Alternative Identities and Foreign Language Learning

My D-essay has the working title “Alternative Identities and Foreign Language Learning”. I have chosen this area because I have noticed a certain reluctance among Swedish students to use the foreign language English in English classes. They often seem embarrassed to express themselves in a language which is not their mother tongue, but they seem less embarrassed when they are allowed to act somebody else. These two observations converge into a focus of discussion on the matter, which will be supported by a minor study of my own, by extracts from other people’s essays on the matter, and by an overview of current litterature on language, identity and drama.The aim of my essay is to compare Swedish students’ willingness to use the foreign language English when acting minor plays in school, as themselves and as a chosen character, and to investigate the possibility of improving students’ willingness to use a foreign language, when given the opportunity to do so through acting somebody else.

Un estudio sociolingüístico sobre el catalán : Los efectos de la inmersión lingüística

This thesis analyzes the current state of the language immersion program in Catalonia after its implementation 30 years ago, and after the immigration wave of the last decade. The language immersion is a method of teaching a second language using a language of instruction different than the students’ mother tongue. The Catalan authorities use this as a method for preserving Catalan in the society.The aim of this study is to examine the use of Catalan at school and outside of school by students who have followed the language immersion program. Language attitudes play an important role for the maintenance of a minority language, as Catalan. Therefore, in this study, the informants’ attitudes towards Catalan have also been measured. The method applied is a quantitative method where the informants have answered a written questionnaire. The results show a high level of knowledge of Catalan and its frequent use in the classroom. In contrast, outside of school the Castilian language is more often used. The informants seem to have a positive attitude towards Catalan.The conclusion is that the language immersion works satisfactory in a school context but often fails outside of school.

Difficulties for Vietnamese when pronouncing English : Final Consonants

Vietnamese people have many difficulties when pronouncing English. Among those, this paper will firstly deal with the hypothesis “English word-final consonants are not pronounced in a native-like way by Vietnamese speakers”. Theoretical phonological research about final consonants in the Vietnamese language and English has been carried out to characterize the difficulties. Data from Vietnamese informants were collected and analyzed, then synthesized to the most significant problems. Vietnamese effort to pronounce English word-final consonants will be towards omitting, adding schwa or replacing by sounds closer to those existing in their mother-tongue. Results of native speakers’ evaluation of Vietnamese-accented final consonants are also concluded to clarify how comprehensible informants’ pronunciation is. These findings will hopefully be useful for those who are interested in the topic and for further research.

Literacy Practices in and out of School in Karagwe : The case of primary school literacy education in rural Tanzania

This study has investigated the question of relation between literacy practices in and out of school in rural Tanzania. By using the perspective of linguistic anthropology, literacy practices in five villages in Karagwe district in the northwest of Tanzania have been analysed. The outcome may be used as a basis for educational planning and literacy programs. The analysis has revealed an intimate relation between language, literacy and power. In Karagwe, traditional élites have drawn on literacy to construct and reconstruct their authority, while new élites, such as individual women and some young people have been able to use literacy as one tool to get access to power. The study has also revealed a high level of bilingualism and a high emphasis on education in the area, which prove a potential for future education in the area. At the same time discontinuity in language use, mainly caused by stigmatisation of what is perceived as local and traditional, such as the mother-tongue of the majority of the children, and the high status accrued to all that is perceived as Western, has turned out to constitute a great obstacle for pupils’ learning. The use of ethnographic perspectives has enabled comparisons between interactional patterns in schools and outside school. This has revealed communicative patterns in school that hinder pupils’ learning, while the same patterns in other discourses reinforce learning. By using ethnography, relations between explicit and implicit language ideologies and their impact in educational contexts may be revealed. This knowledge may then be used to make educational plans and literacy programmes more relevant and efficient, not only in poor post-colonial settings such as Tanzania, but also elsewhere, such as in Western settings.

Selection and Floral Evolution in Platanthera bifolia and P. chlorantha (Orchidaceae)

Natural selection mediated by pollinators has influenced the evolution of floral diversity of the flowering plants (angiosperms). The scope of this thesis was to study: 1) phenotypic selection, 2) mating systems, and 3) floral shifts involved in plant speciation. Model plant species were Platanthera bifolia and P. chlorantha (Orchidaceae). These orchids are moth-pollinated, strictly co-sexual (bisexual flowers), and produce a spike that displays 10-20 white flowers. I explored the influence of characters on plant fitness by using multiple linear regressions. Pollen removal (male fitness) and fruit set (female fitness) increased with more flowers per plant in three P. bifolia populations. There was selection towards longer spurs in a dry year when average spur length was shorter than in normal-wet years. Female function was sensitive to drought, which enabled an application of the male function hypothesis of floral evolution (Bateman's principle). The results show that selection may vary between populations, years, and sex-functions. I examined inbreeding by estimating levels of geitonogamy (self-pollination between flowers of an individual) with an emasculation method in two P. bifolia populations. Geitonogamy did not vary with inflorescence size. Levels of geitonogamy was 20-40% in the smaller, but non-significant in the larger population. This may relate to lower number of possible mates and pollinator activity in the smaller population. Platanthera bifolia exhibits the ancestral character state of tongue-attachment of pollinia on the pollinator. Its close relative P. chlorantha attaches its pollinia onto the pollinator's eyes. To explore the mechanism of a floral shift, pollination efficiency and speed was compared between the two species. The results showed no differences in pollination efficiency, but P. chlorantha had faster pollen export and import. Efficiency of pollination in terms of speed may cause floral shifts, and thus speciation.