxiality(Tx) and the hydrostatic integration parameter (Gm) were calculated for each pass in bothseries using two different transportation times (30 and 150 s) from the furnace. The relationbetween Gm and an analytical parameter (Δ) was also studied. This parameter is the ratiobetween the mean height of the ingot and the contact length between the rolls and the ingot,which is useful as a rule of thumb to determine the homogeneity or penetration of strain for aspecific pass. The pass series designed with fewer passes (B), many with greater reduction, was shown toachieve better void closure theoretically. It was also shown that a temperature gradient, whichis the result of a longer holding time between the furnace and the blooming mill leads toimproved void closure.